Local artist, poet and storyteller Nasaria Suckoo Chollette has released a new illustrated poetry book, ‘Buttered Bread and Callaloo’, a collection of poetry for children and young adults.
Suckoo Chollette said the book, rooted in Caymanian culture and heritage, has been writing itself for over 30 years.
“Every year one or two or three more poems are written, shared with children in the schools, performed at the festival and traced around on a separate sheet of paper,” she told Cayman Compass.
The writing process had many stops and starts. It was after meeting Stephanie Fullerton Cooper, a professor at UCCI, however, that Suckoo Chollette found the motivation and support to edit the poems and get them published.
“I am not sure if it was just that the timing was right or the fact that Stephanie had been lecturing on my work internationally for several years,” she said.
“Every step of the way she encouraged me to keep working towards my goals even though there were years when I would start for one week and never look at that document again for the rest of the year.”
Last year, the author pushed the project forward, applying for a Cayman National Cultural Foundation grant and receiving a partial scholarship for printing the books.
“I can’t say that I decided to write this book,” Suckoo Chollette said. “I believe this book asked to be written. For many years, I had been writing poems specifically for the festival of arts because I noticed that our children did not have poems or stories that were written about them, that sounded like them, that included their environment and their heritage and culture.”
Suckoo Chollette started off as an educator, working as a high school drama teacher for over 17 years and then becoming education coordinator at the National Museum. She then worked for nine years as the care manager for the NCVO.
As an artist, poet and storyteller, Suckoo Chollette’s work has always been inspired by cultural heritage.
“The majority of my work is aimed at preserving and sharing our rich heritage and culture while at the same time interpreting the past through contemporary medium,” she said.
The 70-page book comprises some 40 poems, illustrated by paintings Suckoo Chollette did when she first started out as an artist.
“These paintings are now owned by my mother and my aunts who all saw value in the work at that time and gathered them for their collections. The cover of the book is a painting I did of my grandmother, Mrs. Ruby Pearson of East End, with a very long neck, depicting her strength and her sense of pride,” she said.
“The illustrations for this book are actually some of my very first painting work that I did before the commentary of critiques got into my head. And that is what I love about those works, just the abandoned freedom with which I created at that time.”
Suckoo Chollette hopes to inspire young Caymanians through her work, by showing them the value of their authentic voices.
“I also wanted to write this book because we have stories to tell … Our stories should not come from somewhere else. There is a lot of lore and fantasy in our past as well as stories that record history for us. This is important for all of us as a people so that we can learn from our past and pass down lessons learned and values to the next generation,” she said.
“Writers can look and sound just like them, and I believe this has been accomplished because only too often do I walk through a public space and hear a parent whispering to their child, ‘See that lady? She’s the lady who wrote your poem for the festival of the arts,’ and then that child runs up to me in awe that someone who wrote something that they learned is standing right in front of them, sounding just like them.”
‘Buttered Bread and Callaloo’ is the third book to be published by Suckoo Chollette. Her first book, ‘Storytelling Rundown’, is a collection of stories set in Cayman and was published through Pedro St. James. Her second book, ‘All the Joy in the World’, was done in collaboration with the Kiwanis Club.
“I am currently reworking those stories [from ‘Storytelling Rundown’] with the intention of publishing another collection of stories, keeping some of those older ones and including some of my new work,” she said.
She hopes readers will find a place of creativity within them.
“A place that existed when we were all children playing in the bush, making things up, becoming different characters and just freely expressing ourselves. Beyond that, I also hope that this book will provide for children a look at how life used to be and have ‘Buttered Bread and Callaloo’ be an appreciation for our heritage and culture, and a love for expression. We all have a story to tell … We could all be storytellers. Poetry is but one way to do that.”
‘Buttered Bread and Callaloo’ is now available at Book Nook.
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