bring together to be pro-active, as well as engage with many things that are still very taboo in the Anglophone Caribbean, like sexuality. NH: It was Suriname for me as well. I think it was probably the most humbling experience of them all. Being on the continent and experiencing the vastness of the natural surroundings was pretty overwhelming. I found it really interesting that in Paramaribo (closer to the coast) everything felt very familiar, like being on a Caribbean island, but as we travelled further inland it transformed into something else, a culture completely unfamiliar to me. Also, the youth we interviewed seemed to have a really thorough understanding of their roles in their various fields and in their society. They seemed really focused and unapologetic about who they were, and I really admired that. LH: Do you think projects like this one will encourage similar projects or initiatives? HB: I hope so, I really hope so. I think it all comes down to organisations and initiatives that want to support such projects. To have it levelled and competitive, you would need to go into other CARICOM countries and do similar work. So, if we are able to convince them that it’s needed, then yes. However, I know the budget, I know the numbers and I know it probably will not happen until the new fiscal year or until they get new funding. But I think it is easily something that will encourage more youth to explore their potential, to understand that they are not alone, to combat that feeling of isolation, and to understand that there is someone else on a different island doing something that you want to do, these are the conditions they are working with, similar to their own, but they are doing something about it and they are changing their spaces, they are having that conversation, they are being critical, so they can also get up and do it. It’s a matter of encouraging youth who are completely disadvantaged. NH: Yes. I hope so. Of course the biggest factor was the funding. The UNDP has specific funding to dedicate to something like this. And I hope there is funding for similar projects in the future because I think it is needed, especially something geared towards younger people.
LH: I know you were impressed with all the candidates but were there any particular favourites? Or perhaps one that appealed more to your own artistic interests? Or stood out for you, in particular? NH: That’s kind of tough because everywhere we went, I felt very connected to most of the people because we kind of built up a really strong relation with them. We wanted them to be comfortable when we interviewed them, so you just kind of made yourself really vulnerable from the beginning, so we shared that with each other. One girl in particular from Jamaica [Nicole Nation] works with autistic children, and I think she was one of the most phenomenal ones for me. She is 19 years old and comes from a very poor family, a very difficult community to grow up in, with a lot of violence and she just seemed to stay really focused, she got a scholarship to study at UWI and now wants to become a doctor, it’s really incredible to meet someone that young, doing those kinds of things. It’s very difficult working with kids with special needs. She took us to one of the schools in her community and it was just incredible, that she could do that work at such a young age, be so dedicated and talk so eloquently about it. HB: Sonia Farmer, a Letterpress specialist and Poet, was really intriguing. I mean, the resurrection of a dead thing is pretty incredible. Also, Deny Rose, a HIV Educator in Suriname, is a positive candidate who has made the decision to help, whenever he can. We went with him to hand out condoms to prostitutes and sex workers, which was a really surreal experience. Also Catherine Miles, a dancer from Jamaica. It was a mixture of the location, her spirit and her craft, which transported me and blew me away! LH: What does the project tell us about the 21st century Caribbean? HB: That we are still grappling to understand what independence means to us. Coming out from colonial rule, you are left picking up the pieces of the identity, the social constructs of your country, the economic make up, and then you have to figure out how you are actually going to make it happen. The larger picture I see coming out is that we have a lot of dynamic positive youth who are walking on a very fine line, either of wanting to exceed
VOL.1 ISSUE 3
FALL 2012
83