Exploring the Dark Side: UPR Scholar Links Gothic & Trauma in Lasana Sekou’s Writing

GREAT BAY (October, 2024) — On October 24, at the Islands-in-Between Conference 2024, Professor Dannabang Kuwabong presented a critical study on the poetry and prose of the St. Martin writer Lasana M. Sekou. The paper, from a work in progress, is entitled “Rhetoric of Resistance, Labor of Love: The EcoPoetics of Nationhood in the Poetry and Prose of Lasana M. Sekou,” said Kuwabong. Dr. Kuwabong’s in-depth exploration of Sekou’s work sheds new light on gothic and trauma themes, especially in Sekou’s fiction. His analysis also highlights Sekou’s pan-Caribbean themes and the “nationalist poetic” that connects St. Martin’s environmental heritage to his poetry. Some of Sekou’s notable works discussed in this study and presented at last week’s conference include The Salt Reaper, Nativity, Brotherhood of the Spurs, and Book of the Dead, said Jacqueline Sample, president of House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP). Kuwabong, a Ghanaian/Canadian scholar at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), teaches courses on Caribbean and Women’s Literatures, African Diaspora, Postcolonial Theory, Literature and the Environment, and Trauma Narratives. He is a published author with numerous articles in academic journals, according to Sample. The three-day conference, a collaboration between the University of the Virgin Islands, The University of the West Indies – Cave Hill, and the University of Puerto Rico, concluded on Saturday at H. Lavity Stoutt Community College (HLSCC), Virgin Islands. According to HLSCC, the Islands-in-Between Conference “hosts academics from the Caribbean, the Americas, and Europe, providing a platform for local students, scholars, and the community to explore Eastern Caribbean literature, languages, and cultures.”