Thursday April 18, 2024, anniversary date of the death of the cantor of Négritude Aimé Césaire, at the initiative of Jean Benoit Desnel, director of the eponymous editions, the Paul Éluard Museum in Seine Saint-Denis, offers in its gardens, a poetic banquet in memory of Aimé Césaire, Paul Éluard and Maryse Condé.
The start of the event (3:30 p.m.) will be punctuated by an oriental prelude with readings in French and Arabic by Fatima Chbibane and authors Kateb Yacine, Mohammed Dib, Mahmoud Darwich, to the sounds of the oud (oriental lute), by the musician Salah Lahsoumi. This performance will be followed by a reading of poems in Creole and French by Guy Tirolien and Sonny Rupaire.
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©IDEM Collection
The inaugural speech is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. by Martinican writer Suzanne Dracius, Virgil Prize winner of the French-speaking European circle, patron of the event.
The Saint-Denis museum (93) associates Césaire with Éluard based on the poem written by the illustrious Martinican in 1952, “The tomb of Paul Éluard”. Paul Éluard, pen name of Eugène Grindel, born in Saint-Denis on December 14, 1895. He died in Charenton-le-Pont on November 18, 1952.
He published “Capital of Pain” a poetic collection in verse and prose dealing with the themes of love, dreams or painting written for his wife Cala who left him for the painter Salvador Dali.
In 1942 Paul Éluard published “Liberté”, an ode to resistance under German occupation. True poetry is included in everything that frees man from this terrible bond that is the face of death.. This dimension will be given by the literary director of poetry and editor Francis Combes.
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©Alfred Jocksan
I wanted to hold the event in Paris and wish in the blink of an eye to associate Césaire with Éluard. I also wanted to echo in France (Saint-Denis-93), the current exhibition on surrealism and us artists of the Diaspora, which is taking place at the Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth (March 14 – July 28). ) organized by AICA (International Association of Caribbean Art Critics).
Benoit Desnel, editor and organizer
On April 16, 2008, the poet and politician Aimé Césaire bowed out at the age of 95. Born on June 26, 1913 in Basse-Pointe, from a family of 7 children, the writer, deputy and mayor, founder of the Martinique Progressive Party, emblematic and major figure in Martinique political life for several decades, is one of the fathers of the concept of Negritude.
This oratorical celebration is an opportunity for everyone to discover or rediscover the author and the aesthetics of his works.
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©Cesarean Center for Studies and Research Collection,
The poetry of Césaire’s texts allows, through the words, the images, the strength of the sounds, the emotional energy, to appreciate the humanism and the great Negro cry of the author.
Maryse Condé, who died at the age of 90 in Vaucluse, devoted her life to fighting against all forms of oppression and colonialism. Prize of the French Academy, alternative Nobel prize and prize of the Del Duca foundation, she left an important literary work. The organizers could not hold a Caesarean banquet without adding Maryse Condé
It is first the actor Luc Saint Éloy who will pay tribute to him then to the sounds of the “Mas à Pow” drum and the gwoka, poets, actors and personalities from the cultural world of Guadeloupe and elsewhere.
This poetic banquet in memory of Aimé Césaire, Paul Éluard, Maryse Condé takes place Thursday April 18, 2024 at the Paul Éluard Museum from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
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©olivier tharsis
