06252021 WEEKEND

Friday, June 25, 2021

society interview art gardening history community puzzles animals

Weekend

Farewell to Roland Rose Page 11

Viva la Bella

Bahamian model lands Vogue Italia feature

pg 07

02 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, June 25, 2021

society

A sweet fondue function for wine lovers

By ALESHA CADET | Tribune Features Writer | acadet@tribunemedia.net

Photos/Donavan Mcintosh

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ou’ve heard of paint and sip parties, wine and art events, but have you ever heard of a wine and fondue experience?

Last Friday, Atlantis’ guests – both local residents and international vistors – got a chance to enhance their knowledge of wines and how to pair them with fondue, cheeses and other small bites.

The “Wine and Fondue” event, which took place at the Dragon’s Patio overlooking the resort’s marina, was hosted by Graycliff in collaboration with Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits, the largest wine and spirits distributor in the United States, and a leading distributor in the Caribbean and Latin America.

Guests got to enjoy a rich chocolate fondue, cheese bites, fresh fruit and other treats, which went perfectly with the chosen wines.

Sean Cartwright, Atlantis’ director of Food and Beverage, said their aim was to offer a unique event where guests and residents could connect while they sampled locally made cheeses and chocolates as well as fine international wines.

“Our theme was based on the amazing selection of wines presented and how well they pair with cheese and chocolate,” he said.

“This would make our third ‘Wine and Fondue’ event for the year. We used to host an event called ‘Swirl’, which was on a larger scale, and we cannot do that now. We downscaled where persons can still enjoy some wine, have some bites and be safe. We need to have some form of normalcy and that is all what we are trying to do here. I can do my work and see people have a good time, and I’m happy.”

Among the wines featured on the night was the Sangiovese, a red wine that derives its name from the Latin “sanguis Jovis”: the blood of Jupiter.

“The Sangiovese is made in the United States, so it is a bit different from what you may get in Italy,” said Mr Cartwright.

The night offered everything from the sweetest to the driest wines.

“Pair it with cheese or the chocolate and watch how the driest wine can turn sweet to you, just by what it is paired with,” said Mr Cartwright.

Looking ahead, Mr Cartwright said there are more events for wine lovers planned in the immediate future.

“Our next event will be the Wagner’s Family of Wines on July 2. Following on August 6, the (Chateau) Ste Michelle Winery will be featured,” he said.

The Tribune | Weekend | 03

Friday, June 25, 2021

Weekend

My Perfect Bahamian Weekend

Inside

Interview 4 – 5

Kyle Smith wants to change Bahamians’ attitude to wine – drinking and making – one glass at a time

Puzzles 6

Gardening 16

It’s pineapple time

An impromptu photo shoot lands a local model a spot in Vogue Italia

Art 8 - 10

A visual diary to capture the ups and downs of the pandemic, plus nine local artists partner with fast food chain for unique project Remembering the ‘Dean of Bahamian Photography’, the late Roland Rose

Literary Lives 12 – 13

The Johnsons of Delancy Street

Animals 15

Harmless slithery creatures, plus Pet of the Week

Q: Beach or sofa?

“It’s the sofa. I should love the beach more, however, the sofa is my go-to spot.”

Q: Rum, wine, Kalik or a cocktail?

“Neither. Coffee, black, with just sugar, or water.

Those are my two drinks of choice.”

Community 11

Forgotten Facts 14

Gospel artist

Q: What are you binge-watching?

“Neville Goddard, Joseph Murphy, Rev Ike and Abraham Hicks on YouTube daily.”

Cover I Robyn Damianos

Fashion 7

The conclusion of the life story of a writer who gave the world a new Black voice

Nate P

10

Q: If you could be quarantined with a celebrity who would it be?

“I would have to be honest and say Rihanna.”

Q: If you could take a COVID-free trip, where would you go and why?

“Oh, definitely it would be Eleuthera. I love that place.”

BAHAMIAN YOUNGSTERS DANCE TO THE TUNE OF CELEBRITY CHOREOGRAPHER

BY DENISE MAYCOCK Tribune Freeport Reporter dmaycock@tribunemedia.net World-renowned choreographer and professional dancer Jalen Preston, who has worked with bigname celebrities like Beyoncé and Chris Brown, conducted a free hip hop master class session for 41 youngsters in Grand Bahama on June 17.

The workshop was sponsored by the Bahamas Dance Theatre and was held at the Count Basie Square at Port Lucaya Marketplace. Mr Preston directed a two-hour session, teaching the participants the latest hip hop moves in a very interactive atmosphere.

Mr Preston, who has worked with a long list of famous celebrities, said he also is working on becoming a creative director as well.

“I’ve danced with Beyoncé, Katy Perry, Chris Brown, Janet Jackson, Nicki Minaj, Sam Smith… the list is lengthy. God has blessed me to have a lot of opportunities,” he told Tribune Weekend.

Preston said he was very happy to be in the Bahamas, sharing his talent with so many young

CHOREOGRAPHER Jalen Preston (centre) taught 41 young dancers in a Grand Bahama workshop (Photo/Denise Maycock) local dancers. He said they have also inspired him.

“It has a been blessing and I would love to come back. I had an amazing time,” he remarked. “The dancers here today were on fire. They are amazing and so talented and so hard-working. It’s that spirit, that passion, that hunger that really inspired me to go back and continue to share with my community and people.”

The San Francisco native said that dancing changed his life.

“Dance is important to me because it literally has changed and saved my life,” he said. “I think that is why it is important for young people as well. It

gives them something to focus on, a positive outlet to express themselves and to pour their frustrations, or the different trials and tribulations that we go through in life, into something constructive, and not going out and doing drugs and beating up people.”

“We are just coming from a pandemic and people are excited to dance. Dancing is universal; anyone can do it, and that’s the beauty of it. Dancing is one of the things that connects us all, from a grandma who is 98 to a two-year-old kid.”

Mr Preston was formerly a member of the “Freckled Sky” act that made it to the semi-finals of the popular “America’s Got Talent” show.

He currently judges dance competitions in the US and internationally. He also choreographs and teaches internationally for studios in Russia, China, Italy, Mexico, and Canada.

Colette Parker, of the Bahamas Dance Theatre, who is also the coach of Hype Fit the BDT competition coach, coordinated the workshop.

She was very pleased with the turnout of participants who registered for programme.

“We had about 36 persons registered, and some 41 persons turned out,” she said. “I feel blessed that Jalen Preston was able to come here and facilitate this workshop because he is a very busy man and it was very hard to get him here. We went through so many challenges, but I am so glad he came and gave his all to the students. I am happy and feel blessed because he is a big deal.”

Ms Parker said it’s important to foster the performing arts in the Bahamas – a field that can yield many career opportunities.

04 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, June 25, 2021

interview

Kyle Stubbs One glass at a time, Kyle hopes to change the perception of wine in the Bahamas – both the drinking and making of it. The young, yet seasoned, sommelier tells Cara Hunt how he came to work in this refined profession and how he believes his fellow Bahamians are ready to delve deeper into the varied and wonderful world of wine production.

The Tribune | Weekend | 05

Friday, June 25, 2021

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t present, Kyle Stubbs is a wine manager at the Bristol Wines & Spirits group of companies.

Originally, Kyle attended the then College of the Bahamas where he studied culinary arts. He then transferred to Halifax, Novia Scotia, to continue his studies in the hospitality field.

It was there that he was exposed to all of the intricacies that go into running hotels and restaurants and the art of fine dining. It is also where he was first introduced to the potential of embarking on a career as a sommelier.

A sommelier, or wine steward, is a trained and knowledgeable wine professional, normally working in fine restaurants, who specialises in all aspects of wine service as well as wine and food pairing.

Kyle explained that one of his supervisors at the hotel where he was doing his training suggested that he enter the field.

“He suggested that I explore the world of food and beverage management, and I was given an opportunity to take some additional training and work in management in one of the hotel’s restaurants,” he told Tribune Weekend.

He found the work intense, but also interesting.

In 2014, he moved from Halifax to the much larger Canadia city of Toronto, where he said, he found a new appreciation for wine and fine dining.

“I was in a big city where there was such an appreciation for fine dining and that was the first time that I really was able to rub shoulders with people in the industry who were making six-figure salaries based on their knowledge of wine and the fact that they were able to cater to affluent clients.

That was when it really sparked my interest, that this was something I could do as a career and earn a living,” he said.

Kyle worked in Toronto until 2016 when his father got sick and he returned to the Bahamas to be closer to his family.

“My mother asked me to come home and so I did. I ended up working in Bimini at the Hilton at Resorts World Bimini, so I was at least in the country and closer to her in Nassau.”

It was while working in Bimini that opportunity struck again and pointed him in a future career direction.

“My father passed away in 2018 and so I was wanting to move back to Nassau to be with my mother. It was around that same time when a representative from Bristol had come to Bimini to speak about supplying us with product.”

That meeting eventually led to a job offer and Kyle was able to relocate to Nassau where a position awaited him.

“On paper, my position is a wine division manager/resident sommelier,” he noted.

However, Kyle also performs a myriad of other functions, such as hosting wine tasting events and educating the public about wines. He also helps in the training of the wait staff.

“What I love about wine is that it is a living organism,” he said. “You can open a bottle of wine today, taste it, then seal it back up and open it

back up later and you will have a completely different taste, because of the way it will change.”

And he loves sharing his passion for wine with his fellow Bahamians.

“We have such a culture of libation in this country so that it is much easier because that appreciation is already there. My focus is to provide the education of the product to that appreciation,” he said.

He also likes to encourage people to step outside of their comfort zone and try new products.

“In the Bahamas, most women prefer a white wine, while men prefer a red.”

Therefore, he always encourages those who have tried a new wine to take a bottle to their next gathering, because word of mouth is one of the best ways that a person can increase their wine exposure.

He also encourages people to really focus on wine and food pairings for a dinner party, which will elevate the whole dining experience.

“If you are having a dinner party, you need to know your guests’ preferences Are they fixed on their preference or are they open to exposure?

And then consider your menu. Red wines typically go with red meat, spicy foods tend to go with a white wine, as do lighter meats like chicken or fish,” he said.

His personal favorite is Pinot Noir, a lighter bodied red wine, which he says pairs well with a variety of foods such as seafood and poultry.

Social media, he added, is also helping elevate wine drinking in people’s minds.

“You are seeing such a food culture on social media and from many social influencers.”

Kyle would love to see the Bahamas increase its wine production.

“You are already seeing that the potential is there. For example, look at what Julian Believe is doing with wine. And when you think about it, wine is fermented fruit and so you can make wine from any Bahamian fruit, such sea grapes, or pineapples,” he said.

He added that many of our Caribbean neighbours are already tapping into the industry.

Once the right formula is achieved, Kyle said the big challenge remains of ensuring quality, quantity and consistency, which he thinks is possible.

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K I R F E L A H W L W R B A R R K X A G Q J

06 | The Tribune | Weekend

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● The Target uses words in the main body of Chambers 21st Century Dictionary (1999 edition)

HOW many words of four letters or more can you make from the letters shown here? in making a word, each letter may be used once only. each must contain the centre letter and there must be at least one nine-letter word. no plurals.

Verb forms ending in s permitted.

TODAY’S TARGET Good 19; very good 29; excellent 38 (or more). Solution tomorrow

Yesterday’s call 0907 181 2585 Sudoku Answer for today’s target solution *Calls cost 80p per minute plus your telephone company’s network access charge.

BATTLESHIPS CRYPTIC PUZZLE Down 1 Gilbertian virtue (8) 2 It is involved with change in education (8) 3 A Roman emperor in a manner of speaking (4) 5 Not a dry subject but dictators shy from it (12) 6 Shape of eggs at first light (4) 7 Most delightful form of insect (6) 8 As a sun resort it’s capital (6) 11 Resolute due to threats perhaps (12) 15 Most airlines provide this flight (5) 16 Beat the weight (5) 18 State carriage? (8) 19 Shaken and upset (8) 21 Arranges books (6) 22 News of an explosion (6) 26 Novelist makes friends in France (4) 27 A free description of desert (4)

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Yesterday’s Cryptic Solution Across: 1 Class, 4 Time lag, 8 Moo, 9 Landscape, 10 Artiste, 11 Ovals, 13 Doubts, 15 Stupor, 18 Banjo, 19 Pickles, 21 Stepped on, 23 Ire, 24 Extorts, 25 Digit.

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The Tribune | Weekend | 07

Friday, June 25, 2021

fashion

Impromptu photo lands Bahamian model Vogue Italia feature

By JEFFARAH GIBSON | Tribune Features Writer | jgibson@tribunemedia.net

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few off-beat, fun images of former Miss Bahamas Tarea Sturrup after a professional photo shoot turned into the picture-perfect shot for international fashion magazine Vogue Italia.

Tarea, who has been focused on developing herself professionally, got the opportunity of her lifetime when she was featured in the Italian edition of the famous fashion magazine.

Numerous famous faces have graced cover of the magazine,

including the likes of Demi Moore, Rihanna and Naomi Campbell.

“I was hired for a branding shoot for a collaboration with a very cool local brand, Bahama Hand Prints, and Bahamian designer Theodore Ellyett. The photographer, Robyn Damianos, and I worked together a few times before and we had extra time to try some fun shots at the end of the shoot. We tossed some ideas around and she let me know she’d submitted to a few magazines, but I had no idea Vogue was on the list.

When I found out, I screamed,” she said.

To be featured in Vogue magazine is every model’s dream and like a rite of passage in the fashion industry.

Tarea said the feature is one accomplishment she was now unexpectedly able check off her dream to-do list.

“As a girl, I always dreamed of being in magazines and Vogue was always the top of my list. To be a part of that branch of fashion and art was a major reminder to myself that I could do anything. It’s a fun credit to have and a major boost when I’m feeling burnt out,” she told Tribune Weekend.

The shot that landed her the prestigious feature was not planned or strategic. It was uninhibited creativity that led to the impactful photo.

“There was no theme. We went with the vibe of the day and the way I was moving during the main shoot.

The clothes I wore let me be really creative with posing, so I just went for it. But of course, with a beautiful backdrop like Lyford Cay Beach, how could we go wrong?”

Gerald Rolle, founder of Choice Model Management, which manages Tarea, said being published in the magazine can open many doors for the local model.

“As being not only her agency manager but personal coach/ trainer, it always makes me very happy when I’m approached both locally and internationally with opportunities such as this for Tarea or any of my models.

So many doors internationally are opening for her after her Vogue spread and that’s what we like at Choice: to give our models international exposure and get them signed and working abroad,” he said.

Although Tarea was blessed with the Vogue opportunity and was also recently offered a modelling gig with Atlanta World of Prom to model special occasions dresses to wholesale buyers in August, she still wants to take her career one step at a time.

“I’m hoping to take my editorial career forward. As an artist, I love interesting concepts that evoke feeling. But realistically, I’m taking my modelling career a day at a time and always putting my best foot forward with every opportunity,” she said.

As Tarea juggles her day job at the Ministry of Tourism, work on her art and developing her home décor brand which she expects to launch at the end of the year, she is also looking ahead to the future and more opportunities like the amazing Vogue feature.

10 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, June 25, 2021

art

Commerce meets creativity – Nine local artists partner with fast-food chain

W

ho would have thought that “unapologetically confident” could be used effectively in the same sentence to describe both artwork and food? But that’s exactly what is happening and applies equally to the nine Bahamian artists selected to work handin-hand with KFC. KFC is using the exterior walls of its various venues as curated art space for the chosen artists to express their own unique visions and signature styles. Some of the commissioned artists are young emerging artists while others are more seasoned.

They have each worked at one of the fast-food chain’s locations scattered across New Providence and were allowed complete individual freedom to create, the only criteria being that the work highlight their experience with one of KFC’s three new sandwiches.

“KFC is excited to work with this group of talented artists providing them with a unique way to demonstrate their skills and confidence through the New Kentucky Sandwiches initiative,” said Joanne Cates, director of marketing, KFC Nassau.

“Utilising the restaurant walls as a new space for art gives KFC the opportunity to share these talents with the entire community.”

The nine chosen artists were the “Coffee Lady” Minolta Butler; the 17-year-old aspiring graphic designer Katlyn Rolle; the 18-year-old aspiring architect Tiffany Rutherford; realism artist Wedlear Eugene; ALIV’s Senior Art Director Theo McClain; graffiti artist and designer Dahar Butler; local abstract artist of Nigerian-Barbadian heritage, Deimé Ubani; veteran mural artist Allan Pachino Wallace, and airbrush pioneer Stefan Legend.

The thinking behind this new initiative is that showcasing emerging and established artists brings art into the real world - easily accessible for the general public; you shouldn’t have to go to an art gallery to see beautifully executed art.

Even though these murals depict something we all take for granted – food – and are not pieces hung in a gold frame in an art gallery, they are genuine and original fine artwork done by talented artists.

This suggests a different way forward into the future with the potential for aligning more innovative and creative methods in the land of business. More than ever in these challenging times, it is necessary to be collaborative, enterprising and forward-thinking. As the saying goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to go far, go together.”

WEDLEAR Eugene gets creative at the Robinson Road location

STEFAN Legend paints his mural at the South Beach location

KATLYN Rolle paints at the Mackey Street location

MINOLTA Butler’s mural at the Prince Charles location

The Tribune | Weekend | 11

Friday, June 25, 2021

community

A rose that will always bloom

By Diane Phillips

T

here are photographers and then there was Roland Rose.

Other photographers gave him his title, the ‘Dean of Bahamian Photography’. Some called him the ‘Master’. When he passed away on June 16 at the age of 84 from cancer, and a note went out from friend and fellow photographer Linda Huber, more than a few tears were shed amongst a circle of photographers who knew that even at their very best, it would be hard, if not impossible, to do what Roland Rose did.

He aimed his lens and captured a world.

In vivid colour for nature in and black and white for emotion, Mr Rose seized moments and froze them, preserving them for the day he would no longer be here to record them: Peanuts Taylor beating a drum so powerfully you could see it in slow motion, building momentum, then to a crescendo. You could feel the wind and water whipping from an approaching storm, barrelling down on a small vessel, or the pulsing gyrations of a Junkanooer.

Mr Rose created images so alive they told a story without words, vibrating with energy or quieted by stillness. And yet from this same man came a gentle body of work of the flora and fauna of the Bahamas unmatched by anyone who followed. The soft sand of a beach so lifelike you can feel the warm grains slip through your fingers. Flamingos marching. A two-toed sloth making its way up a tree. The sun’s waning rays casting a shadow on a beached dinghy. Yellow elder in bloom, or his favourite, the deep magenta bougainvillea that he often used to frame a subject when just a touch of colour turned image into art.

Nothing was beyond his camera’s reach. From portraiture to breaking news, Mr Rose was agile, antsy, ready and a perfectionist who demanded from others the same standards he applied to himself. But there was one incident he could not master, a tragedy that haunted him to his dying day – the burning of his official photography of the Bahamas Independence ceremony at Clifford Park in July 1973, the exploding-withpride moment when the flag of Great Britain was lowered and the Bahamian flag raised. Negatives and photos were accidentally thrown into a fire during a clean-up at the Bahamas News Bureau.

Two years before that, in 1971, and at the same Bahamas News Bureau, Mr Rose met a young and eager photographer named Wendell Cleare, who at 21, had just walked into his first job. It would be the start of a lifelong friendship between the photographers.

Mr Cleare was among those shaken by the loss of the ‘Master’. He shared these thoughts: “As a young photographer, Roland treated me as a little brother. He trained me and gave me directions in the dark room and on the field. He was always willing to teach me. He was always willing to show me and assist me with any request I had. He was

ROLAND Rose at the Central Bank of the Bahamas Gallery for the exhibition “A Rose and a Fleur: Motion & Emotion” in 2008 (Photos/Eric Rose) special to me; not only in the photography world but in life itself.”

Linda Huber (Flowers of The Bahamas, Nassau’s Historic Landmarks) also praised Mr Rose for his willingness to share, never hesitating to demonstrate the best angle, what aperture to use, judging light, speed.

Mr Rose was so Bahamian it was hard to think of him as anything but. In fact, he came to this country at the age of eight or nine from Italy when his father accepted a job as head of groundskeeping and landscape for the owner of what was then Hogg Island, now Paradise Island.

Taking pictures became such a passion, that by

the time he was 13 he traded in his most prized possession, a harmonica, for a camera.

As a teenager, he joined the Bahamas Development Board, the precursor of what is now the Ministry of Tourism, and for the next nearly seven decades chronicled the highs and lows and special moments of Bahamian life. With his wife, Barbara, and two children, he travelled the world, and though he grew up in a developing island nation, was always eager to experience something larger, newer, different. And every photographer who knew, or all but worshipped the work he produced, marvelled at how quickly he adapted to digital photopraphy and how proficient he became at using technology to enhance images effectively.

Derek Smith, another of the greats with a camera, said: “Roland was a true professional.

I met him in the early ‘70s at the Camera Club of the Bahamas, that’s when the professional photographer taught the budding photographers how to take good photographs and he became my mentor. Roland always kept up with the times with his camera equipment; he always had the best. He used Canon equipment, and I do, too. I recall in 1993, at a photographic exhibition held by six professional photographers at the Central Bank, he pulled me to the side and said, ‘You remind of me the way you take photographs.’”

To Mr Smith, that was the greatest compliment of all, for the ‘Dean of Bahamian Photography’ to say he resembled him in style.

In recent years, Mr Rose’s work appeared on The Tribune’s most colourful page, ‘Through a Rose Coloured Lens’, which ran every Friday in the Weekend section.

In our office, we worked with Roland Rose over the years on wide-ranging assignments from the gardens, animals and birds at Ardastra to official ribbon-cuttings. In 2008, I helped arrange and coordinate a photography exhibit at Central Bank showcasing the work of Fleur Melvill-Gardner and Roland Rose, both now deceased. It was called ‘A Rose and a Fleur: Motion & Emotion’ and many of the images that circulated upon news of his death came from that show. It was the least I could do for someone who, every Christmas, remembered us at DP&A, bringing us a large, framed Roland Rose photograph. They decorate nearly every wall. I gaze at a black and white picture of a closet with discarded choir robes, a few drums, and a tear rolls down one cheek.

Wendell Cleare, you were right when you said: “The photography world in the Bahamas was blessed to have Roland and you will be sorely missed. I love you, Roland.”

We all do. We always will.

12 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, June 25, 2021

Literary lives – Toni Morrison (1931 – 2019)

The Nobel laureate who gave a unique voice to the Black experience – Part II Sir Christopher Ondaatje continues to write about the American novelist, essayist, and college professor who gained worldwide recognition when she won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.

literary heritage over a life of service, or a corpus of work.”

Oprah Winfrey’s co-production of Morrison’s Beloved was released in 1998, directed by Jonathan Demme and flopped badly at the box office. It had taken 10 years to bring to the screen.

Winfrey herself played the main character Sethe, with Danny Glover as Sethe’s lover Paul D. However, her newly launched book club in 1996 chose Song of Solomon as her main selection, and then an average of 13 million viewers of Winfrey’s talk show caused sales of over 800,000 paperback copies of Morrison’s earliest novel The Bluest Eye when it was made a selection of her book club. It also enabled Morrison to reach a much broader, popular audience. In all, Winfrey selected four of Morrison’s novels over a six-year period.

In 1987, Toni Morrison published her most celebrated novel Beloved. It cemented her importance as an American author.

“Her importance as an American writer, without qualifying epithet, was certified by ‘Beloved’ in 1987. The story is based on the historical figure, Margaret Garner, a slave, who, when her escape was foiled, killed her daughter rather than have her taken back into captivity. She was prosecuted less for absconding than the destruction of property.

By this stage of her career, Morrison’s narrative technique had evolved into something akin to the fluidities of black musicians like Charlie Parker or Lester Young – an analogy confirmed by the title of her 1992 novel, ‘Jazz’” – John Sutherland Lives of the Novelists, 2011 Morrison’s novel imagines the dead baby returning as ‘a ghost, Beloved’ to haunt her mother and family. The book was a critical success and bestseller for 25 weeks. The New York Times book reviewed Michiko Kakutani wrote that the scene of the mother killing the baby was so brutal and disturbing that it appeared to warp time before and after into a single unwavering line of fate.

Despite its high praise, Beloved failed to win the prestigious National Book Award or the National Book Critics Circle Award. It triggered one of the most controversial events of her career. A group of influential black writers, among them Maya Angelou, bought advertising space protesting the injustice. Two months later Beloved won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. Oprah Winfrey’s powerful book club bought the rights and financed a later movie.

Beloved is one of three novels about love and African-American history. Jazz, the second

“Make up a story ... For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light.

Don’t tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief’s wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear’s caul.”

– Toni Morrison

TONI Morrison novel, was published in 1992. A third novel, Paradise, was published in 1997, but well before that Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993 – the first Black woman of any nationality to win the prize. The citation praised her as an author “who in novels characterised by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality.” In return, Morrison, in her acceptance speech said: “We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.”

In 1996, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected Morrison for the Jefferson Lecture, the US federal government’s highest honour for “distinguished intellectual achievement in the humanities”. She was also honoured with the 1996 National Book Foundation’s Medal of Distinguished Contribution to American Letters – awarded to a writer “who has enriched our

Morrison’s later fiction received a much more critical reception. Paradise (1998) told the story of a massacre of whites by Blacks people in 1970s’ Oklahoma. It is a much more contrived piece of writing than Beloved. But Morrison was popular enough to withstand some criticism. She explored different art forms collaborating with André Previn on the song Honey and Rue in 1992, and in Four Songs with Sylvia McNair in November 1994 at Carnegie Hall. S ­ weet Talk: Four Songs on Text and Spirits in the Well were written for Jessye Norman with music by Richard Danielpour in 1997, and with Maya Angelou and Clarissa Pinkola Estés. She also provided the text for composer Judith Weir’s woman.life. song commissioned by Carnegie Hall for Jessye Norman, which premiered in April 2000.

Morrison wrote the libretto for the new opera Margaret Garner based on the protagonist of her novel Beloved. It premiered on May 7, 2005, at the Detroit Opera House with Denyce Graves in the title role.

Love, Morrison’s first novel since Paradise (1997) came out in 2003, and she compiled a children’s book called Remember to mark the

The Tribune | Weekend | 13

Friday, June 25, 2021

fiftieth anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision in 1954 that declared racially segregated public schools to be unconstitutional.

students with writers and performing artists, encouraging them to produce works of art that were presented to the public after a semester of collaboration.

From 1997 to 2003 Morrison was an Andrew D White Professor-at-Large at Cornell University.

Two years later, in June 2005, Oxford University awarded Morrison an Honorary Doctor of Letters degree.

On November 17, 2017, Princeton University dedicated Morrison Hall (a building previously called West College) in her honour.

After she retired, Morrison wrote books for children with her younger son Slade Morrison – a painter and musician. Slade Morrison died of pancreatic cancer on December 22, 2010, aged 45.

Her novel Home (2012) – dedicated to her son – was half finished when he died.

Early in 2006, a selection of prominent writers, literary critics, and editors chose Beloved (1987)

by Morrison as the best work of fiction published in the previous 25 years – as announced in The New York Times Book Review.

Morrison received an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Rutgers University in New Brunswick in May 2011, and that same year worked with opera director Peter Sellars and Malian singer-songwriter Rokia Traomé in a new production of Desdemona – creating a new perspective on the relationship of Othello’s wife Desdemona and her African nursemaid Barbary.

The play, a mixture or words, music and song, premiered in Vienna in 2011.

“In Search of the Best: Any other outcome would have been startling, since Morrison’s novel has inserted itself into the American canon more completely than any of its potential rivals. With remarkable speed, ‘Beloved’ has, less than twenty years after its publication, become a staple of the college literary curriculum, which is to say a classic.

The triumph is commensurate with its ambition, since it was Morrison’s ambition in writing it to expand the range of classic American literature, to enter, as a living black woman, the company of dead white males like Faulkner, Melville, Hawthorne and Twain.”

– AD Scott Book Critic The New York Times

TONI Morrison with Oprah Winfrey

In August 2012, Oberlin College in Ohio became the home base of the Toni Morrison Society, dedicated to scholarly research of Morrison’s work.

In November 2006, Morrison was invited by the Louvre Museum in Paris as the second in its “Grand Invité” programme to guest-curate a month-long series of events across the arts, on the theme of “The Foreigner’s Home” about which the New York Times stated:

Morrison’s 11th and last novel, God Help the Child, was published in 2015. The book recounts the story of an executive named “Bride” in the fashion and beauty industry whose mother tormented her as a child for being dark-skinned – a childhood trauma that dogged her throughout her entire life.

“In tapping her own African-American culture, Ms. Morrison is eager to credit ‘foreigners’ with enriching the countries where they settle.”

On May 29, 2012, President Barack Obama presented Morrison with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

A Mercy, Morrison’s ninth novel, was published in 2008 and is set in the Virginia colonies of 1682.

Toni Morrison died at Montefiore Medical Centre in The Bronx, New York City, on August 5, 2019, from complications of pneumonia. She was 88 years old. A memorial was held for her on November 21, 2019 at the Cathedral of St John the Divine in the Morningside Heights neighbourhood of Manhattan in New York City. She was eulogised at this special service by Oprah Winfrey, Angela Davis, Michael Ondaatje, David Pemnick, Fran Lebowitz, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Edwidge Danticat, and the jazz saxophonist David Murray.

“‘A Mercy’ is a poetic, visionary, mesmerising tale that captures, in the cradle of our present problems and strains, the natal curse put on us back then by the Indian tribes, Africans, Dutch, Portuguese, and English competing to get their footing in the New World against a hostile landscape and the essentially tragic nature of human experience.”

– Diane Johnson Vanity Fair From 1989 until her retirement in 2006, Morrison held the Robert F Goheen Chair in the Humanities at Princeton University. However she did not regularly offer writing workshops to students after the late 1990s, earning some criticism. Instead, she conceived the Princeton Atelier programme which brought together

Morrison left an estate of $20 million dollars.

US PRESIDENT Barack Obama presents Toni Morrison with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012

• Sir Christopher Ondaatje is the author of The Last Colonial. He acknowledges that he has quoted liberally from Wikipedia; Toni Morrison: A Biography of a Nobel Prize-Winning Author (1996) by Barbara Kramer; and Toni Morrison: A Biography (2009) by Stephanie Li.

14 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, June 25, 2021

history

The Johnsons of Delancy Street

I

try to avoid the word “unique”, because in its pure meaning there can be only one of anything that is unique. Most unique is not grammatically correct, but Bosfield “Bos” Johnson was one-of-a-kind.

For most of the contents of this column, I am indebted to my former flying colleague, Sylvester Rollins and his friend Arlene Nash Ferguson.

Sylvester’s was a very personal experience: “As a boy, I attended St Francis Xavier’s Church, where I served at

early mass, every day, and escorted ‘Uncle Bossie’ to and from church (about a quarter mile each way) every morning, before walking to the Government High School. In the afternoon, he taught me mathematics and Latin. He was a true genius, knew what was on every page, verbatim, and could tell me exactly where to find anything we were discussing. “ ‘Uncle Bossie’ translated the Gallic Wars so precisely that I earned a grade A in that subject. It did not matter what the subject was, Bosfield Johnson mastered them all. He was

a real treasure, and I enjoyed his company immensely.”

There was no blood relationship, but I think Sylvester wishes there had been.

When Arlene Nash Ferguson was a little girl, her Johnson cousins in Delancy Street were a special part of their family.

“John Ernst Johnson, a farmer from Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera, and his wife, Jessie Ann Bosfield-Johnson of Nassau, had five children: Oscar, Edward, Samuel, Bosfield, and Jane, the youngest and only girl, born in 1906.

The children were all born in Governor’s Harbour, Eleuthera, and later migrated to Nassau and settled on Delancy Street (near Nassau Street),” she recalled.

“Oscar and Edward would later marry, and the house continued to be occupied by Samuel, Bosfield, Jane and Jane’s mother, Jessie Bosfield, who was my mother’s grand-aunt, sister to Mummy’s grandfather John Bosfield.

We were a close-knit family, and every night my mother and aunts, with me in tow, walked from West Street to their Johnson cousins for supper. It was a special time of strengthening family bonds and recapping the news of the day.

“Twins run in the Bosfield family, and Aunt Jessie had a twin sister, Emily. Retinitis pigmentosa also runs in the Bosfield family, and Samuel (Sam) and Bosfield (Bos) grew progressively blind as they became adults. Jane, Sam and Bos never married. Sam and Bos converted to Roman Catholicism, while Jane remained a faithful Anglican all her life, walking the short distance down the hill to her beloved St Mary’s, which she could see from her back door.

“Jane devoted her life to taking care of her blind brothers, and never worked outside of the home. Her obituary records: ‘For more than a

half century this woman followed a life of service, caring for her blind brothers. After the death of her mother, her father moved to Nassau and Jane quietly cared for him until his death.”

Samuel was very active in the Roman Catholic Church and was a Knight Commander of St Gregory the Great and member of the Papal Court. Bosfield, despite his blindness, tutored scores of children and adults in his schoolroom – the long narrow room on the eastern side of the house. He was brilliant and kept everything in his head.

“Jane taught all the young ladies of the neighbourhood on her front porch each afternoon, and everyone was always welcome. After school each day, they would walk up to “Miss Jane”, where they learnt to knit and crochet. She would bring them inside to teach them to play the piano and how to make coconut and benny cakes. And all the children waited anxiously for her to serve slices of bread, topped with condensed milk!

“The Johnsons, especially Jane, were avidly interested in politics, and they followed local news with keen interest. They were all quite candid in their views, and they did what they believed to be right without apology.

They were upstanding citizens of their beloved country, strengthening the social fabric of their community through their law abiding and nation building spirit. May they rest in peace.”

PAUL C ARANHA

FORGOTTEN FACTS • For questions and comments, please send an e-mail to islandairman@gmail.com

The Tribune | Weekend | 15

Friday, June 25, 2021

animals

Snakes, and lizards and frogs and all things slithery

By KIM ARANHA Animal Matters

F

acebook is full of summery posts – people on boats or hanging out in pools with their families, happy smiles and straw hats. And then there are those panicky posts because there was a snake or a lizard in the yard. Innocent photos of a tree frog sitting at the bottom of a bucket waiting to catch an unsuspecting fly or two.

The frog is not upsetting anybody, but there are tons of insensitive and unpleasant suggestions of how to kill that frog (or any other frog).

Why, I simply ask, would you ever need to kill a harmless frog?

Frogs serve a purpose, they eat the insects that we do not like, they eat larvae. They also croaked out a great bedtime lullaby for those of us who grew up before air-conditioning.

Nature is brilliantly engineered so that there is a very complete cycle of life. We are all here for a reason; rhe world is a circle without a beginning, and we have no idea where or how it ends. Each species, no matter how small, has a reason to exist and is part of that intricate chain called existence. Without the circle of life there would be no survival. We are but a speck that fits into a very big picture.

All animals seem to understand this except for humans. We humans are the most destructive of the chain, and alas, we are at the top and are the ones with the most power to do the most irreparable damage. We are supposedly the smartest and yet we appear to make some of the silliest decisions.

Each and every one of us can play a part, no matter how small. Just scoop one drowning bee out of the

swimming pool. That bee can go off and pollinate flowers and fruit, he can go back to the hive and support the honey-making there.

We often encounter people who say that they are too busy to get involved, and I get it, you may well be too busy, but simply don’t kill the frog in the bottom of the bucket. Let the snake slither on its way, snakes here are of no danger to you. Those pesky and adorable lizards on the wall in your house were not sent by Satan; they don’t mean you are going to get pregnant, and they are not kitted out with miniature antenna that report back to Bill Gates. They are simply small lizards on the wall of your house. Please get a grip on the superstitions handed down from

generation to generation and look at nature objectively.

How has nature and the love of nature become a political position?

Flowers, trees, clean water, prolific wild life and pristine underwater sea gardens have no place in anybody’s politics. Political agendas should all be fervently concerned with the health of our planet and the condition that we leave it in for the generations to come.

Apart for being desirous of leaving a super cool planet for the grandkids, don’t we enjoy dangling our feet off the dock and seeing through the clean water. Isn’t it a treat to stand on a balcony and see snow capped mountains five miles away?

These are moments that many of us take for granted, but with the way

pet of the week

already weaned, so she’s footloose and fancy free (and spayed!)

Would you like a dog who will keep you on your toes? Who’ll explore the trails with you and maybe the beach? Then Tanya may be the match for you. Please call 323-5138 for more information.

Tanya looks forward to meeting you!

A brave survivor

By THE BAHAMAS HUMANE SOCIETY

Tanya is already somewhat of a social media celebrity having been featured on the Bahamas Humane Society’s Facebook page for a few days now. This lovely lady arrived at the BHS after being cut with a machete. The BHS vets worked hard to save her life and the wounds are healing nicely now.

Zanya’s full of energy and ready to roll! She did have pups at the time she was found but they are

we abuse our planet, how we kill everything that we don’t like just because they displease us, as we infringe more and more into their habitat, will we still have the clarity of water, the clean air, the snow?

The Bahamas is one of the cleanest places on earth; clean air and clean water. I am intentionally not mentioning the littering problem that humans cause. However, what about all the plastic in the sea, how is our marine life coping with that?

Our reefs are struggling, cruise ship displacement of water is damaging, so much of what we do every day is damaging. Even, alas, planes leave a carbon footprint, and clearly it is not possible to return to horse and carriage and sail. However, we could perhaps exercise a bit more creativity and consideration towards nature.

That snake is going his merry way.

He wishes nothing to do with you.

There are very dedicated groups who will help you catch and relocate snakes. That lizard is simply very cute and incredibly picturesque and the ugly tree frog is as harmless as the day is long.

We are too obsessed with the here and the now. Most of us have descendants, most of us wish only the very best for them. But in our thoughtlessness we forget that we need to be the stewards of the world that we hand over to the next generation.

Live and let live is a wonderful summer motto.

(Photo/Linda Gill-Aranha)

• The BHS Thrift Shop is open.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 11am to 3pm and Saturday from 10am to 2pm. We sell gently used items to raise funds for the shelter. If you’d like to donate, we’d be grateful to accept your donation.

If the shop is closed, please leave them in the main shelter. Thank you!

16 | The Tribune | Weekend

Friday, June 25, 2021

gardening

Pineapple time!

A

h, the pineapple. The pineapple (Ananas cosmosus) is an herbaceous perennial that grows with little to no attention needed in our climate, in full sun or part shade. Pineapple plants are in the Bromeliaceae family, and hence, are a bromeliad, just like any of orange, purple, striped, blushed or speckled bromeliads in the garden (Billbergia spp. etcetera), on the table (Neoregalia, etcetera.), or in the tree (typically referred to as “air plants”, Tillandsiaspp.) and even Spanish Moss which is also a Tillandsia species (T. usneoides).

Many variations exist and if you go walking in a coppice (typically mixed broadleaf, often near some small to large body of inland fresh or brackish water) you will likely come across native Tillandsia, if the area hasn’t been poached already.

Some bromeliads prefer full shade, some prefer full sun, some do best somewhere in between.

Pineapple will fruit (on an inflorescence), despite the amount of love or neglect that they are given.

If in shade conditions, they will take longer to mature the fruit than if in the sunlight.

Pineapples are very tolerant of soil conditions, except when the soil base retains excessive moisture levels, this causes not enough airspace to be available and the roots will easily rot and not serve any function. While the pineapple has a relatively shallow and small root system, the roots are used to stabilize the plant. As with any bromeliad, the roots are not the only way that pineapples get their water or nutrients, as with many other plants. All bromeliads retain and utilise water and nutrients in the “cups” within the leaves or crown of the plant. Coppice bromeliads (pineapple is happy underneath the edge of a tree) benefit from the detritus of trees, coppice insects, and bird or reptile droppings that may fall into the crown.

I have grown pineapple with good to great results in the dappled shade of a broadleaf tree, as equally as in the full sun. If you are a condo or apartment dweller and you have a window or porch facing east, south, or west, you can likely grow your own pineapple(s) with ease. The myth that the red soils of Eleuthera make for the best pineapples is great for business for Eleutheran pineapples, but as with most gardening tales, it is only as true as the person telling the tale believes it to be. This is not to say that some of the best pineapples in the world are not grown in Eleuthera, they very well may be. I know for certain that I am a huge fan and I make sure to keep a stock of pines (as we tend to call them, no need for the whole word) on hand for propagation, that I sourced many years ago from the very fields from a pine farmer near Gregory Town.

Flavour, size, colour, and the texture of the fruiting body and the core are far more dependent upon variety (or cultivar, more accurately), than on growing conditions. Minimal nutrient amendments are necessary, but some amendment will yield far greater results than none. When in the first year or so of growth, I apply minimal amounts of a higher nitrogen fertilizer. My go to nutrient amendment during the growing stage is 12-6-8 with minor nutrients, to promote bigger and stronger growth of the plant. After a year or so, I switch to a fruiting fertilizer with higher potassium levels, 5-5-15 with minor nutrients, or similar.

Watering patterns and the correct nutrient levels (often dependent upon soil pH) are the key ingredients for larger fruit production, more so than light levels or the type of soil.

Pineapples can be grown in the ground

or containers. My best results are achieved when grown in a seven-gallon (14” diameter) container or larger, pineapples do prefer well drained soils.

Fruit size is directly related to water and nutrient availability coupled with the particular cultivar grown. ‘Sugarloaf’, ‘White Jade’ and ‘Elite Gold’ are a few of the cultivars that I am currently growing. All are spectacular in their own ways.

If you are dealing with smaller than expected fruit size this year, then when you plant the top or suckers (for even better results) next time around, provide nutrients at the right time and give that plant some more water! Water use will increase with higher amounts of sunlight and wind exposure. Leaves are a nice medium green colour when provided the correct amounts of water and nutrients, and when they are pale, more nitrogen is needed along with magnesium and iron, they are key components of any complete fertilizer. So, good luck. As always, I wish you happy gardening, and enjoy those fruits of your labours regardless of the size this time around. Get into the garden!

• Adam Boorman is the nursery manager at the Fox Hill Nursery. You can contact him with any questions you may have, or topics you would like to see discussed, at gardening242@gmail.com.