Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius >> Caribbean Cultural ... - CARIBARTS

January 2003 Issue No. 5
caribarts
>> Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius >> Caribbean Cultural Perseverance
>> Shaggy’s Luck runs out >> Reggae inna Germoney
>> Reviews >> Call for Submissions
>> Arts and Culture Directory >> Arts Diary

Page 2
Preserving and Promoting Caribbean Arts & Culture

CONTENTS
January 2003
NEWS
4 Pat Cumper’s ‘Key Game’ play stages the story of three Jamaican men in prison
in the UK; Bob Marley, an analysis of his lyrical genius now between bound
covers thanks to the investigative work of renowned author and poet
Kwame Dawes.
MUSIC
5. Reggae Inna Germany, Rainer Bratfisch chronicles his country’s love and affair
with the sounds, images and culture of the Jamaican music.
7. POINT. OF. VIEW
Cuban Literary critic Emilio Jorge Rodriquez serves up the food for thought on
Caribbean Movement and Cultural Perseverance, in this issue.
MUSIC
9. Shaggy, Reggae’s current ambassador runs out of luck with his latest CD and
music reviewer Marlon James says why.
CARIBARTS OPPORTUNITIES
10. Find a call for submission, fellowship or contest that’s simply right for you.
Check our listings.
CARIBARTS WEB DIRECTORY
11. Your guide to interesting Caribbean arts and culture websites.
12. CARIBARTS DO/GO/SEE EVENT CALENDAR
What’s going on in Caribbean arts and culture for January 2003.
EDITORIAL
Caribarts news is starting off the New Year with a cover featuring the work of Trinidadian
artist Shalini Seereeram. This type of cover is our first, as we change our look a
little to reflect a more magazine look and feel. It’s a process, an evolution that we hope
you truly enjoy.
Coming up this year – Carifesta XIII is scheduled for August 25-30, and we’ll bring you
previews on festival preparations. The festival will be hosted by Surinam, and was officially
launched last October. If you’re involved with your territory’s contributions to
the festival, drop us a line and let us know about it.
So as usual, we with each issue we’ll be informing you with our arts and culture news,
engage you in some culture talk, serve up some opportunity info and help you set your
agenda for the next month or so. Special issues in the works for this year include a
March issue on Caribbean women in the arts, as well as issues focussing on individual
disciplines, so stay in touch with us and spread the word too.
Happy New Year!
Marina Taitt
Publisher
“..I’d rather
be unpopular
than
shallow..”
Cherry Natural
Poet, Philosopher
Publisher
Marina Taitt
Editor
Ingrid Riley
Cover Art
Shalini Seereeram
Caribarts
Publishing Credits
Caribarts Logo
Robert “Kibo” Thompson
Getcaughtmedia.com
Photos
VP records
MorganHeritagefamily.com
ShaggyOnline.com
Contributing Writers
Emilio Jorge Roderiquez,,Rainer Bratfisch,
Marlon James
Address (Barbados)
“Reynan” Annex,
St Mathias Road
Hasting, Christchurch
Barbados, W.I.
Address (Jamaica)
2 Seymour Avenue, Suite 8b
Seymour Park, Kingston 10
Jamaica, W.I.
Phone
(246) 431-9616 (Barbados)
(876) 978-0814 (Jamaica)
Email: caribartsnews@caribarts.org
Page 3

caribarts NEWS
THEATRE
Pat Cumper’s ‘Key Game’ Plays out to good reviews on British stage
I’m really proud of this
play...mostly
because of the use of
language ... I worked
very hard to make it
both poetic and dramatically
effective in
terms of conveying
character and plot
efficiently but also because
in writing four
male characters all of
them with mental illness
of one sort or another.
I was delighted that no
one questioned the end
results.
Pat Cumper
Key Game’s Playwright
Reviewed and described as a “captivating
and suitably in-depth analysis of Bob’s poetry
“Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius, written
by renowned author Kwame Dawes, acknowledges
and illuminates “the fierce
intellectualness, spirit and spirituality” of
the Reggae musician and philosopher,
which he argues, underscores and affords
Marley, “the same academic-type respect
more usually confined to the likes of Bob
Dylan, John Lennon and Lou Reed .”
Without question, as a creator, inspirer
and motivator, Bob Marley is one of the
most influential and political performers of
the 20th century. His influence can be
heard in the songs of artists as diverse as
Carly Simon, Wyclef Jean, Alicia Keys and
international remixer Funkstar Deluxe.
In Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius, renowned
poet and scholar Kwame Dawes analyses
in detail what Marley's verses and lyrics
mean, when matched against the climate
Page 4
Norman is the nurse on ward 11 of a metal hospital
in Jamaica where the patients are gradually being
discharged into the community because the site is
wanted for a swanky new harbourside development.
Every morning he plays a game with his charges: he
dangles the keys to the locked door in front of each
of them. If they can grab the keys they have their
freedom.
The patients never win the game, but in any case it
is lonely, caring Norman, who has never got over an
unsuccessful attempt to forge a new life in England
and has been deserted by his grasping wife, who is
the real prisoner.
On the one hand, Pat Cumper's play is an
overfamiliar drama that is formulaic in its
construction and in the kind of stories that it tells;
on the other hand, it tells those stories so vividly
that the audience lives them too, particularly in the
lives of old, damaged Gonzales who gazes longingly
through the barred window at the sea as if in search
BOOKS
Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius
Kwame Dawes analyses the potent lyrics of a global cultural icon
of his dead wife. Or young Dappo, whose
family sent for him from England when he was
nine - but he discovered a mother who was a
stranger to him and an abusive, violent stepfather.
This is not a sophisticated play but it deserves to
be taken seriously in the development of black
drama. The performances also
demonstrate the extraordinary breadth and
depth of black acting talent in this country: Marc
Matthews is immensely moving as the shuffling,
squint-eyed Gonzales and Sylvano Clarke shows
the vulnerability as well as the pent-up rage of
Dappo. As the secretive, educated, obsessivecompulsive
Shakespeare, Kevin Harvey gives a
superbly controlled performance. Jim Findley is
memorable as Norman, a man who wants to free
others but who chooses to throw away the key
to his own life and sits amid the rubble as the
bulldozers close in.
Reprinted from the Guardian’s site www.guardian.co.uk
of the time and what it meant to be a
blackman in a world still struggling with
integration.
The quintessential folk poet of the developing
world, Bob Marley influenced generations
of musicians and writers
throughout the Western hemisphere. He
was a performer who held true to his
religious and cultural heritage, yet is still
awarded the status of global rock star.
Accomplished writer and poet Kwame
Dawes, achieves what is the first in-depth
analysis of the artist's lyrics, investigating
how they helped shape the culture and
beliefs of a generation across the globe.
With excerpts from his songbook and
poetry, Bob Marley: Lyrical Genius is the
single reference any fan will need to understand
the message of the man. Published
by British publisher Sanctuary Publishing,
it is available in paperback and has
368 pages.

MUSIC
REGGAE INNA GERMONEY
By Rainer Bratfisch
Mellow Mark, born in Bayreuth in
Bavaria, every year the meeting
point for the fans of the classic German
composer Richard Wagner,
played at the age of 15 his kind of
“samba reggae rap” on the streets
of Hamburg, wearing dreadlocks.
The website www.freedom-ofspeech.info,
hosted by him, is as
popular as his first EP with the hit
“Revolution”. His message: “The rich
are getting richer, the poor are getting
poorer. Hard times a-comin’
for many of us, too. We need more
soul and humanity in Germany and
more justice in the whole world.”
But revolting is for him “more than
Che Guevara on t-shirts, Guarana in
soft drinks, marijuana and weblinks
as well as dreadlocks and rap posings”.
In “Revolution” he sings: “Let
us stand up and raise our clenched
fists, our emotion is our ammunition,
our religion is the rebellion,
our position is the soul revolution.”
Jan Delay, another young German
Reggae singer, dedicated one of his
songs to the “Sons of Stammheim”,
the prison, in which some members
of the ultra left wing Red Army
Fraction, who tried in the seventies
to fight the “Babylon system”, have
been jailed. Revolution inna Germoney?
Not today and not tomorrow
and not after tomorrow, and
there’s still a big gap between the
words of the German dance hall
and their ambitions and possibilities
to change the society they are living
in. But even if their passion for
revolution is only an attitude – their
passion for Jamaica is real. Most of
German reggae and dance hall singers
and bands make their recordings
in Jamaica, and they are proud to
share the feelings and the political
correctness of their idols in the
homeland of reggae.
Mutabaruka
“Jamaica makes me feel happy”, Jan
Delay sings on his first record.
Reggae and Dancehall in Germany
have the same ranking as in the US,
Canada and Great Britain. There’s a
very lively club scene in the bigger
towns like Hamburg, Berlin or Cologne,
there are specialized record
stores and mail orders where you can
get all the newest stuff from Jamaica,
there are a lot of open air festivals
mainly in the summer season, with
international stars. There are some
really good German sound systems
like Silly Walks Movement in Hamburg,
Concrete Jungle in Berlin,
Soundquake in Detmold and Pow
Pow Movement in Cologne, the latter
even took part in the year 2000 at
the World Clash in Brooklyn. Especially
popular at the moment are
Seeed, a reggae big band from Berlin
which reminds one, with its mixture
of old school reggae, Jamai-
can ska, dance hall and hip
hop, a little bit of The
Wailers, The Skatalites or
Israel Vibration in their younger days,
and Gentleman, a guy from Cologne
who attracted some 15 000 people at
the Kwanzah Festival in Kingston a
few years ago. Some people call him
Germany’s Dance Hall Deejay No. 1.
His first album was recorded in the
legendary Mixing Lab Studio in Kingston
with Redrose and producer
Richie Stephens, and for his second
album “Journey To Jah” he worked –
among others - with Jamaicans like
Bounty Killer, Morgan Heritage,
Luciano & Mikey General, Junior
Kelly, Capleton and Jack Radics.
Of course the language of these
German reggae stars is German, but
they mix it with English and Patois,
and some of them, like Chicken
George from Cologne or Hans Soellner
from Munich even use strange
German dialects like Cologne and
Bavarian to express their ideas and to
spread their vibrations. Reggae at the
Octoberfest? Not now. But there’s a
big reggae and dance hall craze among
young people coming from rap and
hip hop. The borderlines are falling,
and the very popular slam poetry has
some of its roots in the dub poetry of
Mutabaruka and Linton Kwesi Johnson.
Of course today there is a danger
of mixing too many styles together
into a quite indifferent so
called “world music”, but cultural
globalization shouldn’t lead to uniformizing.
All the mentioned German
stars respect the “inventors” of reggae,
ska and dance hall styles and pay
their tribute as much and as often as
they can.
Since last year we have had a quarterly
magazine dedicated to reggae
and dance hall called “Riddim”.
“..even if their passion for revolution is only an
attitude—their passion for Jamaica is real.”
Some smaller German record labels
are specialized in reggae, dancehall
and ska, and some Jamaicans visiting
Germany said they’ve found here records
they never heard of in the
homeland of reggae. Hey, you reggae
lovers of the world: If you come to
Germany one day, check it out! I’m
sure you’ll like it.
Rainer Bratfisch published his book
“Reggae-Lexikon”, an encyclopedia of
reggae music, in 1999. Now he’s working
on the second enlarged edition. If you can
help him with biographies or photos, please
contact: Rainer Bratfisch, Schoenhauser
Allee 52a, 10437 Berlin, Germany, Tel./Fax
+49 30
Page 5

caribarts NEWS
BOOKS
George Lamming’s book greenlighted for CXC use
The Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC),
headquartered in Barbados, has recommended
Conversations II - Western Education and the
Caribbean Intellectual by George Lamming for its
study program.
Dr. Lucy Steward, the CXC registrar, stated to
Lasana M. Sekou, House of Nehesi's projects director,
that Conversations II was "reviewed by
the Social Studies panel and recommended as a
reference text for teachers only for Section A of
the syllabus." House of Nehesi Publishers, released
the book of scholarly essays on history,
education and Caribbean social development in
1995 and reprinted it in 2000. The book has also
been reference and required reading at UWI and
other universities in the Caribbean and the USA.
Conversations II is the first book published in
St. Martin to be recommended reading for the
highly appraised CXC. High school seniors in
most of the region's countries and territories
must meet the CXC regimen of tests as a graduation
requirement. A number of high schools in St.
Martin and Saba also follow the CXC testing regime.
Sekou added that, "The CXC cannon of reference
and required texts should also include critical
literatures from each country and territory
MUSIC
Trinis make home for alternative Caribbean music
Sensing the need for a louder voice and more prominent
space for non-traditional local Caribbean music, Elspeth
Duncan and Corey Wallace in association with Trinidad
Theatre Workshop (TTW), have created a local home base
for it called INDIGENOUS CDs.
Knowing that till the opening of INDIGENOUS CDs, there
had been no “single location where such music is housed
collectively (for sale or otherwise) and treated with the
importance that it deserves,” Trinidadians can now get a
range of CDs including new age, experimental electronica,
spoken word, acoustic, rock, alternative, original fusions,
pop, jazz and more ... all with a homegrown twist.
Additionally, INDIGENOUS CDs will stage bi-monthly concerts
featuring the artistes whose CDs are housed for sale at
TTW.
Page 6
where the tests are administered. This would help
to avoid maintaining or repeating the old history of
domination and discrimination between colonial
metropole and colony and the absurdity of the 'big
island-small island' mentality. More importantly,
when students and teachers can experience the
widest range of our literatures, it will be a conscious
enhancement of Caribbean integration and
progress through knowledge, based on how we
voice and illustrate our individual and collective
realities."
Newspaper publisher and Caribbean literature
expert Fabian A. Badejo said that the CXC recommendation
of Lamming's Conversation II is "an
achievement for House of Nehesi in it 20th anniversary
year; for St. Martin, for Dr. Lamming, for
enhancing the services and possibilities that the
small publishing outfit offers to new and seasoned
authors, and for publishing in the Caribbean." A
significant number of the CXC reading list titles
are thought to be still published outside of the
region.
Conversations II, with an introduction by the
Hon. Rex Nettleford, received much critical acclaim
in St. Martin, Trinidad, Barbados and Jamaica
and from leading journals such as World Literature
Today and The Caribbean Writer.
MUSIC
Steeling Pan on CD
Steel Orchestras in a Panyard Anthology
The musical stories told by rhythmic Trinidadian steel orchestras
is the focus of a new two CD set called – A Panyard
Anthology. The collection has award-winning bands
and also ranks the tracks and their owners based on the
judged results of Trinidad’s annual Panorama steel band
competition.The track lists also offers the rank of each Steel
band as judged at Panorama, Trinidad’s premier annual steel
band competition.
Included on the compilation is the Neal & Massy Trinidad All
Stars who won first place at Panoram and performs with the
song Fire Storm. The Redemption Sound Setters playsMusic
for the Soul on the CD and is the band that won 4th places
at Panorama.

POINT. OF. VIEW
Please permit me to use the tourist for
an initial improvisation: a tourist is essentially
a traveller, and there is nothing
that resembles a traveller more than a
Caribbean person. Or, to put it correctly,
throughout the course of history,
Caribbean people have been travelling
entities par excellence. Travellers by
conviction and/or ambition, like the
Europeans that came to the island coasts
and the Terra Firma with other travellers
that were moving from the Orinoco
Basin to the extreme West of the island
arc; forced travellers, like the Africans
who were transplanted from their native
land; and the many other travellers that
have meandered over here from the
most contrasting locations -Asia, the
Middle East, driven by economic, political,
cultural reasons, which altogether,
have made Caribbean men and women
into beings that are radically linked to
their historical, ethnic and cultural background,
but transplanted to other lands.
That is one of the reasons why the people
who live or have lived in the Caribbean,
move and transmit with their bodies,
a significant part of their native culture
- by beating drums, by images,
rhythm, sound and voice--in the interest
of safeguarding what belongs to them
ancestrally. In referring to the African
slaves, Fernando Ortiz stated: "The Negroes
brought with their bodies their
spirits, but not their institutions, nor
their instrument."
Ours are therefore, to a large extent,
cultures of survival, resistance, and persistence/perseverance.
As a result, several
valuable expressions arise out of the
lack of resources or with poverty in
terms of technical resources; but I want
to make it clear that a culture of poverty
is not the same as cultural poverty: here
the order of factors changes the product.
As a culture of transplanted travellers,
on many occasions, they have arrived
- and continue to arrive - via ports.
More than four decades ago, that great
CARIBBEAN MOVEMENT AND CULTURAL PERSEVERANCE
Caribbean writer, Alejo Carpentier, in
describing the sonority of the steel
bands in Barbados, postulated the existence
of a "port"1 folklore in the Caribbean
since over the centuries, most
countries have shared a history of maritime
trade and exchange, and the flows
and interaction of cultures have come
about to a large extent, through this
channel. Not only have musical instruments
of extraordinary sound been fabricated
from oil drums found in the
ports, but in Haiti, they have served to
create a rich tradition of iron craftwork,
which some specialists have named
"voodoo ironworks".
In addition, many of the intra-
Caribbean commonalities come to us
from the marine dialogue exchanged
between the islands and the Terra
Firma: that triangle of Fleets with movement
in the Gulf, between Santiago de
Cuba, Cartagena and Veracruz, which
has softened the rhythm of the seemingly
Afro-Andalusian intonation
(although, there is increasing support
for the notion that this is also a semi-
Creole feature stemming from contact
or cultural fusion with Haitian migrants,
at least in Cuba) and produced popular
festivals and related musical complexes
and instruments.
By involving trans human cultures,
men and women that are perpetually in
transit (this is one of the qualifiers that I
prefer to use when discussing the Caribbean),
travellers from Europe, Asia, Africa
and North America, always discover
an element with which they can
relate, in the midst of other elements
that are apparently exotic to them. In
the last century, the most visible movement
was toward the former colonial
and political metropolises, which are
and will always be extremely attractive
from the economic perspective. But the
Caribbean people, faithful to their essential
transience and in their quest for
a new economic Paradise,
by Emilio Jorge Rodriquez
have carried to these places, their lost
cultural Paradise, which is transformed
into salsa music, the recalling of the
oral tradition, performance, handicraft,
"botanicals", Carnival, consultations
with babalaos (priests in the
Orisha faith) on the Internet; because
the Caribbean people are not forgetful
individuals, but rather, they carry with
them, with their bodies, their spirit.
I must confess that I believe that
we Cubans are not accustomed to
being Caribbean; for some I think it
becomes troublesome, creates a certain
uneasiness or discomfort. Words
and names like Jonkonou, Crop'over,
Rastafari, Obeah, Voodoo, Viejo (in
Spanish, the name given to the Haitian
migrant settling in Cuba, returning to
the neighbouring island), legalised servants,
negritude, pantomime, Marcus
Garvey, Aimé Césaire, Derek Walcott,
Wilson Harris, Louise Bennett,
George Lamming, Kamau Brathwaite,
Moriso Lewo, have all become rare
words and names, despite the fact that
they represent common legacies that
serve as other communicating vessels
with Cuban culture, while for many
inhabitants or visitors from other Caribbean
territories, words like santeria,
son and rumba, form part of channels
for spiritual contact, and names like
José Martí, Alejo Carpentier, Nicolás
Guillén and Eliseo Diego have been
included in the secondary school curriculum
for several decades in English
speaking territories.
Linguistic isolation or real ignorance
has given rise to a situation
where, even though Cuban business
ventures are developed with Caribbean
names or last names, (or they
actually use the word "Caribbean"
since it seems more chic or, as the
man in the street would say "from
outside"), cont’d on pg 8 >>
Page 7

DISCUSS
CARIBBEAN MOVEMENT AND CULTURAL PERSEVERANCE
By Emilio Jorge Roderiquez
>> we still do not genuinely consider
ourselves as being inserted into the Caribbean,
and this is evident in expressions
(perhaps they constitute lapsus menti)
such as "link us to the Caribbean region",
"connect us with the Caribbean",
"introduce us into the Caribbean", which
simply and clearly indicate a sense of not
belonging to, or not psychologically identifying
with the rest of the region.
For years, Pablo Milanés spoke to us in
his verses saying: "I love this island, I am
Caribbean". Art represented a pulse of
the future and a recapturing of history.
We are now in a position to continue
that communication through culture, to
produce an opening for the Caribbean
identity in Cuba, since that lack of communication
has not always been there.
Recently completed was a century of
prodigious Caribbean confederative political
projects that motivated the work
of Jose Martí, the Puerto Rican Betances
(who signed his articles as "El Antillano",
in English "The Caribbean Man") and
Hostos, the Haitian Firmin and the Dominican
Luperón. These unified projects
formed part of a Caribbean culture of
resistance/persistence.
A glowing literary work of solidarity
was undertaken around the time of the
Cuban fight for independence, which
was also a fight for the Puerto Ricans. It
would be an arduous task to mention all
the intellectuals of the region who were
strongly committed to this Caribbean
ideal. Authors like the international
Puerto Rican fighter Francisco Gonzalo
Marín dedicated not only his poems but
also his life, dying in Turiguanó with a
rifle in his hand. René Bonneville in Martinique,
at the same time as the events in
the Cuban forest, wrote the novel entitled
La Virgen Cubana in 1897, and decades
later, Jamaican Walter Adolphe
Roberts published the historic novel La
Estrella Solitaria. Cuban history has been
so venerated and remains ever present
in the collective Caribbean,
Page 8
sub conscience that up to today, the
Haitian-American writer Edwidge
Danticat (the author of widely published
texts and one of the most recent
discoveries in Caribbean literature
in the diaspora) in her novel The
Farming of Bones, published at the
end of 1998, creates a character that
recalls the battles of Caney and la
Loma de San Juan.
A beautiful exchange of a profession
of Caribbean faith was developed
regarding migrations from other Caribbean
territories to Cuba. This is
evident in the poem "Donde Cuba" by
Elis Juliana from Curacao and also in
fragments of the novels written by
Frank Martinus. Haitian-Cuban relations
produce texts in both directions.
Such Cuban references can be
very old: in the last quarter of the
18th century, Manuel Justo Rubalcava
details this island movement in one of
his compositions, in which he makes
mention of his participation as a
young man, -- as a cadet in the military,
a career that he later abandoned
- in Spain's battle against the French in
Haiti.
Cuban writers have also included
in their work, various facets of migrations
between Haiti and Cuba. The
novel Vía Crucis by Emilio Bacardí
(1910, 1914) is a saga of the descendants
of a French coffee plantation
family located in the outskirts of
Santiago de Cuba since 1803, originally
from Haiti. Appearing in two
volumes are the transformations generated
in the eastern part of the
country by the presence of the immigrants
from the neighbouring island,
the customs, festivals and traditions,
of masters and slaves alike, as well as
reciprocal influences and the gradual
process of their incorporation into
the society that embraced them,
which leads the grandchildren of
those early immigrants to assume the
the fight for Cuban independence.
More useful in terms of presence and
subject, is the second migration of Haitians
in the mid 20th century, involving
labourers. Among the first texts addressing
this issue are the stories of
Marcos Antilla (1932), set in the sugar
refinery where Luis Felipe Rodríguez
creates a protagonist professing a Caribbean
and Latin American faith, through
the lyrical display of his narrations. In
Écue-Yamba-Ó (1933), Alejo Carpentier
shows the Babel of Caribbean islands
participating in the sugar cane harvest.
On the other side of the Windward
Passage, writers echoed the life of Haitians
settled in Cuba, from the novel
Viejo (1935) by Maurice Casseus, to
Gouverneurs de la Rosée (1944) by
Jacques Roumain and L'espace d'un Cillement
(1959) by Jacques-Stéphen Alexis,
who a few years later, left East Cuba to
fight the Duvalier dictatorship and was
assassinated by the tontons macoutes.The
renowned works of Nicolás
Guillén and Alejo Carpentier bear witness
to a Caribbean passion with no
boundaries. They are the most experienced
in deciphering the Caribbean being
from a Cuban perspective.
But not everything has been learned
culture, because in our territories, as
proclaimed by Guyanese Gordon
Rohlehr "the collective catharsis has
always been as important as individual
silence". Over the decades, that movement
of bodies devoted to Cuban
rhythms has imposed guidelines -- not
exclusive, but transcendental-in Caribbean
staves, since it arrived with the
power of radio, reaching incalculable
island and continental Caribbean borders.
In those cases where they failed to reach
the distant radio stations of Bogotá or
the few stations along the Central
American coasts, Los Matamoros, Benny
More, la Sonora Matancera or the
Aragón orchestra were heard. I am still
indebted to a Haitian colleague of mine

MUSIC REVIEW
SHAGGY’S LUCK RUNS OUT
By Marlon James
It’s no fun being
a flavour of the
month when
your audience
finds something
new to suck.
Case in point,
Shaggy's latest
album which
has been pretty much dissed by everybody
including people who haven't even
heard it. The charts, arguably the only
court in which he should be judged, hasn't
been much kinder. In fact Lucky
Day's sales has been as bad as a black
man in a Nazi gift shop. But does it suck?
Yes and no. Lucky Day is not atrocious,
despicable or even bad. It's just boring.
For Prince that's a misstep. For Shaggy,
it's a catastrophe.
The people who bought Hot Shot, (not
the people who took it to platinum but
the 11 million after that) rarely buy the
same artiste twice. This year they
bought Ashanti and Eminem and Now
That's What I Call Music Vol. Whatever.
Actually, according to industry figures
they weren't buying records at all, they
were all watching Scooby Doo. So
what's a superstar to do? Make a bid for
the hardcore audience? That doesn't
always work, just ask Marky Mark.
Shaggy had no choice but to make lightning
strike twice. In this he's uniquely
qualified, having made it strike three
times before. But not this time.
The problem is evident as soon as you
press play. It Wasn't Me's secret weapon
was Rik Rok who sang the hook as if his
life depended on it. Shaggy supplied
charm, but not much else. Maybe comments
that it was Rik Rok's song bristled
him, because no singer overshadows him
on Lucky Day. Not even a firehouse like
Chaka Chan, who coos meaninglessly on
Get My Party On, a song that I would
accuse of ripping of De la Soul's It Ain't
All Good if I thought Shaggy knew De la
Soul.
Shake Shake Shake bounces like anything
off Hot Shot, but it's missing something.
Hookie Jookie is better, hitting
that midway between dancehall and pop
that only he seems to have figured out.
But it's still short of something. It's not
until the atrocious Strength Of A Woman
that it becomes obvious. The record has
no humour. Shaggy's appeal was that he
offset outrageous sexiness with goofiness.
But don't let titles like Hookie Jookie fool
you. He's started to listen to his critics.
Look, Shaggy, we don't want records of
good taste we want records that taste
good.
This sudden thirst to be trendy results in
misfires like Hey Sexy Lady. If Lou Bega can
mambo why shouldn't Shaggy tango? Well,
I'm only going to say this once. Only three
men in the universe can pull this type of
song off. One of them is a skinny purple
midget given to high heel shoes and name
changes. The other two are busy being
members of Outkast. Mere mortals like
Shaggy should not, repeat, should not try
this at home. And so the album goes.
With none of the sexual crassness, or the
shameless hooks, the record staggers like
wounded animal to, of all things, respectability.
From the so earnest, it's hilarious
Strength of A Woman, the record slides into
a funk which it never rises out of. Lost, a
mournful diatribe about rejected children
ultimately goes nowhere. And God is going
to give the Angel of Death a shotgun for
the people responsible for Give Thanks.
All of this would have been forgiven if
Shaggy didn't sound as if he mailed the
vocals in. An uncommonly nimble deejay,
Shaggy succeeded where Buju failed in
nailing the essence of dancehall in whatever
you threw at him, even a pop song.
But on tracks like Strange Love he sounds
like he's merely along for the ride. The
rest sound like he's still on the same bus.
Maybe he's just pushing himself. Nothing
wrong with that, but Shaggy is cursed to
be the type of artiste from whom we will
always want the same thing. And he is legendary
for pulling himself out of slumps
just when you're about to count him out.
There's no question that he will pull himself
out of this one, but next time, he's
going to need a lot more than luck. MJ
Point. Of. View.
>> hummed to me "Caminito a la ciudad
yo voy/ a buscar a mi guajira" (To
the city I go/to meet my Cuban peasant
girl) reminiscent of his younger years in
Haiti, and he asked me for the original
version of that song. So, the consumers
of Cuban culture are not only in
Europe, but also right here amidst our
Caribbean people.
It has been often repeated that we
Latin Americans are more committed
to understanding the universal culture
than the Europeans are, since we have
inherited European as well as autochthonous
American cultures. It would
therefore be worthwhile to insist that
we Caribbean people (and Latin Americans
alike) have more obligations, given
that this part of the World has been
the primary meeting place of ancestral
and moving cultures in the world,
which makes it more difficult - who
knows, maybe even impossible - to
achieve globalisation of the Caribbean
people, who maintain their persistent
and indelible "banana stain" as the
Puerto Ricans would say. That intimate
intra-Caribbean knowledge is an
essential revelation these days; and it is
therefore urgent to have exchange,
fraternity, co-operation and the eventual
integration of publishers, the development
of publications emerging from
our Caribbean perspective, with their
typical cultural perseverance (dedicated
to the rest of the Caribbean people or
to tourists from exotic places), in addition
to the rescue from that perennial
movement that constitutes the essence
of the definition for Caribbean entities
wherever they may be. And we recall
that according to the Dictionary of the
Royal Academy of the Spanish Language,
the second definition of move is
"to move things from one place to another",
but the first indicates that it
means: "to disturb, to mix", an indispensable
condition of this geographic
and cultural region, to which we ethnically
and historically belong.
Emilio Jorge Rodriquez is a Cuban
writer, researcher and literary critic.
Page 9

OPPORTUNITIES
THEATRE. The Reichhold Center for the
Arts, University of the Virgin Islands
www.reichholdcenter.com is always looking
for acts to present via its Repertory Theatre
located in St Thomas, USVI. In the past we
have presented: Bello & Blacka (J¹ca); The
National Dance Theater of Jamaica; Witukubuli
Dance Co. (D¹ca); Voices (M/rat); Sing
De Chorus, Rawle Gibbon¹s wonderful musical
(T¹dad) and more. The Reichhold Center
just launched its 2002-2003 24 th season.
THEATRE. Play writing Contest.
As one of the plans for their 25th Anniversary
season, Reichhold will be staging a Caribbean
playwright¹s contest. The winning play
will receive a full professional production with
the author to receive 5-10 percent of ticket
sales as royalties. More on this. later.
www.reichholdcenter.com
DOCUMENTARY FILM. Hot Docs,
North America’s largest documentary
festival, is pleased to announce its 2003
festival dates. Hot Docs 10th annual
edition will take place from April 25 to
May 4, 2003 in Toronto, Canada.
Documentary submissions for the festival’s
CANADIAN SPECTRUM,
INTERNATIONAL SHOWCASE,
CYBERDOCS, NATIONAL SPOTLIGHT
and “REALKIDS, REALTEENS”
programmes will be accepted on or before
December 13, 2002. A final selection of
approximately 120 documentaries will be
presented in the festival’s 10th anniversary
year. More info at www.hotdocs.ca
WRITING.
After a critically successful launch, SABLE
Litmag is expanding its content to include
memoirs, travel narratives, readers reviews,
workshop/retreat reviews, essays
and more. The magazine, whose main aim
is to showcase new creative work by writers
of colour, is seeking contributions to
its forthcoming issues. Whether you write
poetry, fiction, non-fiction or simply just
enjoy reading, Sable offers a section that
you can submit work to. We are urgently
seeking submissions for issue 3 and 4
although contributions to Sable is ongoing.
Page 10
FICTION
We will dedicate at least six pages to each
writer featured to publish some of their best
pieces along with a photo, biography and any
other images that illustrate their work. Send
either a short story(ies) or novel extract
between 4000-5550 words and your reason for
writing.
POETRY
We will dedicate at least six pages to each
writer featured to publish some of their best
pieces along with a photo, biography and any
other images that illustrate their work. We'd
also like you to tell us, what makes you write,
and how/where you source your ideas. Send up
to 15 poems (no less than 10 pages, no more
than 15 pages), biography and your 'reason for
writing'.
MEMOIRS
Memoirs of home, family, or country. Childhood
memories, coming of age, change of life.
Complete pieces or excerpts. Stimulating, exciting,
informative, experimental. Any or all of
these are welcome within your piece. Word
length: 3-5000 words.
IN TRANSLATION
All veteran and budding translators, or writers
who produce work in more their native language
and in English, (fiction or poetry) should
send translations and other information including
a brief write up on author and translator.
For translators, what qualities attracted you to
the work. We will dedicate at least six pages to
each writer featured to publish some of their
best pieces along with a photo, biography and
any other images that illustrate their work.
TRAVEL NARRATIVES
There are no boundaries in terms of places or
style. Complete pieces or excerpts. Stimulating,
exciting, informative, experimental. Any or all
of these are welcome within your piece Word
length:3-5000 words.
ESSAYS
We are looking for contributions on any historical
or contemporary aspect of literature.
The work should reflect original thought of
work by writers of colour. It can be a piece of
deconstruction, post-structuralism, postmodernism,
feminism, post-colonialism (or a
combination of these and other theoretical
frameworks) and the themes, at the moment,
are broad - madness, writing the body, machismo,
etc. Length:3,000 words.
There are also submissions categories for Expressions,
Classic Review. Spoken Word and
Reviews.
Send submissions to” sablesubs@hotmail.com :
Kadija Sesay, SABLE, SAKS Publications, PO
Box 33504, London, E9 7YE, England or SABLE,
Submissions, Competitions, Grants, Scholarships
Opportunity
follows
Struggle.
It follows effort.
It follows hard
work. It doesn’t
come before.
Shelby Steele
1991
PLACE YOUR AD. To place a
Caribarts Opportunities AD for
Competitions, Call for Submissions,
Grants and Scholarships US$25 for 1
issue
Email us: caribartsnews@caribarts.org
Call us : (876) 978-0814. (Jamaica)

WEB DIRECTORY
ARTISTS MUSIC
WRITERS
Art Professionals— www.art.com.jm
Alexander Cooper–
www.alexandercooper.com
Alison Hinds - www.alison-hinds.com
Ashe Ensemble - www.ashe-jm.com
Antonio Roberts—www.antonioroberts.com
Barrington Watson -
www.barringtonwatson.com
Corrie Scott - http://mysite.freeserve.com/
corrieart
Callaloo Company - http://www.callaloo.co.tt
Colin F- www.colin-f.com
Nadine Cheng—www.nadines.freeyellow.com
Graham Davis—www.davispaintings.com
David Rudder - http://www.davidrudder.co.tt
Hortence Brouwn - www.brouwn.com -
Jonna Brasch – www.jonnabrasch.com
Guy Harvey—www.guyharveyart.com
Mighty Sparrow - www.mightysparrow.com
Peter Minshall - http://minshall.wow.net
Bands
3 Canal in Trinidad - www.3canal.co.tt
Barbarossa Band - www.barbarossaintl.com
Krosfyah - www.krosfyah.com
Harts band - www.hartscarnival.com
Poison band - www.poison.co.tt
Renegades - www.renegades.co.tt.
Square 1 - www.square1-music.com
Mile High Band—www.milehighband.com
Melody Makers—www.melodymakers.com
Third World - www.thirdworldband.com
Soul Case—www.soulcase.com
Sukiyaki steel orchestra- http://
sukiyaki.wow.net
Gallery Sites
Amos Art Studio - amosart@ibl.bm
Artcuba - www.artcuba.com
Art Cubana – www.artcubana.com
Art Latin – www.artlatin.com
Arts&Craft Guyana –
www.artscraftguyana.com
Clear View Art Gallery –
otrott@northrock.bm
Cayman Isl. Nat’l Museum - www.museum.ky
Easy Jammin Art www.easyjamminart.com
Harmony Hall – www.harmonyhall.com
Gallery Gia—www.gallerygia.com
Michael Swan Gallery - www.michaelswan.com
Savannah Gallery - http://savannah.ai
Simiya—www.simiya.com
Wassi Art—www.wassiart.com
Windjammer Gallery – wgallery@ibl.bm
Afro Mix—www.afromix.com
Afro Cuba Web—
www.afrocubaweb.com
Bob Marley— www.bobmarley.com
Caribbean Music Expo -
www.cme.com.jm
Caribbean Pulse –
www.caribbeanpulse.com
Rituals Music - www.rituals.com
Icerecords – www.icerecords.com
JW Records - www.jwrecords.com
Reggae Hall of Fame
www.reggae-hallofame.com
Reggae Train—www.reggaetrain.com
Music Festivals
Ocho Rios Jazz Festival
www.ochoriosjazz.com
St Lucia Jazz Festival -
www.stluciajazz.com
Summerfest –
www.reggaesummerfest.com
World Creole Music Festival
www.dominica.dm
World Carnivals - www.carnaval.com
Organisations
Barbados Arts Council
http://mysite.freeserve.com/BACNews
National Drama Association of Trinidad
http://drama.wow.net/
Caribbean Contemporary Arts
http://www.caribbean-arts.com
Performance Spaces
Reichhold Center -
www.reichholdcenter.com
Performance Artists
Ashe Performing Arts Ensemble
www.ashe-jm.com
Theatre
Trinidad Theatre Workshop
www.opus.co.tt/ttw/
Stage One Theatre Group
www.angelfire.com/va/stageone
Visual Artists
Hortence Brouwn - www.brouwn.com
Joanna Brasch – www.jonnabrasch.com
Corrie Scott - http://
mysite.freeserve.com/corrieart
Interesting Caribbean Arts and Culture websites
Kamau Brathwaite
http://personal.ecu.edu/deenas/caribbean/
brathwaite.htm
Michelle Cliff
http://www.personal.ecu.edu/deenas/
caribbean/Michelle%20Cliff.htm
Edwidge Danticat
http://personal.ecu.edu/deenas/caribbean/
danticat.htm
Jamaica Kincaid
http://personal.ecu.edu/deenas/caribbean/
kincaid.htm
G. Cabrera Infante
http://personal.ecu.edu/deenas/caribbean/
infante.htm
C.L.R James
http://www.clrjamesinstitute.org/
Earl Lovelace
http://www.personal.ecu.edu/deenas/
caribbean/Earl%20Lovelace.htm
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
http://personal.ecu.edu/deenas/caribbean/
marquez.htm
V.S. Naipaul
http://personal.ecu.edu/deenas/caribbean/
naipaul.htm
Roger Mais
http://personal.ecu.edu/deenas/caribbean/
mais.htm
Orlando Patterson
http://www.personal.ecu.edu/deenas/
caribbean/Orlando%20Patterson.htm
Jean Rhys
http://personal.ecu.edu/deenas/caribbean/
rhys.htm
Olive Senior
http://personal.ecu.edu/deenas/caribbean/
senior.htm
Andrew Salkey
http://www.personal.ecu.edu/deenas/
caribbean/Andrew%20Salkey.htm
Derek Walcott
http://personal.ecu.edu/deenas/caribbean/
walcott.htm
SEND YOUR DIRECTORY LINKS TO
CARIBARTSNEWS@CARIBARTS.ORG
Page 11

What: Carnival Project II
Where: Caribbean Contemporary Arts Centre,
Hernandez Industrial Estate,
Eastern Main Road, Trinidad.
When: January 4 – March 1, 2003
Contact mail@cca7.org; http://cca7.org
What: Bermuda Festival 2003 – a showcase for
top performers from a wide variety of artis
tic disciplines, including the Philadelphia
Dance Company, the Aquila Theatre
Company, Sweet Honey in the Rock,
Arturo Sandoval, and more. Includes a
‘festival fringe’ with local performing artists.
Where: City Hall, Hamilton, Bermuda.
When: January & February, 2003
Contact: Bermuda Festivals Ltd.,
tele. (441) 295-7403, or go to
www.bermudaentertainment.com.
What: Art exhibition featuring Frane Lessac
Where: Harmony Hall gallery, Antigua
When: January 2003
Contact: Tele (268) 460-4120
What: Barbados Jazz Festival. This year the
festival features Patti LaBelle, Freddy Cole,
Spyro Gyra, Regina Belle, Marcus Miller,
CeCe Winans and others.
Where: Several venues in Barbados
When: January 13-19 2003
Contact: www.barbadosjazzfestival.com
What: BluesFest 2003. Performers this year I
nclude Roberta Flack and Oleta Adams.
Where: Buccama Bay, St. Vincent
When: February 1 & 2, 2003
Contact: Ministry of Tourism, tele (784) 457-1502.
Tickets are $100.
What: Annual National Exhibition 2003
Where: National Gallery of Jamaica, Kingston,
Jamaica
When: Ongoing until February 2003
Contact: Tele (876) 922-1561; 922-1563-4;
ngalleryja@cwjamaica.com
What: Little Theatre Movement National
Pantomime 2003
Where: Ward Theatre and Little Theatre,
Kingston, Jamaica
When: Ongoing until April 2003
Contact: Tele (876) 922-6129; 906-4959;
bertent1@n5.com.jm
DO/GO/SEE EVENTS CALENDAR
What: Accompong Maroon Festival 2003
Where: Accompong, St. Elizabeth, Jamaica
When: January 2003
Contact: Kenneth Watson or Ava Simpson,
tele (876) 952-4546
What: Air Jamaica Jazz & Blues Festival
Where: Wyndham Three Palms, Wyndham Rose
Hall, Montego Bay, Jamaica
When: January 30 – February 1, 2003
Contact: www.airjamaica.com
What: Carnival and Tumba Festival
Where: Aruba and Curacao
When: January-February 2003
What: Kaleidoscope, silk paintings by
Deborah Younglao-Baynes
Where: Queen’s park gallery, Barbados
When: Sunday January 19, 2003
What:: "Dawg Bite Muh". Theatre production;
comedy; produced by Laff-it-off Productions.
Where: Daphne Joseh Hackett Theatre, Bridgetown,
Barbados.
When: Running now until mid-March. 8 pm.
Info: Tickets $25.
What: A Gallery Warming
Where: The Gallery Rooms at The Coach House,
Payne's Bay, St James, January 16th in The
When: Thursday, January 16 th , 6pm - 8pm.
Description: Gallery Warming and showing of the art
work of Heather-Dawn Scott, Margaret
Rodriguez, Jo Robinson, Sarah Venable,
Donella Phillips, Lisa Cole and Corrie Scott.
What: Christmas Masquerade Exhibition
Where: Museum of Antigua & Barbuda
When: January 2003
Contact: Museum of Antigua & Barbuda,
Tele (268) 462-1469
SEND YOUR EVENT INFO TO
CARIBARTSNEWS@CARIBARTS.ORG
Page 12