Doris Harper-Wills: ‘Still Doing It’
TO READ Doris Harper-Wills’ short fiction, ‘Samaan’, is to have an interactive experience with Guyana’s more enduring folk characters. Feel the pepper burning Ole Higue skin; smell the smoke destroying Ole Samaan from tortuous toes to beautiful hair, see big, fat Fowl-Mamma turn nimble-nimble chasing children who tease her; hear the bones cracking in Ole-Man-Papee hump back.

The language is effectively evoked with songs and chants to scare, to cure, to entertain; music setting the mood and tempo. The storyline is engaging, from sombre beginning to engrossing middle, to the melancholy and instructive climax. ‘Samaan’ is an exceptional piece of writing created by an exceptional artist.

In 2005, Doris Harper-Wills was honoured with the Wordsworth McAndrew Lifetime Achievement Award by the Guyana Cultural Association, in recognition of her pioneering role in interpretive dance in Guyana; she received this award from the doyen of Guyanese folklore, the late Wordsworth McAndrew.

The ceremony was held in New York, USA. Both were born in Guyana, back in the days of storytelling around a sooty kerosene flambeau, when moongazers stamped their authority on the land, and jumbies came alive in the wink of an eye, and when bacoos were destructively active.

Her other commendations include the Ambassador For Peace, London, (2004); the Top Teller Prize awarded her by the Yukon Arts Council (1997); the International Women’s Year Award for her contribution to civic life in New York (1974); the National History and Arts Council first prize for short story, Guyana, (1967); the Commonwealth Bursary Award (1967); First Prize at the Festival of Spoken English held at Avery Hill College (1968); and the National History and Arts Council first prize for poetry, Guyana, (1963). Wherever in the world she performed, her contributions were acknowledged in one way or another; Harper-Wills’ world stage included stops at venues like Trafalgar Square; Covent Garden; Lincoln Center; the Harlem Dance Theater; the Billie Holiday Theater; the New York Correctional Facility; Farnham Castle; Nottingham Museum; and in places like New York, Canada, London, Zimbabwe.

I met Doris Harper-Wills for the first time during Carifesta X held here in Guyana last August. She was engaging and assertive. It was a very informative meeting, where she released snatches of her role in preparing dancers for the first Carifesta held in Guyana in 1972.

My first contact with her was by email, a communication that was halting over the years. The communication was halting; and so was the biographical data requested. Here is an attempt to coalesce the bits and pieces to draw a more comprehensive picture of her life and work to date.

Performance poet, writer, dancer, dramatic, choreographer, Doris Harper was born in 1931 in the village of Agricola, on the lower East Bank in the then British Guiana. She was educated at Agricola Methodist and Trinity Methodist Schools before going on to Bishops’ High. In England, she attended the Rose Bruford School of Speech and Drama (Sidcup, Kent); the Avery Hill College of Education (Bexley); and the Laban Art of Movement Studios, where she studied English, Drama and Educational Dance.

She was married to the former Guiana Scholar and brilliant son of the soil, Fred Wills, a union that produced four gifted children.

Of course, her life’s work started here in Guyana, where, when employed as a language teacher, she introduced her innovative teaching strategies — dramatising French and English in schools of the country.

Her innovative teaching skills found favour with the students at the University of Zambia. In New York, her contribution culminated in an International Women’s Year Award. Back in London, the Education Centre of the Commonwealth Institute snapped her up as a resident teacher, giving her responsibility for Caribbean and Commonwealth programmes.

A multitalented artist, Doris Harper-Wills plays a few small roles in several films, including an MTV promo, ‘Still Doing It’; she was seventy then. At seventy-eight, Doris Harper-Wills is still doing it.

Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com

What’s happening:
• The Guyana Annual magazine is inviting entries to its eight literary competitions and to its art and photography competitions.

• Be a part of the centenary celebrations of the National Library; see press for details.

• Poetry workshop during July for emerging writers; for further information contact me at above telephone number/email address.

• Call for papers on ‘Re-reading Edgar Mittelholzer’