THINK.....Carnival and Multicultural Policy.

THE THINK FORUM,

HOSTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF CREATIVE AND FESTIVAL ARTS.

Friday February 11, 2011.

9am-4.30pm.

Auditorium of the Centre for the Language learning.

UWI.

 Below are excerpts for my note pad as I was jotting thoughts down. So allot of what you will read is a weaving of both the personal and the presenters, creating an intellectual hybrid possibility.

PETER MINSHALL.
CARNIVAL,IDENTITIES AND MULTICULTURALISM- this panel examaies the issue of diversity within the carnival space and questions the efficacy of using carnival as a platform for the forging social cohesion and growing social capital.

DIVISION OF TIME, THERE ARE COMPETING STIMULI FOR OUR ATTENTION,
POSSIBILITIES FOR OUR DISTRACTION TO DETAIL, COMMITMENT TO OUR ACTIVITIES.

THE IMAGINATIVE SPIRIT OF LITTLE BAREBACK FELLAS.

THEY UNDERSTOOD THEIR VISION.

QUESTION- IS THE MALAISE OF CARNIVAL BEING PUSHED BY MIDDLE CLASS ELITE?

HOW CAN THEY PLAY THE ROLE IN THE RECONSTRUCTION.

JILLIAN MOORE.

NO POLICY.

WHICH ARE THE DIVERSE GROUPINGS.

CLASS AND WEALTH. RULING CLASS VERSUS JAMMETTE CULTURE.

THE VELVET ROPE, DIVISION OF ROLES, THE BOUNCERS.

MARGINALIZATION OF TRADITION, SENT TO THE PERIPHERY.

CAPITALISM VERSUS TRADITION.

DEMOCRACY OF SPACE.? DOES THAT STILL EXIST!

THE PEOPLE BAND, AN EXAMPLE OF RETAKING THE SPACE AND GIVING IT BACK TO THE PEOPLE?

RAVI JI.

I'M A HINDU, AN INDIAN AND TRINIDADIAN. X3.

AN INDIAN CAN BE CONSIDERED A CULTURAL CONSTRUCT, THREE BECOMES 2.

CARNIVAL MOVING FROMPERFORMANCE TO DEVELOPMENT.

THE IDEA OF INCLUSION OF THE OTHER- WITHIN THE CALENDER OF CULTURE.

HOW THE OTHER INFORMS THE OTHER.

MANAGING THE CARNIVAL PERSONA-WHAT IS BEING SAID IN THE SPACE OF CARNIVAL ALLOWING FOR GREATER INCLUSION OF THE HINDU, ORISHA, THE CATHOLIC, THE EVANGELIST, GAYS, TRANSGENDERED ETC.

LOUIS REGIS.

CREOLE BACHANNAL.

CREOLE AS "HERE", CARIBBEANESS, THAT MEANS WHITE CREOLE, INDIAN CREOLE.

THERE WERE TWO VERSIONS TO THE CARNIVAL CELABRATION- THE EUROPEAN & THE AFRICAN.

BEFORE 1834/1838.

THE AFRICAN CELEBRATED THEIR OWN CHARACTERS, FREE JOIN THE FETTE.

PICSTERRESQUE RELITIVISM=DO WHU YUH WANT.

THERE WAS A HIGHLY ORGANIZED CARNIVAL BASED ON AFRICAN ETHNICITY & CLASS.

QUESTION- I WILL GO BACK TO CLASS, HOW HAS CLASS PLAYED IN THE ROLE OF A SOMEWHAT TROUBLEING POSITIONOF CARNIVAL.

PAT BISHOP.
CARNIVAL AND MULTICULTURAL PPOLICY DEVELOPMENT-this panel confronted the notion of wheather or not the Trinidad and Tobago carnival complex can be used as a catalyst for developing a national cultural policy that is underpinned by the concepts of diversity and social inclusion.

WHAT WE KNOW.

THERE IS A KNOWING ABOUT THE CLAIMS OF CARNIVAL.

WHAT WE DONT KNOW IS THAT CARNIVAL HAS GONE CONCEPTUAL.

MARKET DRIVEN FORCES.

CARNIVAL IS A BUSINESS- CORN SOUP,CRAFTMAN, THE WELDER, THE TRUCK DRIVER, BAR MAN.

CARNIVAL IS SIN AT THE END OF THE SIN THERE IS FORGIVENESS.

IMPORTATION OF CUSTUMES.

A SKEEWED ECONOMICA MODEL.

CLASS, DIVISION.

ETHNICALLY DIVIDED.

CARNIVAL GONE SUBURBAN.

CULTURE IS A TIMELESS NOTION OF SELVES.

CULTURAL POLICY CAN BECOME ROBBER TALK.

DR. SUZANNE BURKE.

WHO CONSTRUCTS THE IDENTITY.

WHY THE POLICY- ECONOMICS,EQUITY,MULTIPLYER EFFECT,SOCIAL,ENVIRONMENT.

THROSBY'S MODEL.

@ THE CORE - MUSIC,LITERATURE,THE ARTS=EDUCATION.

THE CARNIVAL COMPLEX

THE MAGICAL MIRROR- IS THIS MIRROR SHOWING US, WHAT DOES THE REFLECTION LOOK LIKE, WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE.

NCC=MAKING CARNIVAL A MONEY SPINNER, AS APPOSE TO A DEVELOPMENT MODEL.

BANDS ARE ALLOWED TO DICTATE THE PACE, DON DAT. FIND NEW WAYS OF POLICING THE CULTURAL SECTOR.

THIS IDEA OF CREOLE/RE-CREOLE- FITS WITHIN A SPACE THAT SEE THE WORDING SITUATED TO ONE ETHNIC GROUP.

MARCIA RILEY.

CULTURE AND ATTITUDE.

NO MECHANISM PUT INPLACE TO LOOK AT DICERNING ASPECTS OF CULTURE.

CULTURE COMES FROM AGRICULTURE=TO CARE FOR.

LAMMING, CULTURE IS THE SOIL.

HOLD THEM TO ACCOUNT.

USING A FESTIVAL AS A CATALYST TO POLICY CAN BE VERY PROBLEMATIC. AS CULTURE IS SEEN IN LIMITED TERMS WITHIN THE FESTIVAL.

POSITIVISM TO HUMANISM.

PETER SCOON.

EQUALITY, INTEGATION OF CULTURE/PROMOTION OF CULTURE.

WHAT IS THE RIGHT THING.

IF THERE IS GOING TO BE THE SHARING OF CAPITAL HE WANT TO BE PART OF THAT.

WHAT ID THE RIGHT THING.

AN INDEPENDANT POLICY BODY SHOULD BE SET UP, STATE SHOULD STAY OUT OF IT.

STEVE OUDITT.
IMAGING CULTURE-this panel loked at the practice around the media's representation of culture using carnival as a methaphor. It confronts the challenges related to how we document, disseminate, retain and own rights to ur cultural expressions.

ART AS- ANTHROPOLOGICAL OR SOCIOLOGICAL.

WE DONT KNOW WHAT ART IS.

WE DONT KNOW WHAT GOOD ART IS.

WHEN IS ART ART. WHEN IS IT RECOGNIZED AS ART.

IF IT'S NOT CRITICALLY ANALYZED, WE CANT CALL IT ART.

THREE IS AN AESTHETICS THEORY OF MAS THAT IS SECRET. IT IS KNOW BY THE MAS MAKERS.

YOU HAVE TO KNOW THIS, TO KNOW MAS.

AESTHETICS AMNESIA. 

SUNITY MAHARAJ.

THE EGYTIAN OR THE HAITIAN FRAME OF MIND.

PROPELLING OURSELVES IN THE MEDIA AS ???????

WE SHOULD NOT TAKE A PAPER TO MINISTER HE SHOULD BE HERE, SITTING AND BE INSTRUCTED.

JAIMEE BAGOO.

WHERE IS THE DOCUMENTING, WHERE IS THE CULTURAL STUDIES.

WHAT HAPPENING.

ARGOS NEWS-STARTED BY AN ARISTOCARCY= ENFORCED OF A POLTICAL WILL ON THE MAS, THROUGH THE DEVELOPMENT OF UPTOWN MAS/DOWNTOWN MAS.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRETTY MAS.

BRING THE MUSEUM=LACK OF RESEARCH.

BBC- NOT WILLING TO HAND OVER THEIR DOCUMENTS. STATING THEY ARE CONCERNED  ABOUT OUR LACK OF PRESSERVATION, ARCHIVING AND DOCUMENTING FACILLITIES.  

DR. ANN LEE.

GLOBAL MEDIA IS FILLED WITH THE NOTION OF CARNIVAL AS AN ENTERTAINMENT, DERIVITIVE RATHER THAN A SOCIAL CONSTRUCT, WITH A COMPLEX LOOK INTO OUR SOCIAL MAKE UP AND OPERATION.

PNM USED CARNIVAL AS A NATIONAL FESTIVAL @ THE EXCLUSION OF THE INDIAN COMMUNITY.

IT WAS THEN THAT THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN THAT DISCUSSION POST INDEPENDENCE.

1972- SMALL BANDS WHERE PUSHED OUT TO THE REGIONS.

CARNIVAL THEN  BECAME A TOURIST DEVELOPMENT PRODUCT. JUST THE SIMPLICITY OF THE PRODUCT WAS HIGHLIGHTED IN THE MEDIA.

NO COMBATIVE REARGARD ACTION.

NESTOR SULLIVAN.
CARNIVAL, TRANSNATIONALISM & MULTICULURAL CITIZENSHIP- This panel examined the concepts of transnational citizenship by empoying the Trinidad and Tobago oversea carnival circuit as a vechical for promoting diversity within and outside of Trinidadn and Tobago and the Caribbean diaspora.

THERE IS AN INTERNATIONAL REALITY THAT EXIST. EVERBODY KNOW THAT PAN ORIGINATED FROM TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO. LEH WE DON DAT TALK.

THERE IS A RECOGNITION.

EDDIE MANETTE, TONY WILLIAMS AND BERTIE MARSHALL. THEY ARE THE PIONEERS AND CONSIDERED AS THE PILLARS OF PAN.

WHY THE PAN MAN GOES ABROAD.
ECONOMICS,
RECOGNITION,
THE SOCIAL.

THE IMPORTATION OF WORKER TO LONDON POST WORLD WAR II.

CLAUDIA JONES BEING EXPELLED FORM THE U.S TO LONDON, WHERE SHE STARTED NOTTINGHILL CARNIVAL.

TASPO PAN SIDE TOURED LONDON, PAN JUMP SHIP AND STARTED PAN GROUPS AND CONTRIBUTED TO THIS EXPANSION OF TH EINSTRUMENT AS GLOBAL.

DE MAN MAKE PAN IN TWO DAYS TIME FOR THE GIG!
AFTER THE PANS ENDED UP IN NEW YORK AND THEY WHERE IN ROME.

TAKE OURSELVES SERIOUSLY=PREPARE FOR THE MULTI MILLION DOLLAR INDUSTRY THAT STILL EXIST IN THE COMMONWEALTH COUNTRIES AND THE LATIN AMERICAN CONTINENT. 

ROBERT AMAR.

RACISM.

MULTICULTURAL-THER MUST BE MULTI RESPECT.

FORGET THIS HE SAY, SHE SAY, DEM SAY.

PEOPLE POWER!

WE HAVE TO GET THE UNIVERSITY TO MOVE RIGHT.

GETTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE IN THE RIGHT POSITION, MEANS EDUCATION!

WE CAN'T BE DOING TO MUCH THERE MUST BE FOCUS.

WE SOHOULD NOT BE BEGGING CAP IN HAND BUT THE MINISTRY SHOULD BE HERE SITTING AND LISTENING. BEING TOLD WHAT THEY SHOULD BE DOING.
PEOPLE POWER?

WE SAY NO!

WE MUST UNDERSTAND THE FIX, WHEN WE MUST LISTEN, LISTEN AND RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE.

MUST BUILD EXAMPLES.

WE'RE PRUALISTIC IN ATTITUDE, BUT SINGULAR IN ACTION.

WHY THE FAILURE OF THE ARTISTIC INFRASTRUCTURE.

LACK OF PROPER CAPITALIZATIONOF THE PRODUCT. 

b

b dat wha

Add caption

MICHAEL LOW CHEW TUNG.

MOTHER- AFRICAN APPEARING WOMAN
FATHER-CHINESE APPEARING MAN.
DEY MARRY-DEY HAVE ME.
I MARRIED AH DOUGLA WOMAN, HAV CHILDREN.
I HAVE KNOW WHERE TO GO!

WE NOT LIMITED TO BOUNDARIES.

CARNIVAL IS AN INTRODUCTION TO ETHNIC HARMONY.

WE'RE OMNI POLICY.

THE THINK FORUM.

The next step is that there will be a policy group fromed that will construct a policy proposal that will be presented to the state. If I remembered right April is the deadline

the audience was asked if they were good with that and asked to volunteers, I did and so did a lot of others within the audience.

My concern is as I asked Dr Suzanne Burke, is this going to be a alinged with the other concerned voices that has been putting together their own proposal. Such as ACTT (with 22 artists bodies, they have presented a draft proposal to the state) and GOPIO(not to sure where they are with their efforts).

Will this become another midclass intellectual intervention that will create a division in a community thats already burden within seperatist tendancies.

Something that the state feeds off of, divison.

The Cultural Policy Proposal should be shot from a singular arrow with all the parties involved in agreement.

The future will enfold much wonders as men and women sit at the table to convince the future of the artists worth.

We must protect.

The idea Democracy- Who ownes the space, the state, the corporation, the people..

Criticality- The analysis of carnival and the creation of a critically aware society, through the development of cultural studies programme in schools.

Creating an Aware Society- Creating the concious spaces through proper urban design projects that can stimulate and educate.

later for know.