Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer

Yasus Afari ... Me add a new dimension to me professional portfolio. - Ian Allen/Staff Photographer

When poet Yasus Afari left Jamaica for England on Thursday, it was more than his first trip to perform in a country through which he had passed before en route to Ireland and continental Europe.

Instead of performing on a big stage with a band, as is usually the case, this time around he will be visiting prisons, mental institutions, book stores and schools, among other places, his voice being a solo instrument.

"Is like a new mantle me a exercise now," Yasus Afari said. This has come with him entering a new phase of writing with his first book of prose, Overstanding Rastafari: Jamaica's Gift to the World, which was launched earlier this year.

"Me add a new dimension to me professional portfolio. Overstanding Rastafari was me first book of prose, so it add another world to me sphere. Me a fulljoy it," Yasus Afari said.

With October being Black History Month in Britain, he will not be alone on the trip, as he said not only will author of the Little Lion series Kellie Magnus also be involved, but there will also be a number of other persons from different walks of life.

Invitation

The invitation came from England-based organisation J2K and he will stay until mid-November. He will also be poet in residence at the University of Birmingham, where Overstanding Rastafari will be launched.

"The invitations me get now me neva used to get," Yasus Afari said. He pointed out that "me just do the UWI academic conference, me jus' come from Barbados".

As for a preference between performing with a band and by himself, Yasus Afari said "me really love a band and me love the big stage. However, me think me more effective in a more intimate space. Me connect more, me impact more, me feel more fulfilled".

He said that in the academic setting "the expectations there are more compatible with I and I iducational concept. When you go to a stage show, is pure entertainment. When you go in that setting, is more intellectual intercourse, which is more up my street".

Still, he said "at the same time, me wouldn't trade in this for the big stage. I think I wil them". In doing so, he will do a studio album next year and follow up with a book in 2009.

Part of the objective of the England trip is to show the young men, especially, that "education is a viable option".

And it will not be his last visit to England as Yasus Afari said he will be "networking, setting the foundation for a serious kind of penetration next year".