datebook
If you’re in . . . GUYANA
ST VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES
Soleil: St Lucia Summer Festival
Timehri Film Festival
Maroon Festival
31 May to 4 June Moray House, Georgetown, and other locations timehrifilmfestival.com
Three days before or after the full moon in June Ashton and Clifton, Union Island discoversvg.com
Sample the talent on and behind the big screen in one of the Caribbean’s most nature-rich countries. Now in its second year, the Timehri Film Festival — named for Guyana’s indigenous rock paintings — draws work from Guyanese and Caribbean filmmakers, including the diaspora. The line-up includes feature films and documentaries that not only highlight the Guyanese landscape, history, and culture, but also incorporate elements of nearby Trinidad and Tobago’s Green Screen environmental film festival. “Many of the great films being made in the Caribbean aren’t being seen by Guyanese audiences,” says TFF director Romola Lucas. Consequently, Lucas’s team created the festival to fill
It’s said that if you keep the ancestors in mind, they will bless you throughout time. And on Union Island in the Grenadines, keeping the spirit of the Maroon ancestors alive is at the centre of this annual festival. “Maroon” is a
12 May to 29 October Venues around St Lucia stlucia.org
programme of six different festivals. It begins on Mother’s Day weekend, 12 to 14 May, as the iconic Jazz Festival raises the temperature with a programme starring local, Caribbean, and international artistes. Trinidadian kaiso king David Rudder and American pan maestro Andy Narell kick things off, alongside performances by singer and actress Vanessa Williams, the Malavoi creole jazz band from Martinique, and Cuban Latin jazz artiste Richard Bona. After you tap to the jazz, you can groove at the soul station at the Roots and Soul Festival from 16 to18 June; pump and wine at St Lucia Carnival from 14 to18 July; indulge your tastebuds at the Food and Rum Festival, 24 to 27 August; then top up in the freedom of sound at the Country and Blues Festival from 15 to 17 September. The cool-down session comes on 28 and 29 October, at the Arts and Heritage Festival. As St Lucian soca star Teddyson John sings, “Come on everybody, allez, allez, allez, allez!” 18
WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM
courtesy timehri film festival
courtesy st lucia summer festival
For decades, St Lucia Jazz has been one of the major music events in the Caribbean, running for ten to fourteen days in May. But why should the fun stop there? In 2017, St Lucia’s answer is a brand-new summer
that void and encourage the growth of film as an artform in Guyana. Expanding to work with the Green Screen Festival is more than just a talk-shop partnership. “With climate change already impacting us, all communities must become better informed, and empowered, to make decisions about their future,” says Green Screen founder Carver Bacchus. Unity towards film arts and a healthier environment aims to strike a balance as we see ourselves, our culture and experiences, on the cinema screen.
Pawel Kazmierczak/shutterstock.com
ST LUCIA
form of giving thanks, and the festival is held to pray for rain with hopes of starting the planting season. It’s also a practice of acknowledging the forefathers through harvest rituals transported from West Africa and continued down the generations. During the day, Union Island residents sacrifice food as an offering, cooked using a heating base of three big rocks and firewood. And at night, traditional African dances are expressed through choreography known as the Big Drum Dance. It includes the distinctive Nation, Bongay, Cheerup, Calendar, Alleh, and Ladderis dances. Shakes of the maracas, songs in patois, and chants reminiscent of all ancestors like the Yoruba and Congo boost the drumming. Some traditions fade with time, while others are here to stay. Listen for the blowing of the conch shell. This signals the beginning. Event previews by Shelly-Ann Inniss