Arts on Sunday

At the end of the great novel Lord of the Flies (1954) by William Golding, the hero, Ralph, a 12-year-old schoolboy, cries.

My Boy Lollipop                                         My boy lollipop You make my heart go giddy up You are as sweet as candy You’re my sugar dandy My boy lollipop Never ever leave me Because it would grieve me My heart told me so   I love you, I love you, I love you so But I don’t want you to know I need you, I need you, I need you so And I’ll never let you go   My boy lollipop You make my heart go giddy up You set my heart on fire You are my one desire My boy lollipop   Millie Small Today, the legacy of this music rules popular culture around the world, but especially in every corner of the Caribbean region.

Sonnet 55 Not marble, nor the gilded monuments Of princes, shall outlive this powerful rhyme; But you shall shine more bright in these contents Than unswept stone, besmear’d with sluttish time.

Drama in the time of Coronavirus is a long dark play.

Last week we began an analysis of the state of theatre in Guyana, with particular reference to how it relates to theatre elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Although Guyana has made significant advancements in drama and theatre, in some areas there has been a decline, and the country’s position in a Caribbean and international context is less than favourable.

This year’s celebration of Mashramani in Guyana was especially enhanced and accentuated because it was the Golden Jubilee of the nation as a republic.

Guyana is currently plagued by two pestilent emergencies demanding immediate and effective collective action which is imperative for the health of the nation.

World literature has never failed to provide insights into politics and the human condition. 

Sebastian                                             I remember You did supplant your brother Prospero. Antonio True.

Two of the country’s best production companies, The Theatre Company and Gems Theatre Productions provided one of the crucial components of the Republic Jubilee celebrations, the cultural factor, and in this case, theatre.

Exactly a week ago, Guyana reached the high point of its Golden Jubilee activities to mark its fiftieth year as a republic with the festival of Mashramani.

Today marks a very important date in the history of this country.

A total of 75 students from 12 schools participated in the Mae’s Mashramani Under-14 Development Chess Tournament last weekend at the Mae’s School.

Changsha Alone I stand in the autumn cold On the tip of Orange Island, The Xiang flowing northward; I see a thousand hills crimsoned through By their serried woods deep-dyed, And a hundred barges vying Over crystal blue waters.

Gitanjali 35         Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high; Where knowledge is free; Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls; Where words come out from the depth of truth; Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection; Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit; Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

To An Expatriate Friend Colour meant nothing. Anyone who wanted help, had humour or was kind was brother to you; categories of skin were foreign; you were colour blind.

Attunement of the senses                                           Who has an eye for Nature’s beauteous forms And lends an ear to trap her melody, Will see the rose a sudden scarlet brush When shyly bursting forth in dewy morn; Observe the riotous splash of colour spilled Across the palest blue of Heaven’s dome; Will harken to the noise of kneeling grass Which furious, fitful winds keep trampling o’er; Will hear the symphony of weeping skies Euphoniously played on tresses green; Will smell the dampness of the rain-scoured earth And deep inhale the fragrance of its flowers; Will taste the freshness of the laughing brook And smack the lips in sheer delight of being; Will feel a oneness with Divinity, Dynamic; indivisible; serene; All these and more perceived and understood Is proof .

The development of Guyanese literature may be studied in four periods: Pre-Colombian, before 1597; Colonial, from 1597 to the end of the nineteenth century; Modern, which includes pre-independence up to 1966; and the Post-Independence from 1966 to the present.

If music be the food of love, play on,                               Give me excess of it; that, surfeiting, The appetite may sicken, and so die.