This month’s listening picks from the Caribbean — featuring reviews by Nigel Campbell of new music by Nessa Preppy; Jimmy October; Sabrina Francis; and Teddyson John Nessa Preppy Little Miss Arima (self-released) Nessa Preppy, a chameleon among soca’s leading ladies, presents a new album that encompasses new music, with enough tunes to extend the currency …
Let’s get festive! Could parading or “rushing” through the streets of The Bahamas be the best possible start to the New Year? Junkanoo (1 January) begins in the cool darkness — from approximately 2am — with traditional, percussive music (cowbells, horns, whistles, and goatskin drums) echoing through the streets as masqueraders dance (some with high-spirited …
Event buzz (Jan/Feb 2025) | Caribbean Beat Magazine Leia mais »
It’s the start of a new year, and a great time to plan your sweet escapes over the next 12 months. Whether you’re planning a quick weekend getaway, a week of relaxation, or something longer, Antigua & Barbuda have got just what you need … Every tourist guide will tell you there are 365 distinct …
“There was more than one way to be lost. More than one way to be saved. While my mother had saved me from the waves and gave me breath, my father had tried to save me only by suffocation. With ever increasing strictures, with incense smoke, with fire. Both had wanted better for me, but …
Often, you read stories of Caribbean artists who have lived and studied abroad, and are in North America or Europe developing their craft, exhibiting and lecturing in celebrated art galleries and universities. Alcina Nolley, meanwhile, was born in 1940 in Buffalo, New York, to a father of St Lucian heritage and a mother with St …
On 22 July last year, Anette Thomas-Sanford made history as the first woman elected Chief of Dominica’s Kalinago Territory. I catch up with her beneath the karbet at the Kalinago Barana Auté cultural site in Crayfish River, one of the eight hamlets of the 1,580-hectare semi-autonomous region on Dominica’s rugged east coast. She looks elegant, …
Anette Thomas-Sanford — Kalinago queen | Snapshot Leia mais »
“Idi kwik!” says the storyteller. (Then you, the reader, must take on the responsibility of being the audience. You respond, “kwak”.) And so, the story can begin. The written word is not the traditional format for this type of Caribbean storytelling, but here we must make do. Kwik-kwak, as it is known in French Creole …
Raymond Travis Weekes: kwik, kwak, catharsis | Backstory Leia mais »
This month’s reading picks from the Caribbean, with reviews by Shivanee Ramlochan of Palmyra by Karen Barrow; Resistance, Refuge, Revival: The Indigenous Kalinagos of Dominica by Lennox Honychurch; The House of Plain Truth by Donna Hemans; and West of West Indian by Linzey Corridon Palmyra by Karen Barrow (Friesen Press, 330 pp, ISBN 9781039195813) Lush …
Gian Franco talks to Caroline Taylor about the exciting new Carnival Catwalk series that premieres in January 1. What inspired Carnival Catwalk? Carnival Catwalk was inspired by the vibrant and artistic traditions of Trinidad & Tobago Carnival, the birthplace of Caribbean carnival. It seeks to merge this exuberant cultural celebration with the high-stakes world of …
A few years ago, a St Lucian — recognising me as a Trinidadian in her island — jokingly said to me, “You Trinis like to party a lot” … to which I responded, “We invent fete!” That cute little declaration — with some assonance to boot — was, to me, a simple fact of Caribbean …