Guyana Diaspora

'89 percent of Guyana 's graduate population live and work in the 30 relatively rich countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) -"Fruit that falls far from the tree",
The Economist, 03 November 2005'

It is estimated that there are as many Guyanese living overseas as they are in Guyana
They are spread out far and wide to almost every country on the planet
This blog was created to chronicle the news and and stories of the Diaspora

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

Dance With Words

Poet, publisher, and instructor Margot Van Sluytman was born in Guyana, South America, she moved with family to Canada in the late 1960's. Margot currently lives in Peterborough, Ontario with her teenaged daughters Olivia and Jessica, her partner, Rick McKenna, and their cat, Mr. Othello.

The words: passion, intensity, and focus, have been used to describe the work of Margot Van Sluytman, poet, publisher, and instructor, who was born in Guyana, South America, and moved with her family to Canada in the late 1960s. Margot is a Canadian Pioneer in the field of mentoring and teaching poetry and writing as both art and healing.

Margot has been published in magazines and eZines across Canada, the US, and South America. Her books include, Feeding Dreams, Bleeding Pupils and Beauty, Alba the Spanish Woman, Studying Love, and Of Dark Night. Her sixth book of poetry, Morning Tasting Whispers, will be published in the Fall of 2006. This work was inspired by an ongoing collaboration with, Robert Winslow, Artistic Director of Canada’s renowned 4th Line Theatre.

Margot created and hosts the Trent University Radio Show, Dance With Words On Air, 9-10 a.m. EST every Friday, on 92.7 FM, where writing, reading, discussing words, is shared with an enthusiastic audience.

She has just finished taping a six-segment TV Show with Cogeco entitled: Dance With Your Words: Poetry is Art and Healing, which will air later this year.

Her newest book, Dance With Your Healing: tears let me begin to speak, Poetry and Journal for Your Healing Words, will accompany this series and has been receiving attention from some very kindred and vital voices: “Margot's deeply felt, generous poems and exercises, in the tradition of 'Call and Response', is a dance well worth the taking to lighten any heart who has suffered loss.” Perie Longo, Poet, PhD, RPT, President of The National Association for Poetry Therapy, Author of, The Privacy of Wind.

Dance With Your Words: poems from word dancers, Volume Two that includes poems from members of the internationally acclaimed writing group www.Dance-With-Words.com which Margot Administers, will be published in Spring 2006 by Palabras Press.

Margot uses her extensive skills with language to teach others to write and express their voice. Her personal mantra, think by feeling, has been a starting point for novice, seasoned writers, students, as well as individuals who partake of the journey of using words for healing and personal development. Her online and in-class courses have inspired individuals to both write and publish their words often through Palabras Press.

Margot publishes a monthly eZine: www.Palabras-Press.com which has included the work of individuals including: Eric Ashford, Gary Zukav, Sandra Ingerman, Oriah Mountain Dreamer, Stephen Levine, Robert Carroll, Lucia Capacchione, misty santana, Greg Levoy, Gavran, Anngwyn St.Just, Penn Kemp, Susan McCaslin, and Roger Humes to name a few.

Margot offers workshops and readings at colleges, universities, spirituality centres, and kindred venues where words are valued as both art and healing.

According to Poet, Misty Santana: “Teaching individuals how to write to use words for creativity and healing, is the gift Margot offers to her students and clients alike. Tapping into intellect, passion, and raw spirit, is what she focuses on, believes in, and inspires others to do. For Margot, art and healing are kindred siblings.” Misty Santana, Poet, Author of, spiritwind, the flesh of language, and fragile boundaries

Margot has traveled extensively, most recently living for a year and a half in Venezuela, teaching English and Art, learning Spanish, reading Pablo Neruda close to his home country of Chile, and discovering the work of Spanish poet Antonio Machado, tasting the air and food of Brazil, and returning to Guyana to reconnect with roots, seeking out and finding the graves of her Great Grand Parents, filling her soul with images and sounds which will be birthed in her play, Jack and Clare, for which he has received an Ontario Arts Council Grant.

In 2004, twenty-one of Margot’s poems were selected to be painted by Montreal Artist, Caroline Archambault. A show entitled, dialogue, held at Galerie le 1040, which highlighted the natural affinity between word and paint proved a rich success for both Poet and Painter.

Margot is a Member of The National Association for Poetry Therapy, The Peterborough Arts Umbrella, and is the Administrator of the internationally acclaimed writing community: www.Dance-With-Words.com. She was short-listed for the Canadian Literary Awards for her work, Pieces From the Same Puzzle, and Pieces From the Same Puzzle Too.

Margot lives in Peterborough, Ontario with her teenaged daughters Olivia and Jessica, her partner, Rick McKenna, and their cat, Mr. Othello.

~to dance with words is to be nourished~to dance with the kindred, doubly so~

From MargotVanSluytman

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