One such person is 18-year-old Britney Gabbidon. As a fresh, poetic savant, Britney was shortlisted from more than 70 participants and 350 poem entries in The Poet Laureate of Jamaica and Helen Zell: Young Writer’s Prize for Poetry competition. She walked away with the runner-up prize.
While a lot of us were only just learning to read, a seven-year-old Gabbidon was immersing herself in the world of poetry. “I started off with song lyrics and that developed into short stories and poems, until I think I seriously started writing poetry at around 11. I was basically trying to replicate stuff that I had read, so I focused more on things like structure,” she explained.
At such a young age, Gabbidon was already taking note of the structural components of work by the likes of Shakespeare to stimulate progress in her own poetry. Youthlink would agree that Shakespeare, the Englishman regarded as the greatest playwright and one of the world’s most influential writers, doesn’t seem too shabby a mentor for an adolescent.
Her passion for literature, she explained, emerged from her relatively introverted personality.
“I moved from focusing on structure and trying to replicate other people’s work, to focusing on developing a style for myself – the subject matter became stuff that meant more to me,” the young writer told Youthlink. Her poetic subject matter then made a shift from her earlier interests in emotions and became more focused on social commentary.
“I guess you could say it kinda switched to subjects that meant a lot to me, or issues I saw playing an important part in the world at the moment,” she shared.
Thus, images that inspired her wouldn’t be those of flowers or autumn leaves, even though she can appreciate the simpler and more natural things in life. Instead, the visual catalyst for Gabbidon’s work were more austere images.
While racial tension is one of the themes that have inspired this young poet, her poetry touches other region-specific themes such a colourism – an especially prominent plague in Jamaica. In light of these Caribbean themes, a natural inquiry was made into the link between Gabbidon’s regional and poetic identity. When asked if she considered herself a ‘Caribbean poet’, Gabbidon was quick to assert, “I don’t like labels”.
that “those persons come from where I come from. They have accomplished so many things, so there’s no limit to what I can do”.
Britney’s poetry has even more recently been inspired by themes of black femininity and spirituality in nature.
also often ranges from Afrobeat to Indie rock. To network on the poetry scene, Gabbidon suggests attending literary open-mic events, which are often held at various Jamaican high schools. The Calabash International Literary Festival, hosted in Treasure Beach, St Elizabeth, is a huge event that our young poet hopes to attend in June.
“I am a poet first and foremost, but I’m not just a poet,” she notably professed during her interview with Youthlink. As an aspiring marketing major at the University of the West Indies, Britney declared, “Overall, I want to be a writer. Yes, I have other goals and aspirations, but this one is closest to heart.” She is currently working on a manuscript, the first among many literary works of both prose and poetry that will be published from this young writer. It is safe to say that we should take note of the likes of Britney Gabbidon, a marked and guaranteed trailblazer in Jamaica and the expansive literary world.