Drisana Deborah Jack( Saint Martin , Netherlands Antilles )has been acclaimed for work which bravely reconciles trans-cultural existence and memory while constructing energetic new mythologies. A media professional with the Government Information Office in St. Martin , she is at the articulate edge of a small and exciting batch of St.Martiners who are simultaneously busy in literature, art, dance, song, and music. Their energy became the essential impetus for the nation’s cultural leap into the twenty-first century. These cultural workers come at a time when they are urgently needed in their country. Their vanguard initiative is earning critical attention throughout the Caribbean and beyond from noted artists and institutions. When Jack – also busy in art and theatre – was granted a Fellowship by the Caribbean Writers Institute at the University of Miami (1996), she was already being called a leader and “a most promising poet” among St. Martin ‘s cultural crowd in the Newsday and Guardian newspapers. Drisana Deborah Jack crosses all sorts of borders in her poetry. It is a matter of principle that she does not limit herself to the boundaries of one genre. Her literature is music, dance, art, as much as text.
Thematically, she touches upon mythical grounds. Her collection The Rainy Season hovers between family, love, music and rhythm.
Jack’s recitals have been at functions ranging from a “book party” for scholar George Lamming to a protest against the proposed “Franco-Dutch” colonial treaty. Before graduating from Marist College (BA, 1993), she had been published in MC’s Collection of Non-fiction Student Writings, listed in Who’s Who of Students in American Colleges and Universities, and picked up the National Collegiate Communications Award.
Bibliography
The Rainy Season , House of Nehesi Publishers, 1997
Drisana Deborah Jack ‘s participation is part of the Winternachten International Literature Festival (The Hague) poetry package, sponsored by the Netherlands Culture Fund, Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry for Culture, Hivos Cultuurfonds, and the Foundation for the Production and Translation of Dutch Literature
