$25*

Derek Alton Walcott is a West-Indian poet, playwright, and visual artist who writes mainly in English. Born in Castries, St. Lucia on January 23, 1930, he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992.

His work—which developed independently of the schools of magic realism emerging in both South America and Europe at around the time of his birth—is intensely related to the symbolism of myth and its relationship to culture. He is best known for his epic poem Omeros, a reworking of Homeric story and tradition into a journey around the Caribbean and beyond to the American West and London.

Walcott founded the Trinidad Theatre Workshop in 1959, which has produced his plays (and others) since that time, and remains active with its board of directors. He also founded Boston Playwrights' Theatre at Boston University (BU) in 1981 with the hope of creating a home for new plays in Boston, Mass. Walcott continues to teach poetry and drama in BU's Creative Writing Department, and gives readings and lectures throughout the world. He divides his time between his home in the Caribbean and New York City.

Besides major grant support from The John R. Oishei Foundation, the organizers of Babel thank Artvoice, Buffalo Spree, & WBFO 88.7 for their media sponsorship; Righteous Babe Records for the use of Asbury Hall at Babeville; Talking Leaves…Books; The Mansion; and New York State Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and Erie County, for their support of Just Buffalo's and Hallwalls' programs.

*$25 is the single-event price. Partial season subscriptions are still available for $40 for the remaining two readings in season 1 of Babel (2007­-2008): Derek Walcott (3/13/08), and Kiran Desai (4/24/08).