Una Marson: Selected Poems (Caribbean Modern Classics)

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Una Marson continued to advocate for the people of Jamaica. In a talk at Dartford in 1941 she explains how war and disruption to trade has affected the people of Jamaica after England, known to those in Jamaica as ‘Home’, had stopped importing bananas.

Details of Marson's life are limited, and those pertaining to her personal and professional life post-1945 are particularly elusive. In 1945, she published a poetry collection entitled Towards the Stars. This marked a shift in the focus of her poetry: while she once wrote about female sadness over lost love, poems from Towards the Stars were much more focused on the independent woman. [27] Her efforts outside of her writing seem to work in collaboration with these sentiments, though conflicting stories offer little concrete evidence about what she exactly did. In October 2021, the London Borough of Southwark announced the naming of the Una Marson Library, to be opened in 2022 near the Old Kent Road in south London, recognising Marson as a "local hero". [37] [38] Caribbean Voices hosted writers, musicians and political figures … Seroca Davis as Marson. Photograph: Brian Benson/BBC/Douglas Road Productions/Brian Benson

Una Marson and West Indies Calling

During the same year, Marson turned the programme into Caribbean Voices, as a forum in which Caribbean literary work was read over the radio. Through this show, Marson met people such as J. E. Clare McFarlane, Vic Reid, Andrew Salkey, Langston Hughes, James Weldon Johnson, Jomo Kenyatta, Haile Selassie, Marcus Garvey, Amy Garvey, Nancy Cunard, Sylvia Pankhurst, Winifred Holtby, Paul Robeson, John Masefield, Louis MacNeice, T. S. Eliot, Tambimuttu and George Orwell. [24] The latter helped Marson edit the programme before she turned it into Caribbean Voices. She also established a firm friendship with Mary Treadgold, who eventually took over her role when Marson returned to Jamaica. However, "despite these experiences and personal connections, there is a strong sense, in Marson's poetry and in Jarrett-Macauley's biography [ The Life of Una Marson], that Marson remained something of an isolated and marginal figure". [25] The United States was Miss Marson’s final residence out of Jamaica. She lived in Washington for almost a decade and continued to write; there she developed a new interest, that is, writing for children. In an effort to improve her writing of children’s as well as theatrical literature, she attended the George Washington University Workshop which specialized in a course of writing for children, and the Catholic University Drama School.

To say women do not play a significant role in the arts sounds not only strange but problematic. This is sadly the case when speaking of the role women play in the arts in the Caribbean. Women are placed in “traditional” roles in the Caribbean such as wives, mothers and homemakers but their counterparts are placed in the role of breadwinner. The role of the Caribbean woman has been steadily changing and evolving. Women are finding themselves increasingly in the role of head of the household. As more and more men find themselves connected to organized crime and imprisoned the role of the woman must evolve and cease being silent. Thomas, Leonie (3 April 2018). "Making Waves: Una Marson's Poetic Voice at the BBC". Media History. 24 (2): 212–225. doi: 10.1080/13688804.2018.1471351. ISSN 1368-8804. S2CID 150033519. I think her poetry is relevant throughout any age. Her poems are so rich in descriptive language, all of those things that we study in English, metaphors, metaphoric language - and paradox.

Lilian Bader by Kat Francois

As a playwright, Kat has written and performed two internationally staged solo plays, and two comedy shows. Raising Lazarus, Kat’s play dealing with the experiences of Caribbean soldiers in the First World War, continues to tour globally to critical acclaim, and formed part of the First World War centenary, featured at Imperial War Museum. Marson's poetry was included in the 1992 anthology Daughters of Africa, edited by Margaret Busby. [16] some money will be available from a private source for social work in the villages on rural institute lines and Miss Marson has been asked to help with the organisation. She hopes that she may start this work in January and we wish her the fullest possible measure of success, as all who have heard her speak about conditions in Jamaica know a great need.’

Una Maud Victoria Marson (6 February 1905 – 6 May 1965) [1] was a Jamaican feminist, activist and writer, producing poems, plays and radio programmes. The International Woman Suffrage News reported Marson’s presence at the event as a ‘well-deserved success’ and Marson had good news to share: International Woman Suffrage News– 4 December 1936 Fortunately, conversations around the life and work of Una Marson have been kept alive and archived in a few libraries throughout the world. Writers such as Erika Smilowitz, Honor Ford Smith, and Alison Donnell have also written critical essays on Marson’s literary and political involvement inside and outside of Jamaica. Additionally, her biographer Delia Jarrett-Macauley has provided a comprehensive documentation of Marson’s life and writing. Therefore, their works are most instructive in offering more information concerning Marson’s life and activism.

Arrival in London

On returning, Una Marson was admitted in the St. Josephs Hospital, Kingston and died there on the 5th May, 1965. She was buried on the 10th of May at the Half-Way-Tree Parish Cemetery. During the war, The Sphere called broadcasting ‘the only new weapon of this war’ and ‘the cavalry of the air’. The article pushes for the transmission of broadcasts further to Greece, Yugoslavia, Spain, Syria, Morocco and more. It called attention to those shows which were seeking an international audience, including Una Marson’s Calling the Indies. Alongside Marson was Joan Gilbert broadcasting to Gibraltar and Berry Warren delivering a broadcast to the Middle East. The Sphere– 14 March 1942 International Woman Suffrage News– 6 February 1942 Thirty years ago, I was teaching Women’s Literature at the University of the Virgin Islands (St. Croix) and searching for West Indian women’s texts. I had read Lloyd W. Brown’s assessment of Jamaican-born Una Marson (1905-1965) as “the earliest female poet of significance to emerge in the West Indies” ( West Indian Poetry, 1978), yet neither her poetry nor her plays were available—and scant biographical information existed either. With a National Endowment for the Humanities grant and later a Summer Bursary at Oxford, I traveled to Jamaica, London, and Washington, DC, piecing together the details of Marson’s life. Scholars in the US, England, and the Caribbean have expanded this recovery work and solidified Marson’s reputation; Delia Jarrett-Macauley published a biography, The Life of Una Marson, 1905-1965, in 1998. Foremost among these scholars is Alison Donnell from the University of Reading (UK), the editor of this long-awaited collection of Marson’s poems. Una Marson lived a full, rich life, incredible in scope. By Rev. Carnegie. Daily Gleaner, May 11, 1965. p. 2 That same year she was a delegate at the British Commonwealth League conference at Grosvenor Place, London and spoke of the deplorable malnutrition of the people of Jamaica.

Marson returned to Jamaica in 1936, where one of her goals was to promote national literature. One step she took in achieving this goal was to help create the Kingston Readers and Writers Club, as well as the Kingston Drama Club. She also founded the Jamaica Save the Children Fund, an organization that raised funds to give the poorer children money to get a basic education. Nanton, Philip; Walmsley, Anne (20 March 2004). "Henry Swanzy". The Guardian . Retrieved 25 October 2020. Delia Jarrett-Macauley, The Life of Una Marson,1905-1965 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1998). p.5 Jenkins, Lee M., "Penelope's Web: Una Marson, Lorna Goodison, M. Nourbese Philip", in The Language of Caribbean Poetry (2004), 138.Denise deCaires Narain, "Marson, Una Maud Victoria", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Marson started her journalist career at the Critic in Kingston and then later started her own magazine, Cosmopolitan. The magazine was filled with feminism, radical politics, fashion, housekeeping, and poetry. It was the first Jamaican magazine owned and edited by a woman. The magazine only lasted a few years, but Una had gained significant experience. After the closure of the magazine, Una continued to publish poetry including a collection of poems in Tropic Reveries in 1930. Arrival in London Rosenberg, Leah. "The Pitfalls of Feminist Nationalism and the Career of Una Marson". In Nationalism and the formation of Caribbean Literature. NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.