From Inhabitat:
It’s not everyday that you get to see skilled artisans and master weavers in action, let alone assume the role of a propitious pupil to such expert craftsmen. Last May ten students of the Pratt Institute traveled to the rainforests of Guyana, South America to undertake “The Guyana Project,” an initiative to get back to the basics and learn the process of designing ecologically manufactured products and furniture from those who’ve been doing it for centuries. Working in the Liana Cane Factory, an outlet located in the indigenous Wai Wai community, students discovered the ultimate spring of inspiration, drawing upon a rich culture and unprecedented experience.
Also: The Guyana Project blog, which includes information about design inspiration and photos of manufacturing processes and final products. I find this project incredibly inspiring.
“Palea” — Dobet Gnahoré, India.Arie, Idan Raichel and Blue Miller
Dobet Gnahoré live in London Ontario
A couple of weeks ago, at the Arawak House of Culture in Roseau, I saw Dobet Gnahoré perform live. It was fabulous in every way.
Dobet Gnahoré, a singer, dancer and percussionist from the Ivory Coast, inherited the force of the “Bété“ tradition from her father, Boni Gnahoré, a master percussionist who plays with the Abidjan-based Ki-Yi Mbock Company, directed by Werewere Liking.
…
From Mandingue melodies to Congolese rumba, from Ivory Coast Ziglibiti to Cameroon Bikoutsi, from Ghanian High-Life to Zulu choirs, …compositions, carried along with jazz-like sounds, are varied and colourful.
The sanza, the balafon, the calebasse and bongos are brought in to support the guitar, the vocal backup and Dobet’s warm and powerful voice…
Dobet sings in a range of African languages including Bété, Fon, Baoule, Lingala, Malinke, Mina or Bambara, thereby reproducing the Pan-African tradition of the Ki Yi Mbock group.
On stage, her voice, her charisma and her huge presence, the result of several years theatrical and choreographic work, has great audience appeal.
This year, Dobet Gnahoré won, along with India.Arie, the Grammy for Best Urban/Alternative Performance for their recording of “Pearls”, a cover of a Sade song.
One of my favourite Dominican exclamations is “Awa, oui?!” Because everything about it is so very very Dominican, and because it translates from kwéyòl to English as an emphatic, and wonderfully oxymoronic, “Oh no, yes?!”
Night before last, I saw Mutabaruka speak at the
UWI Open Campus in Elmshall, Dominica. He wasn’t speaking about religion and Rastafari, as he is in the clips above; he was speaking about black Caribbean people and our African identity (or lack thereof). I didn’t agree with everything he said, but it was still such a pleasure to hear him talk. And I have never seen anyone look so regal in their bare feet. And, on a very superficial note, he was wearing some fantastic jewelry.
More Muta coming tomorrow, and the day after.
Many of us know that in the mind of the average Bajan, they are as British as cod & chips and they have a superiority complex that makes them think themselves to be better than their Caricom brothers and sisters. …The average Bajan is convinced that they are better than their Caricom neighbours, even when they depend on them for their very survival. The average Bajan believes that he is more intelligent than his Caricom brothers and sisters, even while they struggle to gain international intellectual acceptance and their neighbours in St. Lucia enjoy 2 Nobel Prize winners. Barbados has not attracted the attention of such August bodies, yet their citizens parade the region as peacocks of intellectualism.
— from the May 14, 2010 issue of the Dominica Chronicle
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“But tell me something, what happen to your job?” I asked, as we sat there drinking our beers.
“So long I lose that,” he replied.
“How come you lose it?”
“I doh really really lose it, you know, I know where it is, but somebody else have it.”
My journey through the archives of Dominica newspapers continues to amuse and amaze. From the May 9 2003 issue of the Chronicle, presented without comment:
Parliamentary representative for Mahaut, Julien Prevost had expressed concerns [that] this [anti-terrorism] legislation would affect legitimate trade union activities, especially as they relate to public demonstrations.
[General Secretary of the Public Service Union, Thomas] Letang shares the same fears. “What would happen if there was stoning of somebody’s property during a demonstration?” he asked.
“Tightrope”, Janelle Monáe ft. Big Boi
“Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal passion, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body. No, don’t blush, I am telling you some truths. That is just being “in love”, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident.”
Books I’ve read so far this year (that I can recall):
How many of these were related to the PhD thesis I’m supposed to be researching? The answer to that question would be: none.
Babies
I am a sucker for TLC’s The Baby Story—it makes me cry every time—so I will definitely watch this movie (teary-eyed and giggly all the way, I’m sure) if I can get access to it.
Working for the Yankee Dollar is a blog by “professor, scholar and calypso fan” Michael Eldridge.
I’ve started this blog mainly in order to have a place to collect and organize materials related to a book I’ve been working on (on and off, mainly off) for much too long now. Its tentative title, Working for the Yankee Dollar, comes from Lord Invader‘s “Rum and Coca-Cola,” a calypso which, if they know it at all, most people know as one of the twentieth century’s more notorious examples of cultural theft. But even if, after all the legal dust settled, Invader liked to perform the tune as a vindication of his infringed intellectual property rights, I think he was also expressing (among other things) the wrily ambivalent relationship that a whole generation of calypsonians carried on with their friendly, local, hemispheric hegemon. I’ll be using this space to lay out some of the facts of that relationship—and occasionally to offer some analysis.
I did not suffocate underwater. I am now a certified PADI open-water scuba diver. Much thanks to Billy and all at ALDive.
- é•las (eɪ-læs/ey-las)
interjection. (Dominica)
- 1. Alas. Used to express sorrow, pity, grief, concern, sympathy.
People who live successfully in solitude live with elaborate rituals and strict rules.
“A Moment in Time” is a project of the New York Times’ Lens blog:
Where will you be on Sunday, May 2, at 15:00 hours (U.T.C.)?
Wherever you are, we hope you’ll have a camera — or a camera phone — in hand. And we hope you’ll be taking a picture to send to Lens that will capture this singular instant in whatever way you think would add to a marvelous global mosaic; a Web-built image of one moment in time across the world.
It was 15:00 hours U.T.C. (11:00 a.m. local time) when I found out about “A Moment in Time” via Facebook, so right there and then I turned my Macbook around and took a photo using Photobooth. Here it is:
View from Morne Bruce
When I submitted it, I mistakenly put it in the wrong category (“community” instead of the more fitting “nature and environment”), but I’m hoping that won’t disqualify it from being used in the project.
This song was one of my favourite things about
Rachel Getting Married.
A verbatim excerpt from an article in the Dominica Chronicle newspaper, from July 6, 2001, about the celebration of the Feast of St. Peter, patron saint of fishermen:
The church service was followed by a fisherman-led procession which wound its way from the Bagatelle chapel to the sea-shore. At the point called “Derriere Pont” overlooking the stormy Atlantic, a cross was erected in honour of those from Fond St. Jean and other Dominican fishermen who have lost their lives at sea. It was a moving moment, pregnant with private grief.
Ricky Francis won the outboard motor race and Ti-Anchasse, belonging to Brechnev Fontaine, won the dog-swimming race.
CLICO Caribbean Art Journeys “through the Caribbean speaking to various artists about their work and ideas.”
Also, browse the archives of the CLICO art calendar, from 1992 to 2010.
