All posts on March, 2025

On Wednesday, December 18, 2024, a great voice and entertainer, Dennis James, was laid to rest after a short battle with cancer. Left to mourn is his wife and companion of over fifty years, Mildred James (née Douglas). Also mourning his passing are his children: daughter Kimberly and sons Dennis Jr. and Devaughn. His surviving siblings include Joan, Horris, and Robert, along with his grandchildren, nephews, and nieces. Dennis James was born on the island of St. Lucia to parents Adriana “Addie” James from Guyana and Lawrence James from Bequia, St. Vincent. He was the eighth of ten children. Dennis …

When Pierre Trudeau was the Prime Minister of Canada, a very good friend of mine lived in his constituency and voted for him. He was the P.M. but also her Member of Parliament. As a certified accountant, she was getting the run-around, as she applied over and over for a job consistent with her qualifications. Very desperate, she wrote a letter to the P.M. explaining in no uncertain terms her predicament. She was not expecting an answer and she was prepared for that. But very soon after the letter was sent, surprisingly, she got a phone call to report for …

In A Different Hurricane, H. Nigel Thomas weaves a story where the storm is both a literal force—it’s set during the week that Hurricane Irma hits the Caribbean—and a its also a metaphor for the inner storms that rage within and around his characters and their choices. The story explores themes of societal pressure, the cost of conformity and identity. Growing up in neighbouring villages on the tiny island nation of St Vincent, teenage best friends Gordon and Allen are secret lovers until they are forced apart their community’s traditional expectations and their fear of how others will react. They each …

Gloria Blizzard invites Montrealers to a deeply personal journey through entries detailing her travels in her award-winning essay collection, ‘Black Cake, Turtle Soup, and Other Dilemmas. There will be a live reading, engaging discussion, and Q&A, on Wednesday, March 6, from 5-7 pm at Librairie Paragraphe Bookstore. Blizzard’s journey to becoming a writer was anything but traditional. “I never really wrote as a child. I was a musician—a classical guitarist,” she says. Music, not writing, was her first form of artistic expression. However, growing up in a household filled with books and poetry, she developed a deep appreciation for literature. …