Lookback: Afterstory ‘Illuminated Darkness’ 2020

Last Sunday, Lily Clarisa had her book release celebration of her second title; ‘Illuminated Darkness’ at WORM! She is a talented and heartwarming poet who gives the depressed and heartbroken a voice. Her poetry is about her personal process of dealing with dark experiences from her past. By embracing depressions, PTSD, heartbreaks and other related conflicts she gives comfort to anyone who experienced similar events.

The evening started with a short film about Lily Clarisa through the eyes of her friends. Personally I don’t know Lily, but from the stories that her friends told about her, I was thrilled to meet her. Later on 6 poet friends of Lily; Charlotte, Lamin Barrow, Juny Martina, Daniëlle Zawadi, Chelsy and Alfrida Martis read a poem from her new book. Lily herself finished the evening by telling the story behind the creation of her poetry. Her powerful stage presence made it look so normal to talk openly about traumatic events in our life. At the end, I was inspired to buy her book.

Thanks to Rae Parnell from WORM Pirate Bay, who organized this event!! May there be more dark poets to illuminate what has to be embraced, however painful it is. After all, we all have our personal struggles and can be used as glue to bond us together, if we are open to share it.

Another like-minded event to look forward to is CAC X 6 (ISLA)(NDS) on 19 July. The ABCSSS community will come together to heal and grieve/mourn from what’s been happening in the world – both internationally (COVID-19 pandemic, Black Lives Matter movement and protests), locally on the islands and in the Caribbean diaspora here in The Netherlands.