An­ge­lo Je­didi­ah

Dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, some peo­ple may have found so­lace through read­ing books while at home.

But af­ter three years, the NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest ex­cit­ed­ly wel­comes back all lit­er­ary lovers.

Yes­ter­day , mem­bers of the pub­lic gath­ered at the Old Fire Sta­tion, lo­cat­ed at Aber­crom­by Street for the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny of the an­nu­al lit­er­ary fes­ti­val.

With its main spon­sor, the Na­tion­al Gas Com­pa­ny of T&T, the fes­ti­val is ex­pect­ed to con­tain 80 events geared to­wards cre­atives and sto­ry­tellers from all over the re­gion.

Ac­cord­ing to the Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts deputy per­ma­nent sec­re­tary, Jas­mine Pas­cal, the NGC Bo­cas Lit Fest is im­por­tant due to the great num­ber of sto­ry­tellers that em­anate from the Caribbean re­gion.

“Through the pow­er of the spo­ken and writ­ten word we turn tragedies in­to come­dies. We pro­voke our com­forts and call for jus­tice. We let our hon­est sto­ries shine a light on the beau­ti­ful and painful parts of our her­itage,” Iniss said.

The fes­ti­val caters for those deemed ex­perts and am­a­teurs, now en­ter­ing the lit­er­ary space, and peo­ple of all ages. Iniss said that a fes­ti­val like this is im­por­tant for young peo­ple, who of­ten need a com­mu­ni­ty and av­enue to share the prob­lems that they face.

“The chil­dren’s fes­ti­val and sto­ry­telling car­a­van sowed the seeds of cre­ativ­i­ty in the chil­dren and young peo­ple while pro­vid­ing an av­enue for them to ex­press them­selves an tell all of the is­sues that may be af­fect­ing them,” she said.

This year, the fes­ti­val will fea­ture 53 first-time au­thors, most emerg­ing from the down­time of the pan­dem­ic.

“As we me­an­der our way out of the pan­dem­ic it is im­por­tant that in­di­vid­u­als have many av­enues for self-ex­pres­sion. We be­lieve that every­one should be giv­en a safe av­enue to tell your own sto­ry,” said Her­itage Na­tion­al Li­brary di­rec­tor Jas­min Sim­mons.

The three-day fes­ti­val will end on April 30.