By Kimalee Phillip, Director and Project Coordinator with Groundation Grenada
Groundation Grenada is a social action collective which focuses on the use of creative media to assess the needs of our communities, raise consciousness and act to create positive radical growth. Our mission is to provide active safe spaces to incubate new modes of resistance, building from the local to affect regional and international solidarity and change. Visit our blog at www.groundationgrenada.com
Complex. Invasive. Empowering.
Progressive. Premature end. Great.
Slavery. Military. Americans.
These are just some of the words that were used to punctuate people’s thoughts, memories and perceptions of the Grenada Revolution (1979-83) as described at the ‘Living Histories Through Art’ panel at Groundation Grenada’s Forgetting Is Not An Option series of events. Panelist and Groundation Grenada Co-Founder and Director, Malaika Brooks-Smith-Lowe asked the audience to name three things that immediately came to mind when they thought of the Grenada Revolution and the audience members had a range of answers to share, illustrating the importance of a project such as Forgetting Is Not An Option.
The words above reflect a diversity of opinions and thoughts but one common thread is the feelings and emotions they convey. Within the context of Grenada’s historical and political landscape, none of these words imply neutrality, evoking instead deep-seated reactions that may have a silencing or empowering impact.
Forgetting Is Not An Option was birthed out of discussions I had with a brilliant network of artists, feminists, organizers and academics at the historic Congress of Black Writers and Artists in Montreal, Quebec, October 2013, and ongoing conversations with Caribbean organizers over the years. Forgetting is a product of collective input, love and interest in forging relationships, engaging in various healing processes and archiving historical accounts. Surrounded by a level of historic potency and urgency that was very much present in the walls, in the air and in the bodies that made up the stimulating atmosphere of the Congress, I was constantly reminded of the need to create dangerously and to (re)tell our own complicated stories.
The Congress of Black Writers and Artists in Montreal, October 2013 is part of a tradition that goes back to the historic International Congress of Black Writers and Artists held at Sorbonne University, Paris in 1956. This Congress was initiated by Alioune Diop and included participants such as Aime Cesaire, Josephine Baker, James Baldwin, George Lamming, Frantz Fanon and Cheikh Anta Diop.
In 1968, the Congress of Black Writers was held at McGill University, the result of the radical and organizational efforts of the Caribbean Conference Committee., and saw the likes of Walter Rodney, Rocky James, Stokely Carmichael, Miriam Makeba and C.L.R. James attend and breathe life into the conversations.
It would not be until forty-five years later that the Congress of Black Writers and Artists would reconvene at McGill University from October 18-20, 2013 under the theme, “Create Dangerously” inspired by Haitian-American writer Edwidge Danticat’s Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work. This gathering proved to be an inspirational and deeply moving space of young movers and shakers, boundary-pushing academics, community-grounded activists and brilliant elders who all had a shared love for humanity and their communities. The seed for Forgetting Is Not An Option was officially planted.
Murder. Change. Not My Time.
Unknown. Caribbean. History.
Joyful Anticipation. Loss. Separation.
More than thirty years later, the Grenada Revolution continues to conjure up a range of differing emotions among Grenadians living on the island, those living in the diaspora as well as non-first generation Grenadians and the rest of the Caribbean region. Even among those who directly experienced the Revolution, there exists a spectrum of contradictory and complicated feelings and memories. In the impressions noted above, terms such as “murder”, “loss”, “joyful anticipation” and “unknown” can all occur when referencing the same historical period. This is not unique to the Grenada Revolution but common to any historical, political and cultural shift of such magnitude. It is important to note however, that considering that the Revolution occurred only thirty years ago on an island– which at that time, had a population of only roughly 80,000 people – the scope of familiarity and proximity experienced by a person definitely affects how the Revolution is currently perceived and shaped in one’s body, memories and social interactions.
Forgetting Is Not An Option is a multimedia, cultural memory project that aims to capture the diversity of feelings, emotions and memories using the Grenada Revolution as a jumping point; but which aims to include impressions around other types of revolutions and social movements. With awareness that Grenada’s revolution is linked to other radical movements and philosophies, submissions from across the Caribbean, its diasporas, Africa and the African diaspora are strongly encouraged with the deadline being October 31st, 2014 for final submissions.
The project seeks to develop and archive work about the Grenada Revolution and Caribbean radical movements. Acknowledging the need to forge our own stories, Groundation Grenada is asking that people from far and wide, but particularly Grenadians at home and abroad, participate in the project. This is a unique opportunity to actively engage in piecing together what the Revolution and other Caribbean radical movements meant and continue to mean for individuals and society at large.
This project aims to move beyond the single “hero” narrative and to recognize all of the people who have and continue to create “people’s revolutions”. In many ways, the Grenada Revolution began way before March 13, 1979 and continued beyond October 19, 1983. This project encourages participants to expand their understandings and recollections of the Revolution beyond these two historic dates and to take this into consideration when creating their work.
This project is an exploration of living histories and aims to pave new pathways of community and artistic engagement in the development of contemporary Caribbean society. Groundation has a list of artists who are more than willing to do collaborative work with others, therefore opening the possibilities for people to participate. Visual artists can have the opportunity to work closely with writers; writers can have the chance to work closely with filmmakers – the possibilities are endless!
Groundation has garnered the support of organizations such as ARC Magazine (ARC), the regional powerhouse magazine on art and culture and Schools Without Borders (SWB) – a Toronto-based charitable organization that supports community organizations with Aeroplan miles to help facilitate the successful completion of their projects.
With support from ARC and SWB, Groundation Grenada was able to host a series of events from August 14th to 17th in Grenada as part of Phase N°1 of its Forgetting Is Not An Option project. Through SWB’s program, I was able to travel to Grenada to help facilitate the events and we were able to welcome two artists-in-residence, Robin DeVogel and Rosabelle Illes from Aruba. The events included a Saracca night as the opening event, a visual arts workshop, a creative arts writing workshop, a Caribbean short-film night, a yoga session, an acoustic jam session and a hike to one of Grenada’s sulphur springs. The purpose of Phase N°1 was to create an environment that stimulated and encouraged artistic rigour and community mobilization. It facilitated the cross-pollination of ideas among seasoned and blossoming artists and community members.
Thanks to the support of the Grenada National Trust, we welcomed a diversity of participants at the historic Priory, an old colonial house in the centre of town. We were also very careful in choosing the titles, frameworks and locations of the events to capture the significance of what we were hoping to achieve – a Caribbean based on love for our people, our land and a commitment to social justice and international solidarity. Therefore the use of the term ‘saracca’ to describe the opening night was used to replace the typically used North American term, ‘potluck’. This was done to localize the event but also to give meaning to the intentions behind having a community-gathering over food and drinks to give thanks to the ancestors.
Warm. Stimulating. Creative.
Invigorating. Powerful. Blissful.
Intimate. Informative. Vibsey.
The words above were used by the Groundation Directors to describe what they thought of the Phase N°1 events. Everyone – the participants, artists-in-residence, the Priory groundskeeper Mr. Drakes, the drummers Mustafa and Motey, our parents who helped make meals for the Saracca – helped to create an atmosphere that was indeed that: warm.stimulating.creative.invigorating.powerful.blissful.intimate.informative.vibsey;and for this, we give thanks!
Groundation Grenada’s next step for Forgetting Is Not An Option comes in the form of an open call which has a deadline of midnight, October, 31st, 2014. Participants can submit their new and existing writing, art, performance, films, interviews etc. about the Grenada Revolution and Grenada’s rich cultural memories. The goal is to create an archive and multi-layered language to discuss our histories.
The final product, which will include a virtual hub of information with the submissions, will provide educators artists, academics, students and the general public with a vast resource made up of many local, regional and international voices. Forgetting is Not An Option has the potential to directly impact the educational curricula used in schools and Groundation welcomes institutions and individuals interested in collaborating. The project encourages people to be creative in how they remember and interact with important historical milestones and how those moments, the triumphs and failures, can be used to inform future directions.
The selected works will culminate in an interactive virtual archive, which will be launched in March 2015 alongside a series of exhibitions and live events. We welcome written, visual, audio/music, performance and mixed media entries.
Many of us leading this project were not yet born during those revolutionary years but we remain committed to telling our own stories and our own truths. We hope that this project and the processes involved in seeing it come to fruition, can help encourage an intergenerational mix of people to interpret their thoughts and experiences creatively, as we help to actualize a platform to amplify their voices.
Merle Collins in her book, Angel said,
“But I wondering who really responsible? How they will find out who is really responsible? Everybody will be in trouble whether they responsible or not…..Let’s not talk about this thing, eh! Nothing anybody could do, so let’s not talk about it.” (335)
This project does not serve to become an investigative quest to find out ‘the truth’ but rather to serve as a therapeutic exercise of unearthing, giving voice to and validating our memories, lost, buried and present. We betta talk about it, there is much that we can do, so let’s [continue to] talk about it.
With love.
More information about Forgetting Is Not An Option can be found at www.forgettingisnotanoption.org
