Arts on Sunday

The Call of the River Nun    I hear your call!

It is bacchanal season.  It is the official season of carnival in Trinidad (and in Rio, Brazil), and the unofficial season of Mashramani in Guyana.

For Me – The Back-Yard Play your Carnival, play your masque, Dance with your Country Club set, Hop, jump at your midnight fete; For these things I’ll never ask – Take them all and leave for me The back-yard scene at dusk: The haze of blue wood-smoke, Morning mist amid mango leaves And the nancy-story fantasies That the cries of kiskadees From long, long ago evoke.

Last week we commented on the huge popularity of stand-up comedy on the Guyanese stage, and the way it sells tickets over and above all else in the local theatre.

The curtains closed on the theatre stage in Guyana for 2017 with the annual comedy show c, produced by Lyndon Jones and Maria Benschop.

Today, around the streets of Georgetown, small, straggly groups of youths dressed in motley costumes can be seen prancing about, almost to the rhythms of two or three lazy-looking drummers who stand at the side of the road.

At lunchtime on December 18, 1989, AJ Seymour (AJS) phoned to ask me if I would be very kind and pass for him that afternoon to take him to the Guyana Prize Awards Ceremony at the Cultural Centre.

Much tribute is being paid to Martin Wylde Carter (1927 – 1997) around this time, and with very good reason.

Arabesque It is very peaceful here With the white clouds drifting And the palm trees lifting Graceful arms to fan the air.

Quiet’s Event                                 I The mountains slowly emerge out of mist and cloud This is the epitome of quiet’s event when the sun warm and filled with distant barking of dogs rises inevitably into the mind rises into the world and exists beyond abstraction beyond any attempt to ignore its objective presence, so that we feel eternally alive.

Guyana’s National Drama Festival (NDF) 2017 has now reached the stage where nominations have been made for the various awards and prizes in the different categories.

The National Drama Festival (NDF) is now in progress at the National Cultural Centre. 

It was recently announced that Guyanese-British singer, songwriter, musician and producer Eddy Grant has released a new album titled ‘Plaisance’.

Creative Writing in Guyana has a long history, though the formal and certified training in it is very short.

They Came in Ships   They came in ships From far across the seas Britain, colonising the East in India Transporting her chains from Chota Nagpur and the Ganges plain.

Albion Wilds                   Dear Solitude!                   Where peace and concord dwell,                 Whose smiling beauties quell                 The soul’s inquietude.

Popular literature is an important and substantial study. It is a genre whose international impact is astounding.

At this time in Trinidad and Tobago the festival of Ramlila (called Ramleela there) is very widely celebrated.

How can anyone forget the magic of that childhood realm called  “on the way home from school…”?

A very significant factor in Carifesta is literature. A meaningful study of this regional cultural festival is a lengthy and complex undertaking that will require many revisits, including its treatment and representation of the region’s literature.