Ship Shape

Dorothea Smartt

ISBN 10: 1845230582 / ISBN 13: 9781845230586

Published by Peepal Tree Press Ltd, GB, 2008

About this Item

Dorothea Smartt connects past and present, presence and absence in this rich new collection of poems. At its heart is a sequence of poems set in Lancaster that excavate the missing history of Samboo, an African slave brought from the Caribbean by a Lancaster sea-captain as a present for his wife. Samboo died within days of his arrival and is presumed buried at Sunderland Point. The sequence both imagines Samboo's mostly unrecorded experience and draws connections between present day Lancaster and the foundations of its 18th century prosperity in slave trading. Begun as a commission by Lancaster Litfest, the sequence is a deeply personal response to the bicentenary of the abolition of British slave trading. It is accompanied by photographs which place Samboo's tragedy in the Lancaster landscape.Surrounding this sequence are contemporary poems that, on one level, in the vitality of lives revealed, provide a counterpoint to the emptiness of Samboo's too soon curtailed life, but on another level echo a continuity of loss wrought by the fragmentation of African Caribbean families through continuing migrations and death.The need to imagine who Samboo might have been, to tell his missing story and see through the false identity that others imposed on him connects to a more personal, contemporary sense of obligation in Dorothea Smartt's work. This is the duty to record family history, to envision a wholeness out of the fragments and dissolve the differences that prejudice may interpose between private and public selves.Dorothea Smartt, born and raised in London, is of Barbadian heritage. Described as 'accessible and dynamic', her poetry appears in several journals and ground-breaking anthologies.

Seller Inventory # LU-9781845230586

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Ship Shape
• Publisher: Peepal Tree Press Ltd, GB
• Publication Date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1845230582
• ISBN 13: 9781845230586
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: New
• Weight: 100 grams

About this title

Synopsis

Focusing on a sense of duty—to record family history, to envision wholeness out of fragments, and to dissolve the differences that prejudice may interpose between private and public selves—this rich collection of poetry hinges upon a sequence of poems that excavate the missing history of Samboo, an African slave brought from the Caribbean to the city of Lancaster in Lancashire, England. Drawing connections between present-day Lancaster and the foundations of its 18th-century prosperity in slave trading, the account places Samboo’s tragedy in the Lancaster landscape and text that offers a deeply personal response to the bicentennial of the abolition of the British slave trade. Contemporary poems provide both a counterpoint to the emptiness of Samboo’s too-soon curtailed life and echo a continuity of loss wrought by the fragmentation of Afro-Caribbean families through continuing migrations and death.

About the Author

Dorothea Smartt is a member of the Black Arts Alliance and was the first poet in residence of Brixton Market in London. She is the playwright of Fall Out and Medusa and the author of Connecting Medium.