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.

  

JOUVAY AYITI, A Carnival Project by the DCFA, UWI

Jouvay Ayiti (Haiti New Day),

A project by the DCFA, UWI.

12 February 2011.

I was asked by the DCFA, to conceptualize a costume design for their jouvay Ayiti Project, for this carnival season. Below is my conceptual thoughts and instruction on functionality of the object.

THE HEAD BANGER PIECE. A DANCE OF DEFIANCE.

Conceptual Thought- When I think of Haiti, there is a long sadness drawn from a lack of activity politically and socially by Caricom, my own country and an international community that has played a role in Haiti’s turmoil. But as I grew and learned of Haiti’s inner soul, I learned of a resilience, a defiance of a culture to lay down and sleep, you learned of the metal drum art, the music festivals, the textile makers, the artists...you learned of an ingenuity to live.

There was a philosophy being implemented through the art school movements. This philosophy implanted their culture into the imagination of the world. Be it misunderstood or not their cultural product is at the tip of world attempts at understanding them. 

The head or body piece is a natural extension of the body, reaching for “that”, that makes us resilient, makes us a people, to continue in the dignity that they and we should all be, this continuation of the us is the re-embracing of our traditional craft making techniques, such as wire bending, weaving and dancing within the modernity of know.

1.      The Frame – can be built using wooden strips that will give it a flexibility in move of the body.

2.      Fabric-The Body piece will be knitted with coloured fabric. If cost factors are a concern twine can be used or strips of coloured cloth found.

3.      The Bells- the bell will be installed on the body piece, at 52”/4=13” interval on the body piece, with the bells on spikes at the top on individual spike that emanate from the body piece.

4.      The Dance- This should be a traditional dance of Haiti, that can be give modern over tones as we will be speak of tradition operating within a modernity and surviving because of adaptation.

CONCEPTUALIZATION.

GETTING THERE.

THE PERFORMANCE/DANCE OF DEFIANCE.

MEASUREMENTS

THE COLOURS.

THE IDEA OF HEIGHT, REACHING THERE TO SOMEWHERE.

THE SPIKES

THE DANCE

THE FLAG OF POWER

ANOTHER KIND OF MOVEMENT, METAL ART.

THE LETTER FROM DCFA.

The Launch of the National Registry of Artists and Cultural Workers & 2nd Symposium- "Towards a Multiculturism Policy": A Focus on the Creative Arts

Benjai, yeah, dey love him

 SWAMPIER, SWAMPIE, SWAMPIEING.

Margret Gordon, Fashion and Education.

DE SECTOR.

 CULTURE REPRESENT.

De Same dam Ting.

Blurr the Talk, De man say it is de Ministry dat hav de problem. Yeah

The Symposium bag, Yuh Mus hav Dat. Yuh know de pad, de pencil, de brochure.

De Stage, de Screen, it Over?

People

De Question Time. Shastri had to tell dem he aint no Dr. man. Is that, yet.

TEXTILE.

REPOSITIONING DE FRAME

DEN, THERE WAS FOOD.

DAT, DEY IS WE BUEHLA.

GET FAT.

DEY HAD CAMERAS FOR LIKE DAT.

HE WOK INIT, ITIN.

READ

HE SAY, MULTICULTURALISM DEAD. I SAY DAT TO.

LISTEN

HEAR WE, WHA GO HAPPEN TO ALL DEM LYRICS, DAT WENT DOWN?

VEL LEWIS



Ministry of The Arts and Multiculturalism.

The Launch of the National Registry of Artists and Cultural Workers & 2^nd Symposium.

“Towards a Multiculturalism Policy: A focus on the Creative Arts.

Friday the 4^th February 2011, Crowne Plaza Hotel.

Mondiacult 82 agreement on culture, UNESCO- Culture gives man the ability to reflect apoun himself “their selves”, it is through culture that man “people” expresses themselves, becoming aware of them, recognizes his “their” incompleteness, question his “their” own achievements, seeks untiringly for new meaning and creates works through which he transcend their limitation. (Mexico).

1.      A cultural policy after all is a state apparatus to understand culture for the betterment of that regimes sustenance and longevity in the power structure of a society. Let’s not fool ourselves.

2.      Artist- live and work in an atmosphere of being blacklisted, be it imagines or not. There exist a politicization of our cultural institutions and forbid you run afoul of them, you are placed into a hole of animated suspension. This has created a culture of mediocrity and partisan artists “eating ah food”.

3.      Education- within our cultural industry there lack the intellectual understanding and imagination of culture and it’s wide ranging meaning for us to contribute to our society in REAL terms and to the development of a democratic, evolved, creative social space.

Developing the Artists- there lack a certain intellectual understanding in our artists, due to our outdated education system. This was stated at the recent Innovation Panchayat, held at the Centre for Excellence by the minister Mary King. We must look at our education system and implement a clear understanding of Ethics, Morality, History, Sociology and Philosophy.

There are examples of how poor cultural management and lack of education on how art and design projects should operate within our urban and rural landscape, has led to the bastardization of the arts and created wasteful projects-

The Oval Gallery,

The Waterfront Gallery,

Recently installed Brian Lara statue.

4.      A Cultural Policy- should in the end allow for the expression of the outsider groups to be heard. A Multicultural Policy is nothing more than an apartheid system of separate but equal. In all the 13 or T.V stations, Gayelle is the only one that have a diverse representation of our society. Far less for the myriads of radio stations, galleries, the one Museum, books etc. There must be support for the 60/40 call by ACTT.

5.      The National Museum and Art Gallery- A cultural policy must empower the National Museum and Art Gallery to foster debate and develop that critical thinking that will inevitably contribute to our innovation. The fast food policy, where shows are pelt up then down and disappears, of our Museum must be scraped, we must be able to contemplate its programmes, discuss openly and critically, that we can have an articulated and well grounded artists community that’s not bogged down in cynicism.

6.      Economics of Art and Design- Due to this lack of education I don’t really believe that our business sector understands how artists can contribute to the development of a truly innovative industry, which after oil and gas is the next viable direction. From cocoa to chocolates, from wood to design, from metal to style, from ideas to product.   

In the end our Cultural Policy should allow for critical thinking, innovation and debate to flourish amongst our artist and our people. It has been my experience that we lack an understanding of the arts, when I say that I’m an artist, or sculptor or Installation Artists. I get this puzzled look from the educated, well travelled middle class not necessarily from the working class, but that’s for another floor.

The middle class ignorance and their position as technocrats and bureaucrats make me unintelligible to their limited understanding of how art should operate in our society and you’re suddenly dismissed to the underground where a lot of us do our work. Many well meaning projects are lost in journals and left in studios and in the minds of really cool artist.   

This was presented to the Ministry and was taken by the rappatuers.  

The question lies in what will come of this. Due date to Parliament I was told in hush tones is APRIL.........We will have to see, if they will publish the "THEIR"/OUR concerns.

DEN DEY WAS DE BARRON, SWEET YEAH FOR SO.

IN ALL AH NICE TRY, BY DE MINISTRY OF ARTS AND MULITCULTURISM. LIKE VEL LEWIS SAY -

"WE DON'T SEE ANYONE HERE AS A TROUBLE MAKER"

LATER.