Students of the Georgetown District showcased their talent and knowledge of Guyanese culture during their performances yesterday at the Children’s Mashramani Competition: Dramatic Poetry and Calypso segment.
Just one day after the competition opened at the National Cultural Centre where more than 20 primary schools took the stage to perform in the Dance and Masquerade segment, schools across the city once again delivered powerful performances, this time in the form of poems and calypso songs that spoke about current affairs in the nation. The competition which had two segments, dramatic poetry and calypso, started yesterday morning at 10.00 am. The first half of the competition saw performances by students of ages ranging from five to seven years old who competed against each other in dramatic poetry and calypso, while students, eight to ten years old competed against each other in the same categories mentioned. Mean-while the second half of the show had students from ages 11-13 compete against each other and 14-18 category followed.
The dramatic poetry segment was opened with a thrilling performance by Ebony Sampson, a student from St. Stephen’s primary school competing in the age 5-7 category and the poem she performed was titled “Saw My Teacher on a Saturday”. Following her were performances by Andrew Narine of St Anne’s Primary with his poem entitled “Prestigious Oil out of Blessed Soil”, Kenisha Lynch of Green Acres Primary with a poem titled “On Behalf of All Children”, Richard Colly-more of North Georgetown Primary with a poem called “From the Janitors”, and lastly St Margaret’s Primary with a poem called “Look wah we goin’ through, ‘teachers cry’” performed by Kamea Harding. There were also calypso performances by North Georgetown Pri-mary and Graham’s Hall Primary.
Next were the competitors in the category ages 8-10, with performances by Ketley Primary, Enterprise Primary, St Gabriel’s Primary, North Georgetown Primary, St Agnes Primary, St Sidwell’s Primary, St Margaret’s Primary and finally Smith Memorial Primary with their performance of “Yah Can’t Beat That” performed by Ashanti Gordon. In the same category, were calypso performances by students from North Georgetown Primary, St Angela’s Primary, Rama Krishna Primary and West Ruimveldt Primary.
After lunch, the younger children left the Cultural Centre as the category for the older children started. Students from ages 11 to 18 delivered performances that not only tackled national issues but also appealed to the audience, which mostly consisted of students in that age range and their teachers.
Such performances were delivered by Darren McPhoy of Charlestown Secondary, who greeted the audience while being decked out in a colourful head dress as he performed “Fantastic Future”, a poem which joked about students not having to go to school because Guyana has oil now. There were also performances by students from Tucville Secondary, Kingston Secondary, Ketley Primary, St Joseph’s High School, St Margaret’s Primary, St John’s College, Freeburg Secondary, Bel Air Primary, Valmiki College for Business and Technology, Ascension Secondary, North Ruimveldt Secondary, Tutorial High, West Ruimveldt Secondary and Morgan Learning Centre. Other schools which participated in either of the categories according to their age were St Gabriel’s Primary, W\East Ruimveldt Secondary, South Ruimveldt Secondary, St George’s High, St Stanislaus College, St Barnabas Special School, Cummings Lodge Secondary, New Campbellville Secondary, Queenstown Secondary and Sophia Special School.
Schools were awarded trophies for their performances in their respective categories at the end of the competition.
