Rajiv Mohabir

Coolitude: Poetics of the Indian Labor Diaspora

Coolitude manifesto

A coolitude statement to end this series

When I first read Coolitude: An Anthology of the Indian Labor Diaspora, I was transformed. I accepted the trauma of my history as a dreamscape that shades my daily life. I accepted that the hauntings of colonization, dehumanization, and diabetes were part of this reckoning with my own history. What was it like for my own ancestors Latchman and Sant Ram Mahraj to leave their homes, beset by economic dependence on a colonial system? When they landed in Guyana in 1891 and 1885 what did they see? What colors were the ocean? What songs did they sing aboard the ship? What of all my women ancestors that are not recorded in familial lore — what did they survive? What survives in us because of all of these people’s strains and triumphs?

 

My coolitude is of whale bone

 

Coolitude poetics interview with Ian Harnarine

Ian K. Harnarine

Ian K. Harnarine was born in Toronto to Trinidadian parents. He studied physics at York University and the University of Illinois. He has an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Film School where he now teaches with the Physics department. As a location sound mixer, Harnarine has mixed God of Love (Academy Award), The Fly RoomStuck Between Stations, and numerous award-winning short films, features, documentaries, special events, and commercials. Harnarine’s directorial work includes Sesame Street, which garnered him an Emmy Award nomination, TEDMED, and a groundbreaking 360 music video for the Headstones. His short film Doubles With Slight Pepper  won the Toronto International Film Festival and the Canadian Academy Award.

Ian K. Harnarine was born in Toronto to Trinidadian parents. He studied physics at York University and the University of Illinois. He has an MFA from NYU’s Graduate Film School where he now teaches with the Physics department.

As a location sound mixer, Harnarine has mixed God of Love (Academy Award), The Fly Room, Stuck Between Stations, and numerous award-winning short films, features, documentaries, special events, and commercials.

Coolitude poetics interview with Divya M. Persaud

Divya M. Persaud

Divya M. Persaud is a planetary scientist, composer, and writer of Indo-Caribbean heritage.

Coolitude poetics interview with Amar Ramesar

Amar Ramesar

In this interview I ask Amar Ramesar questions about his life as a musician. He has taken the lyrics written by Lalbihari Sharma in 1916 on the Demerara sugar plantation and put it back into music. This kind of revivification of his music lends itself to new interpretations, which it finds in his craft.

 

Translation and coolitude

The poetics of Lalbihari Sharma

Gaiutra Bahadur, author of Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture put Lalbihari Sharma’s Holi Songs of Demerara in my hands. This text was composed in 1916 in a mix of Awadhi and Bhojpuri by an indentured laborer in Guyana. He chronicles life on the plantation, suffering at the hands of the British, and nirgun philosophy — a philosophy that holds the human soul as not separate from the Divine.

Gaiutra Bahadur, author of Coolie Woman: The Odyssey of Indenture put Lalbihari Sharma’s Holi Songs of Demerara in my hands. This text was composed in 1916 in a mix of Awadhi and Bhojpuri by an indentured laborer in Guyana. He chronicles life on the plantation, suffering at the hands of the British, and nirgun philosophy — a philosophy that holds the human soul as not separate from the Divine.