CARIFESTA: Saturday and Sunday

SaturdayThe stuff from the container arrived today, air freight (far more money than one would ever want to pay, but that's another story), and was trucked from the airport to the hotel. Most of the costumes came, along with most of the drums, the set for Teeth and brochures for the Grand Market booth and some other things. But some things were not there -- like all of the Educulture museum, as well as the remainder of the costumes. It's a small disaster, but we need to make the best of it.I've been thinking about why this CARIFESTA has been plagued with more trouble than last time's, and have come to the conclusion that things always work better when they're done in the dark than in the light. When there's too much attention, especially from people who have different measures of authority, when there's too much, forgive me, democracy in the arts, there's confusion and, at worst, chaos. The arts are not democratic; they are elitist, because they are the expression of singular visions. Too much democracy leads to disaster.So anyway. The Grand Market booth, despite the adversity, looks great. The people who have suffered the most disappointment, the Fergusons from Educulture, have been supremely upbeat, and have risen to the occasion, while those people who bear the most responsibility for the container have not done the same. Cream rises to the surface, always.The first performance of the Bahamian contingent took place at 8 p.m. on Saturday night, and went off well. Billed as "Bahamas Country Performance", it was a variety show featuring the band and the choir as well as one or two individuals, and it had a good turnout from both the Bahamian contingent and the Guyanese families. Getting back to the hotel was a challenge, though, because the stadium next door was playing host to a reggae superconcert, and the traffic on the way there was several cars thick across, even though the highway had only two lanes. It was most interesting to watch the Guyanese drive through the traffic, using any means necessary: inside lane, the kerb, third and fourth lanes -- I had a suspicion that if cars could drive on water they would.SundayToday is the first performance of Teeth. I have spent the whole day at the theatre, which is a high school auditorium, something that makes me nostalgic for the similar spaces of my childhood. Coming to Guyana is an exercise in moving back in time for me, revealing my age (which exceeds that of many of the Junkanoo performers who objected so strenuously to their accommodations, and so which is more tolerant of Guyanese indoor spaces -- after all, we didn't have much better -- or as good -- in my childhood.) My entire high school experience existed without an auditorium at all -- we had the (Nassau) QC quad, which had its own value. The GHS (now COB) auditorium was a grand space, but was long and narrow and life and not air conditioned, but designed for fresh air and night breezes. So was St Mary's Hall at the Monastery, and Garfunkel Auditorium. But now, now that we have the money to centrally air-condition everything (something that occurred only in the 1990s, as I remember going to Miami in 1992 and marvelling at the air-conditioning everywhere, even in student residences), we associate fresh air and outside spaces with poverty and backwardness. Me -- I like the space, and once the sun goes down it'll be great.But -- it's live, and the projection of the actors is pretty good, so much so that there's enough of a natural echo/reverb effect that it makes it difficult to follow the richest voices. But we shall see.The set looks great -- it was put together today, and it is better in my opinion than it was in Nassau. The stage is wider than the Dundas, being entirely open, without any wings or teasers to hide the space at all, and so the set takes up the whole space across, and above it is plain wall.Coming to the Caribbean reminds me of what it feels like to sweat. I imagine it's a healthy thing. We've done our best to forget in Nassau.

Walcott warns; others walk

Walcott warns : Stabroek NewsRight, well I've been hinting at it for some time now on this blog, but now I think it's time to come out and say it straight.  I've turned in my resignation as Director of Culture for the Bahamas Government.  I had originally intended to leave at the end of this month, as of August 31st, but a series of situations have pushed the actual date back till the end of this calendar year, and turned the resignation into a requested transfer back to the College of The Bahamas.  Courage!People who have heard sometimes ask me why.  (People who know me and have known the tribulations of working as a cultural professional within The Bahamas government don't ask why; they ask when.)Derek Walcott, Caribbean Nobel Laureate for Literature, gives a very good reason why in his speech at the opening of the CARIFESTA Symposia.  Here's what he says:

Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott yesterday implored the region’s governments to resist prostituting themselves to foreign investors, warning that giving into tourism-fuelled gentrification would spell disaster.“The prostitution is a thing we call development,” he said in stinging remarks delivered during an impromptu presentation at the grand opening of the CARIFESTA X Symposia, at the National Convention Centre. He warned: “Don’t let this continue, [because] something serious is going to happen.”

and:

 “It is terrifying, all around there are huge hotels we are going to leave as monuments,” he said, with obvious disgust. “We are not leaving museums or theatres, because the governments say they can’t afford it.”

and:

Walcott took the view that investors should also be encouraged to put money into the development of cultural infrastructure, like museums and theatres. He also challenged regional governments to be more supportive of artists, saying that younger people needed to have access to more scholarships.Walcott, who had once famously  called for the scrapping of the festival, was featured as the Distinguished Guest at the symposium. Nonetheless, he admitted that he still harboured serious reservations about the fate of artists afterward. Indeed, he blamed the regional governments and institutions for keeping artists in what he described as a state of deprivation. “Is this what we are celebrating?” he asked. “You are killing your artists.”

and:

Walcott challenged regional leaders to pursue development of the arts simultaneously. Though he was not optimistic that the idea would be realized, he said it was important for them to adopt a change in attitude. He said there be should be no question of competing needs; that governments should do both.***He also suggested yesterday that the governments consider putting a moratorium on the festival in order to ensure that it is professionally organized and that it features the best people that the region can offer. “You need the best,” he said, before quickly adding, “But it is self deception, because what happens afterwards? What are their futures?"

There you have it.  My dilemma in a nutshell.  On the one hand, there are the people who tell you that the country needs you, that we have come a long way, that we are on the move and things are gonna get easier.  "Why now?" they ask.  The answer is simple, and Walcott has stated it plainly.  Caribbean governments do not invest in their people. Caribbean people do not see any real reflections of themselves.On the other hand -- and this is the reality, while the other is simply the spin -- the bare naked truth is that The Government of The Bahamas (gold, red or green, the party in charge doesn't matter) is no different from the governments of all our neighbours when it comes to cultural investment.  The Nobel Laureate has stated the truth, and there is no getting around it.  The President of Guyana has stated the excuse, and there is no getting around that either.  To remain in the post legitimizes the active underdevelopment of our people that all of our governments have made the central policy of their administrations.  To remain in the post restricts the criticisms that I can make; and to remain in the post compromises, whether we like to admit it or not, the attainment of excellence in all that we do.

CARIFESTA Update: Thursday

So the container was definitely in Freeport, and we were faced with the issue of getting its contents here somehow. The call was made in Nassau, between the Minister and my Under Secretary. DHL was contacted and they agreed to fly the contents to Guyana by cargo plane. No explanation was given for the delay of the container, beyond the report that the cargo boat on which it was to go was full, and so the container didn't make it on (we also heard, though, that the boat was not expected to arrive in Guyana until August 28th, so that was in itself a problem). No apology was given either, and no refund yet.That was by the way. The contingent was scheduled to board the charter jet and fly out to Guyana at 3:15 and the Minister and party were to be on that. At the Guyana end we put the last things in place -- buying basic foodstuffs for the houses and arranging food at the apartments, and setting up room numbers and pre-checking in the guests at the hotel.There was a press conference in the morning to which I was invited -- there seems to be high demand for Bahamian participation in things, perhaps because we were the failed hosts, perhaps because we are the next hosts, who knows? and so I sat behind the table with the Minister and other officials. All went smoothly, the press conference took place, and then back I went to the hotel.And in the evening, a group of is -- myself, Ronald, Vola, and Luther, our liaison officer -- went out to the airport to meet the plane and get the contingent moving.We ran into a few small hitches. Though the transportation for the people was arranged without too much problem, it was overorganized on paper, and didn't take into account the reality of a press of 140 passengers plus luggage. There were too many people with too much to say, each of them responsible for a different aspect of things, and the result of course was confusion. But by 8:30 the first set of people -- the passengers for the hotel -- were on their bus and ready to go, and their luggage had been loaded on a truck for transport. And then we saw the problem. There was only one truck! We had asked for two, and we needed two, but there was only one, and the luggage was still piled up on the kerb. So as we debated and argued and tried to convince the people who'd worked out their plans on paper that the luggage left behind could NOT fit onto the buses they were sending, and that we needed a second truck, the passengers loaded on to the first two buses waited. And waited. The night was close and hot, and they waited on close, hot buses.Finally, after the paper plans didn't work as they had been designed, flexibility and pragmatism took over. The passengers drove off, all except for a few who were left to deal with the remaining luggage, waiting for the truck. And we waited. And waited. And waited. And made phone calls. And reminded the various people at the airport who had responsibilities but no real authority that we had requested two trucks, not one. And waited. And watched the rain fall, and waited.And finally we got the second truck, around 10:00, got it loaded, loaded ourselves onto the bus, and drove off towards the apartments.On the way there I got a phonecall. Just a headsup, said Philip. The Junkanoo fellas have gone to the apartments and they don't like them. They are refusing to stay there.Crisis.I won't go into details here or now, or maybe ever. All I'll say is that they didn't like the apartments, which were too small and too downscale for them, and they made their case to the Minister, and they eventually moved themselves into the hotel, which is where they are now and where they'll remain.I am a servant, not always civil, so I live to serve.

Sunday Report from CARIFESTA

Well, I know it's been some time since the last update. The ideal would be to have daily updates, but it's not always possible. Even today I'm writing from the Queen's College auditorium, where The Children's Teeth is scheduled to take place, which is, frankly, a school auditorium, Caribbean style, with some very nice elements to it, but also with the kinds of things we Bahamians did away with twenty-odd years ago when we were building auditoria. Not to say that we were right to do so - but just that we did. Money changes many things, not all of them for the better.And anyway, what I meant to say about this post, being written from Queen's College, is that I'm not online here, and I'll have to wait to get back to one of the residences to upload it. So it may not appear till this evening.Or earlier, if the show is rained out.So let's get some history here. I'll split this into posts that can update on their own, so that there'll be some activity on this site. I'll start with Thursday (Thursday was a very low day indeed), then I'll move on to Friday and yesterday, and then there'll be today. Which is an underwater day.Check later.

African Reading Challenge 2

So I've taken the books I hope to finish with me to Guyana.The one I'm reading now is Adichie's Purple Hibiscus. In short, I'm enjoying it so far. I cheated and skimmed forward -- I do that sometimes -- but now I have to read on, savour it.Watch this space -- I plan to blog about it soon.

CARIFESTA and Tourism Potential

There's a tendency for Bahamians and other "sensible people" to express scepticism regarding the value of the arts.  Word has it that there's a fairly widespread consensus that the hosting and/or attendance at CARIFESTA is a waste of money and time.

However, there's no similar consensus that direct expenditure on the hiring of international (read Madison Avenue) advertising firms is a similar waste.  And yet such expenditure has not borne dividends in the refocussing or development of our tourism industry.

Look at what the arts, on the other hand, is doing for Guyana, traditionally not a tourist destination:

Canadian based Guyanese and other theatre enthusiasts from the Caribbean Diaspora and Canada are receiving a sample of CARIFESTA and at the same time contributing to the Canadian contingent's participation in CARIFESTA X with the premiere of "Sweet, Sweet Karaila."

Entertainment News - IslandEvents.com - CARIFESTA X Play "Sweet" In Canada - Jul 31, 2008

It's an entirely different demographic from the one we generally target.  Is our expenditure on CARIFESTA ($0.5 million to attend this year, and $15-$20 million over three years to host) really any more wasteful than the $12 million we found to engage the new advertising firm this past January?

Hosting Carifesta X : Stabroek News

...we have every right – and every reason – to continue to believe that an event like Carifesta can help to fashion the economic integration that we have talked about for so many decades and which, it appears, is even now, being contemplated with renewed interest by sheer force of circumstances.

...One of the things that Carifesta X can and should do is to remind the entire region of our collective economic potential. Those who come here from across the Caribbean will, we hope, get an opportunity to come to a more refined understanding of Guyana’s economic potential, in areas like agriculture, agro-processing, mining, and jewellery production – and hopefully, those experiences will not only create a greater appreciation of the value of intra-regional    trade but will also generate ideas that will lead to an acceleration of intra-regional investment including investment in the growth and preservation of the region’s culture.

Hosting Carifesta X : Stabroek News

The whole article's worth a read.

CARIFESTA X

In one week's time, the Opening Ceremony of CARIFESTA X will be over.  We'll be in Guyana, the place CARIFESTA originated, celebrating the festival's return to its birthplace.  Guyana stepped in when we in The Bahamas relinquished our commitment to host, and, despite having had only one year to plan the festival in, took the plunge anyway.There's a lot of discussion in cyberspace about whether or not it'll be a success.  There's debate, particularly in the Guyanese global community, about whether it's even a good idea to "invite people to Guyana", given all the social and economic difficulties in the country.  There's criticism of the CARIFESTA Secretariat in Guyana, there's criticism of the organizers, and it's true that on some levels and in some ways the way in which CARIFESTA has always been conducted continues -- in particular the way in which the festival is promoted globally.  On the other hand, though, there's a current of excitement out there that indicates that there's a change in the way this festival is held and perceived.  The very fact that there's independent discussion about CARIFESTA, whether the discussion is critical or supportive, indicates that it's no longer the best-kept secret in the Caribbean -- last time, when I began to blog from Trinidad and Tobago, people I knew in the artistic cyber-world had never heard of the festival, which has been in existence since 1972.  This time, Guyanese from the diaspora all over the world are at least contemplating attending the festival!  This in itself is a step in the right direction.  And this time, too, the Bahamian delegation is going to CARIFESTA accompanied by observers, well-wishers and people who are paying their own way to get a chance to see what's happening on the ground, or just to have a slightly different kind of vacation.  We're going to be accompanied by officials from the Ministry of Tourism so they can get an idea of what the whole thing is about, and also by some other advisors who can get a sense of what it is we've committed to hosting in 2010.I have no idea what the Festival's going to be like, but the buzz is growing.  We'll need to ride it if we want CARIFESTA XI Bahamas 2010 to be a success.  I'll blog from there and keep people posted.

J. K. Rowling's Speech at Harvard Commencement

On the benefits of failure and imagination.On failure:

personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a check-list of acquisition or achievement. Your qualifications, your CV, are not your life, though you will meet many people of my age and older who confuse the two. Life is difficult, and complicated, and beyond anyone's total control, and the humility to know that will enable you to survive its vicissitudes.

On imagination:

Unlike any other creature on this planet, humans can learn and understand, without having experienced. They can think themselves into other people's minds, imagine themselves into other people's places.Of course, this is a power, like my brand of fictional magic, that is morally neutral. One might use such an ability to manipulate, or control, just as much as to understand or sympathize.And many prefer not to exercise their imaginations at all. They choose to remain comfortably within the bounds of their own experience, never troubling to wonder how it would feel to have been born other than they are. They can refuse to hear screams or to peer inside cages; they can close their minds and hearts to any suffering that does not touch them personally; they can refuse to know.

Worth contemplating, no matter what one thinks about the suitability of Rowling as a choice for a commencement speaker at Harvard:

Rowling was chosen by Harvard's alumni. University President Drew Gilpin Faust applauded her selection, saying, "No one in our time has done more to inspire young people to … read."Rowling follows a long line of heavies who've spoken at Harvard's commencement. In 1947, Secretary of State George C. Marshall used the platform to detail his "Marshall Plan" to rebuild Europe after World War II.Since then, speakers have included such luminaries as Microsoft founder Bill Gates, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, other heads of state, Nobel Prize winners, and scholars."It's definitely the 'A' list, and I wouldn't ever associate J.K. Rowling with the people on that list," says senior Andy Vaz. "From the moment we walk through the gates of Harvard Yard, they constantly emphasize that we are the leaders of tomorrow. They should have picked a leader to speak at commencement. Not a children's writer. What does that say to the class of 2008? Are we the joke class?"

Courtesy of NPR.

Signifyin' Guyana speaks out on CARIFESTA

Signifyin' Guyana: Finally!

Bahamian blogger, Lynn Sweeting (womanish words) says she'll be participating in the upcoming festival of arts (Carifesta) in Guyana. Finally, somebody else (besides Ruel) who can lay claims to artistic talent has voiced a public commitment to doing something (ARTS RELATED!) for Carifesta. Okay, two down many to go.

Yes, so it's an old post. And if you go to Signifyin' Guyana's main page, you'll find a countdown to CARIFESTA. But all I wanted to say here was:It's really happening. This country (The Bahamas) is putting together a contingent of 135 performers and observers to go to Guyana. The contingent's so big because we are supposed to be the hosts of the next CARIFESTA (I know, we've been there before) and we need to know what we're getting into.I'll keep people updated. Guyanese blogs are keeping track. The countdown is on -- 12 days to CARIFESTA now! And our advance party (with me in it) leaves a week from today.There it is.Here are links to CARIFESTA news stories, courtesy of the CARIFESTA page.

ARC Review #1 - Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits, (Lalami)

Country:  Morocco, North AfricaAuthor:  Laila LalamiReview:  This is a novel/collection of related short stories, and in this way reminds me of Naipaul's Miguel Street. The stories are about four Moroccans who take the risk of crossing the narrow straits between Morocco and Spain, and are separated into two main sections: "Before" and "After". The book grew on me; to be honest, I was not hooked by the prologue until I'd read the whole thing. By the end, though, I was sorry to finish the book.Lalami's style is clean and spare, and her four characters rise off the page and we care. Each of the characters gets two full stories, a "Before" story and an "After" story, and the prologue tells the climax -- the moment when they cross the straits and succeed, or fail, to make it to another life. One of the characters -- a man with an English degree, a voracious reader of American literature -- gets three; it's his POV in the prologue. By the end, the short stories lock together in a single whole, and the novel is there -- its protagonist is The Immigrant, and its resolution is variable.There were a couple of bits that stand out. One of my favourite stories in the collection, the first one after the prologue, "The Fanatic", is told from the POV of a character who never recurs. He sees, and affects the life of, one of the immigrants, someone whose story is told in the second part of the book. I suspect that it's a weakness, especially if the stories form a novel, but on its own it's very fine. Of course it is. It was shortlisted for the Caine Prize -- the African Booker.I imagine that for others part of the allure of this collection is the fact that it's rooted in Islam, which is the religion du jour for many Western literati, and that the characters do not conform to the expected stereotypes. Only one of them is particularly religious; the rest behave remarkably like people (warning: sarcasm intended).Comment: I've not read any North African literature proper, other than Camus, which masquerades as French literature, and Gide, who's an expatriate anyway. I keep meaning to read Mahfouz but haven't managed yet. My North African exposure is narrow. Lalami's a welcome change from that.I've been following her work for some time now.  I came across her blog, oh, sometime back in 2005 maybe, before Hope was published, and have often intended to read the book. I'm not disappointed I finally did.

Follow-up to African Reading Challenge

The fate of migrants is the same - Mediterranean, Atlantic Ocean, does it matter?Laila Lalami linked to this photo-essay taken in Italy of North African migrants.The similarities between the essay and what we see here with Haitian migrants are striking.I've been carrying around Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits for days now, trying to make time for it.  I will keep you posted.

My Africa Reading List

If I take part, that is.What's under my belt is pretty male and middle-century, and so I thought I'd branch out with some female voices and writing from more recent times

• Adichie (Nigeria) - Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun
• Emecheta (Nigeria) - The Joys of Motherhood
• Ngugi (Kenya) - Wizard of the Crow
• Baingana (Uganda) - Tropical Fish: Tales from Entebbe
• Lalami (Morocco) - Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits
• Gourevitch (Rwanda) - We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with our Families
• Ilibagiza (Rwanda) - Left to Tell

Coming Late to the Party

And not knowing whether I will take part because I can barely keep up, but:There's a reading challenge going on this year that I'd like to alert people to, just in case.It's the Africa Reading Challenge:

Participants commit to read - in the course of 2008 - six books that either were written by African writers, take place in Africa, or deal significantly with Africans and African issues.  (Read more if you like!)You can read whatever you want, but of the six books, I recommend a mixture of genres. For example, you might select books from each of the following:

1. Fiction (novels, short stories, poetry, drama)
2. Memoir / autobiography
3. History and current events

I also recommend reading books from at least 3 different countries.  The challenge is for 2008, but if you feel like jumping in now: karibu sana!

There's help for the challenge.  For example, there's this list of Africa's 100 Best Books of the 20th Century, compiled by a committee selected by the Zimbabwe Book Fair and published on the web by Columbia University Libraries.And here's the list put together by the challenger.Here's my own list of books which I've read by Africans/about Africa.  It's partial because of my memory, and you'll notice it's pretty old (mostly mid-20th century), and it includes only those books I finished (there are several, like Achebe's Anthills of the Savannah, Ngugi's Petals of Blood and Matagari and Okri's The Famished Road that I started but didn't finish).  Some of them I know pretty well, others not so well.  Some I read in the original French, but can't remember the name anymore.  Several are not here, because I have to go dig them out to remember them. But if they are here, be sure they stuck with me.

• Achebe, Things Fall Apart, A Man of the People, Morning Yet on Creation Day
• Armah, The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born
• Sembene, Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu (God's Bits of Wood)
• Oyono, Houseboy
• Soyinka, Death and the King's Horseman, The Lion of God, The Bacchae of Euripides*
• Ngugi, A Grain of Wheat, Decolonizing the Mind
• Fugard, Master Harold and the Boys, Siswe Bansi is Dead
• Head, A Question of Power
• Paton, Cry, the Beloved Country

*Edited to get Soyinka's play title right - it's the Bacchae, not the Bacchus of EuripidesAnd of course one of the most influential books about Africa (and the whole colonial world, for that matter):

• Conrad, Heart of Darkness

It's time, I think, to refresh my reading list anyway.  If I decide to participate (some things will help me decide, like, oh, CARIFESTA) I will do so here.Till then, I offer the challenge to you all.EDIT: Here's a bonus to the challenge - Siphoning Off A Few Thoughts' link to Binyavanga Wainaina’s essay "How To Write About Africa" in Granta 92.My favourite bit:

Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress.

There's a whole lot more.

Oh, Look Wha Ya Do To Me

That wasn't what the concert was called, but it should've been.  Because if anybody doubted that we Bahamians have a lack of love for our country or our icons, last night's event -- entertainment maestro Ronnie Butler's farewell concert -- proved them wrong.  I'm not going to say all that much.  This isn't going to be a review or anything -- rather it's a meditation, an homage, perhaps, to the artist who, with his (late) contemporary Tony "Exuma the Obeah Man" McKay and his mostly retired contemporary Patrick Rahming, formed the triumverate that not only peopled my adolescence, but helped define my place in this country inscribed for visitors according to the imagination of the northlands.  There were others, too, like Eddie Minnis and the Erics (King Eric Gibson and his songwriter, our family friend Eric Minns), but their careers, unlike Tony McKay's and Ronnie Butler's were circumscribed.  And of them all only Ronnie is still singing.Or was.  This year, he decided, it seems, is his last active year.  He is retiring.  He's kicking back and relaxing (hahaha).  And so last night, he gave his farewell concert.If you're in doubt about Bahamians' lack of pride in our culture, you shoulda been there.  There was of course the moment when the hotel staff began moving everybody forward, adding extra rows of chairs at the back of the ballroom.  Then there was the moment when, after introductory music all through the early part of the evening, Ronnie made his appearance and the dance floors filled up.  There was the general politeness of the crowd, the bonhomie, the genuine love in the room.  There was the moment Eddie Minnis came out of his self-imposed twenty-five year retirement to sing three songs that everybody knows but which are so much a part of the national imagination that they seem to be unwritten -- "Mike", "Naughty Johnny", and "Ting and Ting", all linked together by patter that worked in the titles of Ronnie's songs.  And then there was the moment when Chickie Horne, the female impersonator who was once a staple of Bahamian night life, came out and performed -- at 82.And then there was Ronnie.And all I can say is oh, look wha ya do to me.Yeah.

"Red"

Geoffrey Philp reads a poem here, called "Red". It's about being in between.As Philp writes:

And while this poem does not adhere strictly to the form [the ghazal], it did allow me to play with the word "red," which at the start of the poem refers to a biracial person or "half-caste."

  [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3dO8DKZr3g&w=425&h=349]

The Gaulin Wife

The Gaulin Wife - Helen Klonaris' blogLynn Sweeting sent me this link today, and it's with much pride that I announce it here.  I'm not always so excited about new blogs, but I know Helen, I know her work, and I encourage everybody who's interested in thinking differently about ourselves as Bahamians take the time to visit -- specially if you're interested in culture, writing, or identity.Here's an excerpt from what she's thinking:

When individuals step out of line, or cross the line between status quo and the unknown, into the dangerous and wild places of the imagination, we tell them first they are abominations; we tell them they are of the devil. We threaten them with spiritual warfare, eternal damnation and the like. When that doesn't work, when those individuals do not cower in fear for their souls, we send in backup: the physical forces of domination, in this case, the Royal Bahamian Police Force.

From "Poetry Under Investigation" - Helen Klonaris

Freedom from Tyranny, Freedom from Fear

My father has been dead for twenty-one years. Is there a day when I don't think about him? Probably not, as I sit in his chair and attempt to restore the work that he did in the heady early years of our life as an independent nation. Certainly not, when I survey the land that he worked hard to plant seeds in, to create Bahamian citizens who were proud and free and self-aware.During the heady years leading up to Independence, when people were waxing patriotic, my father wrote music. The most famous of his songs, of course, is "When the Road Seems Rough". But my favourite, I think, is the anthem "Praise". Here it is, being sung by the CARIFESTA Chorale in 2006 at the closing ceremonies of CARIFESTA X.So the reason I'm thinking about my father today lies in the words to that hymn:

Praise to God the Almighty Creator,We render thanks to you in humble prayer.Guide us as we make these fair isles our homeland,Keep us forever safe in thy care.We will establish, guard and cherishFreedom from tyranny, freedom from fearGreat God, Deliverer, we praise Thee, we thank Thee,Bless us, Thy servants, forevermore.

And the reason that they come to mind today is that more and more often we're hearing stories -- apocryphal perhaps, but perhaps true -- that, thirty-five years after my father wrote those words, Bahamians are not living free from tyranny or fear.I don't think it matters who the tyrants are. At the moment, they're faceless. Sometimes they're the agents of the state, as was the case with the Millar's Creek incident -- which we haven't heard anything officially about. Sometimes they're outlaws, as was the case with the men who shot the tourist on Cable Beach, or the people who spent time spraying the former Prime Minister's house with bullets.Sometimes they're the thought police, who want to stand between us and our words. There's a controversy going on in writing circles these days. It's specifically to do with the Wednesday night spoken word celebration Express Yaself; one of the regulars has been banned from attending, and has allegedly had her poetry turned over to the authorities by her parents. I don't know enough about that incident to follow it up. It was published in the Tribune last week, but as that paper doesn't publish online, I can't link the story for you. What I can do is link to the commentary that it provoked, or post that on this blog.At any rate. I don't know what more to say on this topic, given that I don't know enough. But let me say that this morning I woke up feeling as though there was a thick gummy layer of gelatine over my head -- something too thick and yielding to ever push through -- and I began to think about my father's song, "Praise".Let us all work towards creating a homeland in which we are free from tyranny and fear. If we don't, we will have no home at all.

Changing Pace

Underwater Sculpture Park in Grenada, West Indies by Jason de Caires Taylor [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X33698McQ7g&w=425&h=373]I came across this gem while surfing poets' websites. It took my breath away.Go have a look.  Let's tip our hats to the dream that became amazingly, hauntingly, real.VicissitudesGrace Reef 

National Poetry Month

I mentioned this a couple of weeks ago, and am posting (irregularly) the poems I'm writing daily.

But I wanted to note that Geoffrey Philp has been doing a daily update on Caribbean poets all month long. You can find it here.

Today's is particularly good: Anthony McNeill (Jamaica):Somebody is hanging:a logwood treeladen with blossomsin a deep wood.The body stirs leftin the wind ...