Michael Arthur Gilkes (5 November 1933 – 14 April 2020)"Obituary – Michael Gilkes"
''

Stabroek News The ''Stabroek News'' is a privately owned newspaper published in Guyana. It takes its name from ''Stabroek'' , the former name of Georgetown, Guyana. It was first published in November 1986, first as a weekly but it later changed to a daily prin ...

'', 19 April 2020. (Compiled by Al Creighton, Vanda Radzik, Marina Taitt and Jocelyn Dow.)"Guyanese playwright Michael Gilkes dies from COVID-19 complications"
''Guyana Chronicle'', 15 April 2020. was a

Caribbean The Caribbean (, ) ( es, El Caribe; french: la Caraïbe; ht, Karayib; nl, De Caraïben) is a region of the Americas that consists of the Caribbean Sea, its islands (some surrounded by the Caribbean Sea and some bordering both the Caribbean Se ...

literary critic, dramatist, poet, filmmaker and university lecturer. He was involved in theatre for more than 40 years, as a director, actor and playwright, winning the Guyana Prize for Drama in 1992 and 2006, as well as the Guyana Prize for Best Book of Poetry in 2002. He was also respected for his insight into and writings on the work of

Wilson Harris Sir Theodore Wilson Harris (24 March 1921 – 8 March 2018) was a Guyanese writer. He initially wrote poetry, but subsequently became a novelist and essayist. His writing style is often said to be abstract and densely metaphorical, and his sub ...

Biography

Gilkes was born in Georgetown,

British Guiana British Guiana was a British colony, part of the mainland British West Indies, which resides on the northern coast of South America. Since 1966 it has been known as the independent nation of Guyana. The first European to encounter Guiana was S ...

(now Guyana). His involvement with theatre began in his native Guyana when he was about 12 years old, working in school theatre, and he went on to become involved with the Theatre Guild of Guyana.Jessie Moniz
"'We unblock people'"
''The Royal Gazette'', 9 March 2010. Gilkes taught at a number of universities in the Caribbean, Canada and the United Kingdom over the past 40 years, including at the

University of Kent at Canterbury A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

, the

University of Warwick The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands (county), West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded i ...

, the

University of Guyana The University of Guyana, in Georgetown, Guyana, is Guyana's national higher education institution. It was established in April 1963 with the following Mission: "To discover, generate, disseminate, and apply knowledge of the highest standard for ...

, the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 17 English-speaking countries and territories in th ...

(where he served as Reader in English and Head of the English department) in

Barbados Barbados is an island country in the Lesser Antilles of the West Indies, in the Caribbean region of the Americas, and the most easterly of the Caribbean Islands. It occupies an area of and has a population of about 287,000 (2019 estimate). ...

and the

Sir Arthur Lewis Community College Sir Arthur Lewis Community College is the only community college in the island country of Saint Lucia. The college was established in 1985 and is named after Saint Lucian economist and Nobel laureate Sir Arthur Lewis. Notable alumni *Sarah Floo ...

St. Lucia Saint Lucia ( acf, Sent Lisi, french: Sainte-Lucie) is an island country of the West Indies in the eastern Caribbean. The island was previously called Iouanalao and later Hewanorra, names given by the native Arawaks and Caribs, two Amerin ...

. He was a Quillian Visiting Professor at

Randolph-Macon Woman's College Randolph College is a private liberal arts and sciences college in Lynchburg, Virginia. Founded in 1891 as Randolph-Macon Woman's College, it was renamed on July 1, 2007, when it became coeducational. The college offers 32 majors; 42 minors; � ...

. In

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he directed plays and taught a theatre workshop put on by the Department of Community & Cultural Affairs at

The Berkeley Institute The Berkeley Institute is a public senior high school in Pembroke Parish, Bermuda. As of 2016, it had about 500 students.About us ...

. His work includes ''Couvade: A Dream-play of Guyana'' (published 1974), ''

and the Caribbean Novel'' (1975), and ''The Literate Imagination: Essays on the Novels of Wilson Harris'' (1989). An unfinished project that Gilkes was working on was the film ''Maira and the Jaguar People'', set in the

Rupununi The Rupununi is a region in the south-west of Guyana, bordering the Brazilian Amazon. The Rupununi river, also known by the local indigenous peoples as ''Raponani'', flows through the Rupununi region. The name Rupununi originates from the word '' ...

in 2016, with a cast mainly featuring the indigenous

Makushi The Macushi ( pt, Macuxi) are an indigenous people living in the borderlands of southern Guyana, northern Brazil in the state of Roraima, and in an eastern part of Venezuela. Identification The Macushi are also known as the Macusi, Macussi, Ma ...

population of

Surama Surama is an Amerindian village in the North Rupununi area and the Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo Region of Guyana, with a population of 274 people as of 2012. The village is primarily inhabited by Macushi, Makushi people. History The area of lan ...

. His play ''Couvade'' was first performed in 1972 at the first

Carifesta Caribbean Festival of Arts, commonly known as CARIFESTA, is an annual festival for promoting arts of the Caribbean with a different country hosting the event each year. It was started to provide a venue to "depict the life of the people of the Regio ...

, and in 1978 was produced at the

Keskidee Centre The Keskidee Centre, or Keskidee Arts Centre, was Britain's first arts centre for the black community, founded in 1971.London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, directed by Rufus Collins, with a cast including Imruh Caesar and others. Gilkes died in London on 14 April 2020, aged 86, after contracting

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Awards

His play ''A Pleasant Career'', about the life and fiction of

Edgar Mittelholzer Edgar Austin Mittelholzer (16 December 1909 – 5 May 1965) was a Guyanese novelist, the earliest novelist from the West Indian region to establish himself in Europe and gain a significant European readership.Michael Hughes, ''A Companion to Wes ...

, won the Guyana Prize for Drama in 1992. ''Joanstown and other poems'', a collection of poetry, won the Guyana Prize for Best Book of Poetry in 2002. Gilkes won the Guyana Prize for Drama again in 2006 for his play ''The Last of the Redmen''.Frank Birbalsingh
"Superb stagecraft, wit and vitality in Gilkes’ ‘Red Men’"
Arts & Entertainment, ''IndoCaribbean World'', 5 September 2007.

Selected bibliography

* ''Couvade: a dream-play of Guyana'', Longman Caribbean, 1974 * ''Wilson Harris and the Caribbean Novel'', Longman Caribbean, 1975 * ''Racial Identity and Individual Consciousness in the Caribbean Novel'', 1975. (Edgar Mittelholzer memorial lectures) * ''The West Indian Novel'', Twayne, 1981 * ''Creative Schizophrenia: The Caribbean Cultural Challenge'', Centre for Caribbean Studies,

, 1987 * ''The Literate Imagination: Essays on the Novels of Wilson Harris'', Macmillan Education, 1989, * ''Joanstown and Other Poems'',

Peepal Tree Press Peepal Tree Press is a publisher based in Leeds, England which publishes Caribbean, Black British, and South Asian fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama and academic books. It was founded after a paper shortage in Guyana halted production of new bo ...

, 2002, * ''Two Plays: Couvade & A Pleasant Career'' (Caribbean Modern Classics), Peepal Tree Press, 2014, * ''Heart / Land: Poems on Love & Landscape'', 2015,

References

External links

*Ameena Gafoor
"Michael Gilkes discusses the role of the arts in personal and social development"
The Arts Forum, ''Kaieteur News Online'', 15 November 2009. *. "THE LAST OF THE REDMEN is a one-man tour-de-force theatre event about the plus and minus of the colonial experience in Guyana - the 'middle man' experience of growing up in the 40s and 50s. Michael plays everybody." * Kim Lucas
"Dr Michael Gilkes – self-professed Mudhead"
''Stabroek News'', 1 February 2003.

"Interview with Michael Gilkes"
''Repeating Islands'', 15 March 2010. {{DEFAULTSORT:Gilkes, Michael 1933 births 2020 deaths 20th-century dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Guyanese writers 20th-century male writers Academic staff of the University of the West Indies Afro-Guyanese people Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in England Guyanese dramatists and playwrights Guyanese writers