Intellectually, emotionally, we realize
they have value
What would our
lives be like
Without music,
rhythm and lyrics
dance,
La Margarite’, Jounen Kwéyòl,
Where is Ananse’ these days?
Land Ship, Tuk Bands…
Spoken Word, Calypso
Both social commentaries- mirrors using words.
Paintings, graphic arts,
Architecture, design and crafts,
Jewelry, clothing…food
Pencil, pen, charcoal…
I could go on and on.
The medium and genre do not matter
They are expressions of our heritage,
The outward manifestations
of human souls
A one way communication
between the artist/performer/author
And their viewer, audience, customer.
Expression of the spirit
Which can carry a myriad of multiple meanings
Depending on the recipient’s soul and the time in which they reside.
It is metaphor.
It is passion.
It is love, loss, and society’s ills.
It is the voice raised against an injustice
The appreciation for a glimpse of God’s work
It is movement and emotion and all those intangible things
Which make a society
Free.
To an artist, there are two roads
To allow these visions to take shape
Since what we see, hear, conceive of….
Perform
Will only be exactly this way, once.
Art is static and influenced by everything around us, within us
And the first and best road is to give our pieces birth….
To express them and create them,
To let them flow forth.
The other option
To ignore them, see them in our minds
yet let them die there
is often one of economic choice,
a sad reality
more akin to abortion than
any one else may understand
and in the Caribbean,
where there is so much talent –
not just sun and sand…
these economic hardships are too often
the message sent.
We have waited for recognition
Private sector or Government support
Without the will to fund it,
programmes have to cut short
Or the message is influenced
For a sponsor or a theme…
to please the pocket
Which has paid, instead of getting
The artists’ true intent.
So the arts are “supported”
Through annual showcases and awards,
But these don’t pay for our daily bread
so often we have “day jobs”
And when artists are supported to be creating,
they are somewhere working
Or too tired to do it today….
Art is not just one a year,
When it is festival time again
Culture doesn’t coincide
With the calendar my dears.
We need to pay our bills too,
every day, just like you.
Artists want to live
with the gifts that God has blessed them
The struggling artist is a myth
We are better when well paid.
Aren’t you?
So, if artists cannot depend
On government subsidies…….
Grants are non-existent for us,
since we have no factories;
then I conceive of Creative Support
Generated
Perpetuated
And propagated
by the artists themselves.
In each of the islands the problem is the same…
The local population
Treats the artists there with shame
Whether through ignorance
Or the fact
That
familiarity breeds contempt
The local art and cultural forms
Are struggling at best
So let us come together
Regional integration in the arts
Reach out our hands to others
Send our artists to the other islands.
Why not use the internet
Collaborate on Skype
Develop a programme
where we all come together online
work together in each country
Exhibit, promote, perform
Together
Let the Bajans introduce the Trini’s work
The Jamaicans big up the Lucians….
Create a vibrant something new
Where all ah we can thrive
A regional development group
We can do it for ourselves
Work with tourism
Teach them too
people don’t come from foreign
to the Caribbean Isles
Because they want to hear
Country and Western
Played at their hotel on Friday nights
The want to experience our culture
And not just the wuk up kind
As long as we are professional
World Class being the key
(Nothing in our cultures
Should be about mediocrity).
All around the globe
Culture is recognized
As a building block
Of society
And a growing potential
For economic development.
Cultures are cherished
Protected and shared
People travel from all over
To partake of special fares
Instead of our looking to replicate
what we see and hear
being main stream importers
of another country’s
culture and values
Obsessions with the material,
And the chemically processed
Instead of being
Natural, like some of your’s hair….
We will be focused
On exporting our own
bands, styles, wears….
Cultural innovators
Building on our own histories.
It’s time to change
Adopt a new paradigm
Close ranks
Support each other
Use the available technology,
Methods of success
For our own reward
Brainstorm, lift up
Transfer stories of what works
Sell shares
And Franchise it in each country.
Become evolutionary
Cultural practitioners and
train the youth from young
To appreciate
The region’s creations
See the value in each other’s cultures
And what to cherish in our own
Before the radios over whelm them
With the sounds from far afield.
Bridge the gaps
Left by politicians
Whose chief concerns
Are re-election.
CSME won’t happen for the arts
on the Government Hills
If we de people
Don’t have de will,
Don’t believe that
We as a region
Have enough talent to be a force….
To have a voice
and contribute to our GDP’s
earn that foreign exchange;
which is, at the end of the day,
How the sector’s value will be measured
When elected officials
Have their say
So in order to get a budget line
Let’s shake them up, wake dem up
And get them to notice
Starving artists we won’t be
And that doesn’t mean that we agree
To sell out
To the bright lights in the North
Cable TV and consumerism.
Let’s create our own programming
And export we own
Culture – Professionally.
If Fox News can play here,
Surely our Cable shows can be played there.
New paradigms are improvements
Quantum leaps from the old
It doesn’t require
Transforming into
What we are not
Just breaking
The existing mold.
KF
2011-06-18
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