iNTER-|-CULTURE-|-CARIBBEAN

INTER - "between; among; in the midst of; within; mutual; mutually; reciprocal; reciprocally..." CULTURE - "the arts, beliefs, customs, institutions, and other products of human work and thought considered as a unit, especially with regard to a particular time or social group; set of predominating attitudes and behavior that characterize a group or organization..." CARIBBEAN - "of or relating to the Caribbean Sea, its islands, or its Central or South American coasts or to the peoples or cultures of this region..."

[interculturecaribbean]

Tonight and Saturday night our final year Acting students take to the stage in 6 newly devised 30-45 minute mono-dramas. These one wo/man pieces are practice-based projects that challenge each student to function as dramaturge-director-actor; the student interrogates an issue that may be of interest to her/him, creates the new dramatic work, and functions as the solo actor in it. As the process draws to a close, we give thanks to the students for their tremendous work. Congratulations! Break a leg! #IndependentStudy #EdnaManleyCollege #SchoolofDrama #Theatre #Caribbean (at Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts (EMC))

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... for all of us who weren't clear on what a bake is 😄 #bake #aka #ghettobread #TrinidadAndTobago #Jamaica #Jamidadian #InterCultureCaribbean (at Sovereign Supermarket)

[interculturecaribbean]

Friends, so Mt. D'or Cultural Performers are approaching the final stretch of our journey with our production of 'The Bacchae' by Euripides. The show is next Thursday 28th August at 8pm at SAPA. But we need some last minute items. We're looking for 4 biscuit tins and 2 old umbrella. Call/text/WhatsApp [phone] if we can link you for the items. ... masks by Chadd Cumberbatch

[interculturecaribbean]

Congrats to the cast and crew of 'Once Upon a Toy Shop'! Thank you for a wonderful show, a beautiful morning!

[mountdor-blog]

'culture | performance | community'

‘culture | performance | community’ is a community arts internship programme, set up as a vacation camp, that utilizes the occasion of Mount D’or Cultural Performers’ participation in the annual Best Village festival, as an opportunity for offering mentoring and training in various arts disciplines. These include participation in Trinidad folk dance, drumming, music, folklore and rituals, theatrical performance, and production. 

The programme targets young persons from the Mt. D’or community and its environs, who may be between the ages of 16 and 30, and who - although having an interest in the arts or community work - may not be members of the Mount D’or Cultural Performers’ senior performing company. The aim, as per the title of the project, is to use community arts, as these relate to performance making, as the basis for community regeneration and trans/formation.

‘culture | performance | community’, which is supported by the Ministry of the Arts and Multiculturalism’s Cultural Camps Scheme, will offer 15 internship placements; and these interns will be offered 72 contact hours of work with the company. The programme will commence on Monday 28th July 2014, and run on evenings at the Mount D’or Community Centre, where the company is based. Interested persons are asked to contact Marvin George at 320-0041 or email [email protected]. 

[interculturecaribbean]

a box ah wire #JouvayAyiti #MangoSeasonMas call/text/WhatsApp/Viber [phone]

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We call this one, 'SEEFOOD' #JouvayAyiti #MangoSeasonMas 320-0041 - call/text/WhatsApp/Viber

[interculturecaribbean]

And then just so, flowers start to spring from the wire... #JouvayAyiti #MangoSeasonMas call/text/WhatsApp/Viber [phone]

[interculturecaribbean]

... and then the birds came. If you're interested in enrolling call/text/WhatsApp/Viber [phone] TODAY #JouvayAyiti #MangoSeasonMas UPDATE While programmes specifically target persons between the ages of 18 and 25, who may not have had access to tertiary level education, we are very aware of the responses from persons older than the target age group, and even those who are enrolled in (or have graduated from) tertiary level programmes. In this regard, if for any reason an applicant does not meet with the full eligibility criteria, but is however interested, we ask that s/he invites at least one other person, who is fully eligible, to enroll as a co-applicant. And they may both gain access to the training; and at a discounted registration fee too!

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... the gentlemen and them pose up on the walls at Curepe Scherzando. #mangoseasonmas #jouvayayiti #masaction

[interculturecaribbean]

Here's a sample of what happened in Jouvay Ayiti's 'Mango Season Mas' last night. We continue tonight. So if you and/or your friends are interested in art and mas making call/text/WhatsApp/Viber [phone] or email [email protected] and start now.

[interculturecaribbean]

So I found out on a programme named 'Africa Everywhere' from an interviewee/researcher in New Orleans, who has been studying architecture in New Orleans, that this kind of metalwork has clear African roots. She posits that (enslaved) Africans who worked on the French Quarters, when they built it, incorporated the Sankofa in their metal designs. I have seen this design here too. Have you? Has anyone done a study of its appearance/existence in these parts? I find this fascinating! On another (slightly) unrelated, but important note, Prof. Ryan states in his recent article that: All our governments have had problems dealing with established public servants. Many PNM ministers are known to have difficulties working with certain public servants. Some do not even speak to each other and special advisers had to be brought in to help them... Generally speaking, many public servants believe that their ministers are lacking in knowledge about bureaucratic procedures. Their expertise is in getting votes.   

It was the PNM Project Manager who brought Calder Hart to subvert Public Service bureaucracy, not so?  We have to very wary of those whose unbridled and perverse public utterances may only serve to poison us. Peace!

[interculturecaribbean]

MAKING MAS WITH ‘OEDIPUS REX’

Today, students of our ‘Caribbean Performance’ class present excerpts from the play, ‘Oedipus Rex’ by Sophocles.

Take a look at what we got…

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... in rehearsal last night Marvin Dowridge as the Dionysus energy moves the chorus of 'The Bacchae' into a frenzy with his wine; sacred and sacrilegious. We just start. It lil sketchy. But we moving. As the Bacchae say: You on the streets! You on the roads! Make way... Giving thanks to the company for every second of work!

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... by the way folks, Jouvay Ayiti does it again. We take the prize for 'Most Original Band' 2014. And that's just one of the prizes from our participation in the Tunapuna Jouvert celebrations. We giving thanks for all the support. More soon.

[interculturecaribbean]

From ever since, I’ve been impressed with these lines in the classic Greek play, ‘The Bacchae’ by Euripides. It reminded me of Lord Kitchener’s ‘The Road’, when he sang: “The road make to walk on carnival day Constable I don’t want to talk, but I have to say Any steelband man only venture to break this band Is a long funeral To the Royal Hospital”

The call to make room felt like mas, and like Eyo masquerade from Lagos that clears the road with sticks (bois) for Egungun to pass.

I have been fascinated by this God, Dionysus aka Bacchus aka Bromius, who the Greeks believed came from Asia, and the band of women who follow him; like mas (now) in Trinidad and Tobago. But I have been interested too in how S/He gives us the concept ‘bacchanal’, which WE OWN because S/He lives here, even though S/He came - given our understanding of ancient civilization - via the Greeks from Egypt through an understanding of the older God/myth of Osiris.

The play therefore is as much about mas, as it is about mass. And the tragedy is the tragedy of the leader who refuses to play mas; to attend to the mass, which is where the God energy exists in both its virtue and violence. The Greeks say that this Dionysus, God of wine and revelry dances with the war God Aries; just like Shango, in battle, dances with Ogun. So pong pan, bend wire, pull knife, pull trigger, is same Ogun we dealing with. We kill bout 5,000 of we own people in 15 years, had 5 election in the same period, even though constituionally we shoulda only have 3. And we cyar stop play mas… religiously. And the mas(s) keep telling we…

If all goes well we will do that play with Mount D’or Cultural Performers for the Prime Minister’s Best Village Trophy Competition 2014. And if we do it, we welcome your support. Indeed, old as it is, it is a play of our time; this time…

Marvin George