National Library Of Jamaica Launches JPA

The National Library of Jamaica (NLJ) is celebrating World Poetry Day 2022 with the official launch of the Jamaica Poetry Archive (JPA), an online repository of distinguished Jamaican poets.

The JPA, the NLJ’s 2022 signature project, was launched on Monday (March 21), at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in Kingston, and online.

It is collated from a list of nominated Jamaican poets and is comprised of authorial readings (audio recordings) of their works for public educational use.

This electronic archive of Jamaican Poetry will be a repository of primary material that can be used by the public.

Its website, which was also inaugurated, showcases text and audio recordings of the creative work read by the authors. It also details information on the featured poems.

The archive can be viewed at japoetryarchive.nlj.gov.jm

At the outset, the project is commencing with a limited number of poets and five to seven minutes of reading by each.

The archive will be expanded with the addition of a new cadre of poets each year, as well as the inclusion of “dead poets”.

Minister of State in the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon. Alando Terrelonge, who gave an overview of the JPA, said it will be an ever-expanding online repository of esteemed Jamaican writers and will be continually populated over time.

“The poets who are here and will be inducted into the archives are globally recognised as leaders in their craft, identifiable through their many publications and premier awards. The archive will benefit those at home and abroad connecting the dots of the diaspora, while boosting Jamaica’s profile on the global frontier of poetry,” he said.

Among the esteemed list of Jamaican poets featured on the website are Professor Edward Baugh, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Mervyn Morris, and current Poet Laureate of Jamaica, Olive Senior.

Prize-winning author of 18 books of poetry, fiction, nonfiction and children’s literature, Olive Senior, in her remarks at the ceremony said that the establishment of the JPA is a way of honouring Jamaica’s “best poets and their work”.

“What you will see and hear on the website represents the generosity of the poets who have contributed the material and the recordings as their gift to Jamaica. You can help us to acknowledge them by listening to their work and encouraging others to do so,” she said, adding that this will be an enormously useful tool for students and young poets.

A small number of poets will be accommodated at this time, and in each subsequent year.

Later in the year, another set of poets will be selected to be added to the archive, in time for the next World Poetry Day.

Selected poets are those who have already distinguished themselves through publications, recordings, awards and international recognition, according to criteria established by the Poet Laureate Committee and chosen by vote from a list of candidates.

Observed annually on March 21, World Poetry Day is the occasion to honour poets, revive oral traditions of poetry and recitals, and promote the reading, writing, and teaching of poetry.

It also seeks to foster its use in other art forms – theatre, dance, music, and painting – as well as to raise the visibility of poetry in media.