DR Leahcim Semaj plans to launch a literary festival aimed at filling the gap left by the Calabash Literary Festival.

The festival tentatively called Asante Adonai Literary Lyme, will focus on local poets writers, musicians and filmmakers rather than the Calabash’s focus on international literati.

“We are keeping it as local as possible because we know there is enough talent in Jamaica,” he told the Observer last week. The event plans to give greater prominence to the popular open mic segment which operated as a filler during Calabash festival. The Asante festival also plans to honour the lyrical content of Burning Spears and Lloyd Lovindeer. There will also be a “book sharing” session in which “ordinary persons can celebrate books which have impacted their lives”.

The current budget is nil but sponsors are interested he said. Calabash, amongst the largest in the Caribbean was cancelled for 2011 and beyond due in part to funding the over US$100,000 budget. The lyme will be at Asante Adonai, a farm owned by Semaj in Winefield, St Ann.

The festival slated for May, is part of four planned by Semaj over the next 12 months. The others include a Mento festival in August, a Jimi Hendrix birthday celebration in November and a Kwanzaa festival on January 1. He stated that the planning for such activities began four years ago.

Semaj went to all 10 stagings of Calabash and felt a tremendous loss following the announcement of the festival’s death earlier in January.

“We can’t allow the space to go and the concept to die,” he said. “It’s not just a loss for me as a writer but also as a human being.”

Semaj started an online page dedicated to the memory of Calabash. “I created a post-Calabash withdrawal session,” he explained which invites comments on the festival and suggestions for his festival.

The decision to cancel the Calabash festival began shortly after the 10th staging of the event in 2010, according to organisers. In 2009, the Calabash organisers initially announced the cancellation of the ninth staging of the festival due to a lack of government and corporate support. The event was held following a public outcry which resulted in government upping its sponsorship to some US$40,000 contributed by the Jamaica Tourist Board and the CHASE Fund. The organisers, however, needed to raise the shortfall.

The festival organisers included Kwame Dawes, programming director, Colin Channer, artistic director and founder, and Justine Henzell, producing director.