“There he is.

There— twinkling like a silver coin amongst the coppers. He hurts brighter than a punch in the face. What a meal. What a drug. God help me. He’s drawn me out like a crack dealer attracts stinking, wild-eyed cats. I’m squeezed blue by love, sweating like a runner, breath shallow, chest a cave full of bats.”

Those were the opening lines from Love Me, the first novel by a woman of St Lucian parentage, Gemma Weekes. The singer-poet delivered excerpts from her latest book at a launch that was held at the University of the West Indies Open Campus,
St Lucia.

The launch was her second; the first had been held in London in 2009. The turnout was impressive and saw the likes of Governor General Dame Pearlette Louisey, UWI head, Veronica Simon who hosted the proceedings, Mac Donald Dixon, Robert Lee, Anderson Reynolds, Kendal Hippolyte, Travis Weekes, among others.

Veronica Simon delivered the welcome remarks, then Travis Weekes introduced the author to the fairly large, cosmopolitan audience. At her introduction, Weekes read select parts of her book to a captivated audience.

“It’s set between London and New York with flashbacks of St Lucia,” Weekes explained. “A coming of age tale about a girl who feels stuck and she’s just trying to find her way forward in life. You kind of trace her journey, the passion and love that she has, and the book explores her feelings of rejection from her mother, and conflict with her father.”

As she shared parts of her book with the audience the young author surprised everyone by belting out parts of the poetic novel in an unexpected soulful voice accompanied by rhythms by St Lucian artiste Ken Hardy.
“In the book that poem is sung. The chorus is a song. I sing as well,” Weekes explained later.

Weekes stripped her shoes off as she stood at the podium answering questions about her book. The UWI Head joked afterward that perhaps taking off one’s shoes was part of the creative process, and in that regard, maybe that’s what she’d been doing wrong all along. At that the audience dissolved into laughter and Gemma quickly stood up to explain in her good natured way, that she’d only gone barefooted because the microphone was too short.

When she took center stage, Weekes was questioned about who her target audience was. To that she responded: “Anyone who can appreciate my work.”

There were questions about whether she intended to release an audio book, or perhaps even, write a film script. An audience member asked the author, given the fact that she was born in London, what made her feel truly St Lucian? Both of the young author’s parents are St Lucian, and to that she responded: “Having roots here, my name and the experiences that have
shaped me through my adult life, all make me St Lucian.”

A man who was seated in the grouping said he’d been turned off when he first heard the name, Love Me, but after hearing the excepts, he could definitely see how the name was chosen. He wanted to publicly apologize for prematurely, though privately, judging the book!

“The process of finishing was harder than that of publishing,” Weekes said. “Lots of other things have changed but the one thing that has stayed with me throughout the process of writing this book is that I’ve always wanted to write super fresh work. Freshness and really always challenging what I think; my first instincts. We are kind of trained to think in clichés. You have to open your eyes again and look at what you’re really seeing and try.”
Family and “people who’d watched me grow up,” made up most of the audience and everyone offered the young writer encouraging words of advice, while others welcomed her into the St Lucian circle of writers. Though her book was quite poetic prose, Weekes said she wouldn’t accept the categorization.

“This is how this book manifested,” she said. “I’d definitely say it’s more poetic because I tried to have that density, that attention to detail. Word by word, I wasn’t necessarily trying to write a prose poem.”

Hip hop, life, stuff she’d read, as well as questions she had about love, family and feeling alienated in a city as a first generation person from St Lucia, growing up in London, all inspired her to write the book that took about six years to complete.

“I felt like there hadn’t been a really honest, fresh exploration of us now, the hip hop generation,” she said. “A lot of the time it’s really just kind of cliché and I wanted to humanize that.”

Gemma won over her audience with her genuine nature, and had a smile that did not fade as she took in
and answered many questions. After the closing remarks, practically the entire audience headed to the back of the room where they could purchase Love Me at a one day only discounted price then lined up so theirs could be signed by the author.

At the end of the event, Weekes revealed that a second book was in the works. But before moving onto the second, check out Love Me by Gemma Weekes, available at Sunshine bookstore.

“I just want to say if you buy this book your life will be better,” the quick smiling Gemma told the STAR with a straight face. “You’ll have thicker, bouncier hair, wonderful relationships, your career will benefit, and you may live longer. Yeah, that’s it,” she said, before bursting into laughter.