When you have to dig through your couch cushions to gather coins for your weekly mojito fix, it's fair to assume that things are not looking up. Worse is the Travel Channel taunting you in the background with exotic Caribbean locales, Guyanese cricket matches, and never-ending feasts of goat stew and salt fish. Despondent and bored, you trudge through life for a spicy escape. Stop right there. In a recession that's sidelined even most seasoned jetsetters with increased responsibilities and crappy exchange rates, it's still possible to satiate the travel bug (albeit temporarily) and get cultured on the cheap. Beginning this September, a sparkling selection of writers of Caribbean descent will be in Tacoma to engage the community in conversations about the history, culture, and literature of the West Indies region. First up, Prof. Tiphanie Yanique - a Virgin Islands native and author of the collection of short stories, How to Escape from a Leper Colony (Graywolf Press, 2010) and I am the Virgin Islands, a poem and collection of collages - will lecture on "Those Who Wait for Us," discussing colonialism, slavery, tourism, and multiculturalism Monday. It might be a little heady for your liking, but hopefully Yanique will drop a few "Hey Mons" to soothe your Caribbean yearnings.
CARIBBEAN WRITER SERIES: DIALOGUES ON IDENTITY, IMMIGRATION AND ART, 6:30-8 p.m., Rasmussen Rotunda, Wheelock Student Center, University of Puget Sound, 1500 N. Warner, Tacoma, free admission, 253.879.3100
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