Triolets for Triolet has been published by Curbstone in collaboration with its author, Marilyn Nelson, to benefit L’Association D’Alphabetisation de Fatima, Triolet, Mauritius — a literacy program in Triolet. This handsewn booklet is illustrated with drawings of masks by Stephen D. Arnold. There are 300 numbered copies in this edition, signed by the author and the artist.
As Marilyn Nelson states in her preface, “I got to know the people of a Creole village called Triolet during a visit to the island nation of Mauritius in 1999. As Creoles – mixed-blood people of African descent – they are at the bottom of their social and economic scale… A few months before my visit, Triolet was firebombed in the night, an act of racist violence. Eighteen houses and a school were destroyed. I spent a lot of time in Triolet during my visit. As we exchanged smiles, theirs shyly respectful for the rich black university professor from a distant world they could not dream of ever being able to visit, I felt both our differences and our affinity, as descendants of African slaves.
“There are diasporan villages like Triolet on islands in two oceans, and on three continents. Their inhabitants range through the same beautiful spectrum of browns, and suffer the same poverty, the same indignities, the same inherited shame. By coincidence, I discovered the poetic form just as I decided to try to do something to raise money to help the people of Triolet… This poem is for Triolets everywhere.”
Because Triolets for Triolet is being published in a small, limited edition, and sold to raise funds for the community in Triolet, it is only available direct from Curbstone Press, from the author, and the artist. No discounts are available for this book.
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