More Than A Literary Festival

Remembering 1990: Why and how should we?

Monday 27 July 2020 marked three decades to the date since the violent takeover of the TT Parliament and national broadcaster TTT that lasted six days. We recognised 30 years since the attempted coup d’etat with this conversation aimed at exploring the events of the period, their impact, and their place in our nation’s collective memory. 

Dennis McComie was at work as Broadcaster/Producer at Radio 610 on St Abercromby Street in Port of Spain when the violence began. The second edition of his 1990: The Personal Account of a Journalist under Siege, will provide the context for this timely discussion, which included McComie; commissioner of the Commission of Enquiry into the events surrounding the 1990 attempted coup Diana Mahabir-Wyatt; veteran journalist Andy Johnson; and performer, dubbed one of the ‘children of the coup’, Muhammad Muwakil; moderated by journalist Sterling Henderson.

The NGC Bocas Lit Fest recognised 30 years since the attempted coup d’état by featuring the newly published, second edition of broadcaster Dennis McComie’s personal account of the 1990 insurrection.

On Monday 27 July 2020, marking three decades to the date since the violent takeover of the TT Parliament and national broadcaster TTT that lasted six days, NGC Bocas Lit Fest organisers hosted a panel discussion titled Remembering 1990. The virtual event was livestreamed from 5.30pm on the Bocas Lit Fest website and Facebook page.

McComie was at work as Broadcaster/Producer at Radio 610 on Abercromby Street in Port of Spain when the violence began. The second edition of “1990, The Personal Account of a Journalist under Siege”, published on the eve of the commemoration, will provide the context for the timely discussion, which includes McComie; commissioner of the Commission of Enquiry into the events surrounding the 1990 attempted coup Diana Mahabir-Wyatt; veteran journalist Andy Johnson; and performer, dubbed one of the ‘children of the coup’, Muhammad Muwakil.

Led by journalist Sterling Henderson, the panel explored the events of this watershed period in the country’s history and address the questions of why and how the attempted coup ought to be remembered.

The panel was preceded by a bonus book chat with McComie and the book’s co-author and editor Adrian Pinheiro from 5.30pm sharp.

Bocas Lit Fest founder and director Marina Salandy-Brown commented, “These conversations are important precisely because they are difficult, and so we absolutely must make space for them.” She emphasised, “It’s only natural that as we move further away from events of the past that general knowledge and collective memory of those events would wane. So it requires us to make a point of chronicling and revisiting, ultimately so that we learn the lessons of the past and better understand our present. And as the national literary festival, we embrace this as part of our intellectual responsibility.”

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