Abdur Rahman Slade Hopkinson
Encyclopedia
Slade Hopkinson is a writer who was born into a middle class family in New Amsterdam
, Guyana
in 1934.
His father was a barrister-at-law, and his mother a nurse. A few years after the death of his father, his mother took Slade & his sister to live in Barbados where he attended Harrison College. In 1952, he went to the University College of the West Indies on a scholarship, coinciding with Derek Walcott
and Mervyn Morris
as students. Slade Hopkinson was active in University theatre. He directed Oedipus and King Lear. He obtained his BA in 1953 and a Dip. Ed. in 1956.
He worked in Jamaica
as a teacher, weekly newspaper editor, and a government information officer. He married (Freda) and had two children, Nalo
(now making her name as a novelist - Brown Girl in the Ring and Midnight Robber) and Keita (an accomplished painter). In 1962 the family went to live in Trinidad and Slade Hopkinson joined Derek Walcott's Trinidad Theatre Workshop and was a celebrated Corporal Lestrade in Dream on Monkey Mountain. He studied at the Yale Drama School on a Rockefeller scholarship between 1965 and 1966, taught at the University of Guyana
(1966–68), then returned to the TTW. However, by 1970 there was a falling out with Walcott and he founded the Caribbean Theatre Guild in 1970.
His writing career began in 1954 with the publication of The Four and Other Poems; the plays, The Blood of a Family (1957), Fall of a Chief (1965), The Onliest Fisherman (1967), and Spawning of Eel (1968), rewritten as Sala and The Long Vacation. In 1976 the Government of Guyana published two companion collections of poetry, The Madwoman of Papine, which contained mainly his secular poems ranging over his Caribbean experiences, and The Friend, which contained his religious and philosophical poems, written in the process of discovering the teachings of the Sufis.
In addition, Hopkinson wrote a couple of short stories, and his poetry was widely published in journals such as Bim, Savacou, New World and in anthologies such as Anansesem, The Penguin Book of Caribbean Verse and Voiceprint. Snowscape With Signature, a selection of the poems written between 1952 and 1992, was published by Peepal Tree in 1993, with an introductory memoir by Mervyn Morris
.
Slade Hopkinson became a Muslim
in 1964, changing his name to Abdhur Rahman Slade Hopkinson. By 1970 he was suffering from kidney failure and by 1973 was on regular dialysis, bringing to an end his acting career. He worked for the Jamaican Tourist Board for some years before moving to Canada as Vice-Consul for Guyana. Later he worked as a classroom assistant and teacher before taking long-term disability leave.
Abdhur-Rahman Slade Hopkinson, by then suffering a cancer of the kidneys, died just before the publication of the Snowscape With Signature collection.
New Amsterdam, Guyana
New Amsterdam , located in the East Berbice-Corentyne Region, 62 miles from the capital, Georgetown, is one of the largest towns in Guyana. It is located four miles upriver from the Atlantic Ocean mouth of the Berbice River, on its eastern bank, immediately south of the Canje River...
, Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
in 1934.
His father was a barrister-at-law, and his mother a nurse. A few years after the death of his father, his mother took Slade & his sister to live in Barbados where he attended Harrison College. In 1952, he went to the University College of the West Indies on a scholarship, coinciding with Derek Walcott
Derek Walcott
Derek Alton Walcott, OBE OCC is a Saint Lucian poet, playwright, writer and visual artist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992 and the T. S. Eliot Prize in 2011 for White Egrets. His works include the Homeric epic Omeros...
and Mervyn Morris
Mervyn Morris
Mervyn Eustace Morris OM is a poet and professor emeritus at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.- Biography :...
as students. Slade Hopkinson was active in University theatre. He directed Oedipus and King Lear. He obtained his BA in 1953 and a Dip. Ed. in 1956.
He worked in Jamaica
Jamaica
Jamaica is an island nation of the Greater Antilles, in length, up to in width and 10,990 square kilometres in area. It is situated in the Caribbean Sea, about south of Cuba, and west of Hispaniola, the island harbouring the nation-states Haiti and the Dominican Republic...
as a teacher, weekly newspaper editor, and a government information officer. He married (Freda) and had two children, Nalo
Nalo Hopkinson
Nalo Hopkinson is a Jamaican science fiction and fantasy writer and editor who lives in Canada. Her novels and short stories such as those in her collection Skin Folk often draw on Caribbean history and language, and its traditions of oral and written storytelling.Hopkinson has...
(now making her name as a novelist - Brown Girl in the Ring and Midnight Robber) and Keita (an accomplished painter). In 1962 the family went to live in Trinidad and Slade Hopkinson joined Derek Walcott's Trinidad Theatre Workshop and was a celebrated Corporal Lestrade in Dream on Monkey Mountain. He studied at the Yale Drama School on a Rockefeller scholarship between 1965 and 1966, taught at the University of Guyana
University of Guyana
The University of Guyana, in Georgetown, Guyana is a public university established in 1963 by the Guyanese government.-History:Cheddi Jagan, then Premier of British Guiana considered that the University of the West Indies, to which his government had contributed since 1948, was not meeting the...
(1966–68), then returned to the TTW. However, by 1970 there was a falling out with Walcott and he founded the Caribbean Theatre Guild in 1970.
His writing career began in 1954 with the publication of The Four and Other Poems; the plays, The Blood of a Family (1957), Fall of a Chief (1965), The Onliest Fisherman (1967), and Spawning of Eel (1968), rewritten as Sala and The Long Vacation. In 1976 the Government of Guyana published two companion collections of poetry, The Madwoman of Papine, which contained mainly his secular poems ranging over his Caribbean experiences, and The Friend, which contained his religious and philosophical poems, written in the process of discovering the teachings of the Sufis.
In addition, Hopkinson wrote a couple of short stories, and his poetry was widely published in journals such as Bim, Savacou, New World and in anthologies such as Anansesem, The Penguin Book of Caribbean Verse and Voiceprint. Snowscape With Signature, a selection of the poems written between 1952 and 1992, was published by Peepal Tree in 1993, with an introductory memoir by Mervyn Morris
Mervyn Morris
Mervyn Eustace Morris OM is a poet and professor emeritus at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica.- Biography :...
.
Slade Hopkinson became a Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
in 1964, changing his name to Abdhur Rahman Slade Hopkinson. By 1970 he was suffering from kidney failure and by 1973 was on regular dialysis, bringing to an end his acting career. He worked for the Jamaican Tourist Board for some years before moving to Canada as Vice-Consul for Guyana. Later he worked as a classroom assistant and teacher before taking long-term disability leave.
Abdhur-Rahman Slade Hopkinson, by then suffering a cancer of the kidneys, died just before the publication of the Snowscape With Signature collection.