The expert panel of judges reviewing the entries (l to r) Stuart Hall, Chief Judge Andrea Allan, overseas adjudicator Cuaçaoan born and raised, Eloise van Wickeren, the current Film Commissioner of Curaçao, and Ronnie Carrington. Overseeing the process is Annette Nias, local Film Commissioner and the coordinator of the NIFCA Film/Video competition.

There is a junior category in Film/Video for the first time this NIFCA season.  It is another one of the upgrades on offer for 2019 which saw the discipline being opened to entries from individuals or groups with participants under the age of 18. Registration closed early in October.

The rationale behind the inclusion of a junior category was to allow these budding filmmakers to unlock their own creativity with the intention of establishing a benchmark for the advancement of film/video as a form of expression in Barbados, as well as encouraging young enthusiasts to use their creative abilities to formulate viewpoints that enhance public awareness and understanding.  Submissions from junior entrants were accepted in the categories of Music Video Edutainment, Documentary, Narrative Comedy and an open category.

The Film Commissioner, Annette Nias noted a bumper year overall in Film/Video with a record 31 entries being submitted for judging which took place on October 28 to 30.  Among the expert local panel of judges reviewing the entries – Chief Judge Andrea Allan, Stuart Hall and Ronnie Carrington – the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) welcomed another overseas adjudicator Curaçaoan born and raised, Eloise van Wickeren, the current Film Commissioner of Curacao.

Nias added, “Eloise proved to be extremely knowledgeable and experienced at her task and was an asset to the process.”

Eloise van Wickeren, Film Commissioner of Curaçao

Eloise moved to the Netherlands when she was nineteen to study Media & Culture at the University of Amsterdam where she majored in Television Studies and minored in Psychology.  During her subsequent stay in the Netherlands she worked for well-known production companies like Endemol and I Care Productions. She has also worked on series such as Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance to mention a few.

Since returning to Curaçao in 2010 she has worked on two feature films as the Locations Manager for Tula: the Revolt and recently on Double Play Productions: the filming of the book by Frank Martinus Arion, produced by Lisa Cortes and directed by Ernest R. Dickerson.

Before her departure on November 1st, she conducted one-on-one critique sessions with most of the participants at the Queen’s Park Steel, who were appreciative of her delivery of feedback and advice.

This evening, Wednesday, November 6, the local panel will critique the films in a closed session at the Daphne Joseph-Hackett Theatre in preparation for the upcoming NIFCA Film/Video Screenings to be held on Friday, November 15 at the same venue.

The screening event is open to members of the public as well as industry professionals to view the top award winning films of NIFCA 2019.  They will also have an opportunity to interact with the filmmakers in a discussion forum and hear the process and stories behind the scenes, in addition to sharing their views, ideas and reactions.  Start time for the NIFCA Film/Video Screening is 7:00 p.m. and admission is free.

Senior Brand Manager, Bryden Stokes Ltd, Omar Beckles(r), NCF CEO, Carol Roberts-Reifer (second right), Dewars DJ Mentors, Kevin Marshall DJ Bubbles (front right) and Ryan Davis DJ Menace (partly hidden) share a light moment with some of the new artistes from Crop Over 2019 HOTT Bajarama who will be among the principal invitees to the workshop

The National Cultural Foundation (NCF) and Dewars Scotch Whisky partnered to produce and promote the “Fuh De Culture” campaign during the recently concluded annual Crop Over Festival.

The major activation of the promotion encouraged consumers to purchase the Dewars brand during the Festival, with a portion of the sales being contributed to the further development of fledgling and up and coming performing artistes.

The NCF chose the art of songwriting as the area most in need of improvement among new artistes and in this regard, has teamed up with the producers of the “Soca Goes Gold” event to stage a songwriting and presentation workshop, tomorrow, Friday, November 1, 2019 at the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel.

The principal invitees to the workshop are the new artistes who appeared at the Bajarama events during Crop Over.  They will be joined by students of the Performing Arts programme of the University of West Indies.

The confirmed presenters are:

• David Rudder – Trinidad and Tobago
• Kernal Roberts – Trinidad and Tobago
• Ian Webster – Barbados
• Cheyne Jones – Barbados
• Justin King (Jus-Jay) – Barbados
• Anthony Nelson (Admiral) – Barbados

The workshop will assist the attending artistes in honing their craft in song forms, melodies, the interaction and use of rhythm and harmony, lyric writing and the use of technological advances in the industry.

Ki’Ann Browne was her usual powerhouse in the chorus line of ‘This is Me’, the 2018 NIFCA mixed discipline entry from Praise Academy of Dance.

If the statistics of the 46^th edition of the annual National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) is any indication, then the performing arts programmes are definitely creating pathways to opportunity for our juniors and young adults.

Reports suggest that there has been an increase in the number of junior/youth entries and entrants across the three disciplines of the performing arts – Dance, Theatre and Music.  In both Dance and Music, more junior entries than adult entries were recorded and in Theatre the stats represented a 100% increase in participation for juniors and adults as compared with the previous year.  This equated to a good news story for Theatre, with twice as many entrants overall, perhaps bringing about a direct correlation to the twice as many set to perform at the semi-finals this NIFCA season.

With the lens focussed on this growth in the number of junior and young adult entries, another one of the positives emanating from the NIFCA Theatre platform this year is the contribution of theatre in education practitioners, veteran Winston Farrell alongside his colleague Michelle Barrow, and the work of their students in the Barbados Youth Advance Corps, the former Barbados Youth Service.  All six of their entries have made it to the semi-finals.

Longstanding NIFCA entrant, the award winning community group the Israel Lovell Foundation performing the Connection.

There could be many reasons for the increase in junior and young adult entries across the board, but generally the arts provide a positive outlet for expression. These programmes for at-risk youth, as well as the community groups and the NCF’s Dance and Drama in Schools programmes, have impacted the increased level of entries for 2019.  Of the three schools making it to the NIFCA Dance semi-finals, two are a part of the NCF’s Dance in Schools programme and similarly, of the five schools participating in the Drama in Schools programme, three entered and one advanced to the semi-final stage.

Research has proven that the arts can have a positive impact on youth development – from tiny tots right through adolescence.  International studies have shown that engagement in various activities in the performance and visual arts at a young age has been associated with positive social and emotional behaviours, including empathy, sharing, and mood control. Likewise, there is substantiated evidence to positive outcomes on indicators such as school grades, test scores, and graduation rates.

The 40 semi-finalists in Dance, the 28 in Theatre, and the 90 in Music are already deep in rehearsals to fine-tune their pieces for the first weekend of the 2019 NIFCA Performing Arts semi-finals beginning Saturday, November 2 to Monday, November 4 at 6:00 p.m. each night.

The quick and comical dance crew MULTIFARIOUS with their 100% Bajan piece Do Um Fuh De Kulture

In Dance, the participants will be performing in the categories of Dancehall, Hip Hop, Ballroom, Latin, African, Afro-Caribbean, Caribbean Folk, Contemporary and Praise. For the first time in the junior category there are entries in the areas of Dancehall, Hip Hop, Ballroom and Latin, while an increase across the board was noted in the areas of African, Afro-Caribbean and Caribbean Folk.

Taking centre stage for Theatre will be works in Drama – a monologue two short plays and two full length plays; works in Speech inclusive of the traditional forms of choral speech and choreopoems, and the growing spoken word art form; together with mixed discipline pieces particularly in the junior category, coming from the community arts academies.

There will be expressions of Music, both instrumental and voice, in performances from individuals and ensembles, as well as schools and community groups. The presentations will span the genres of Contemporary, Folk, Calypso and Classical punctuated with a few Fusions.  As a developmental programme, NIFCA has always encouraged the inclusion of original entries to set a tone of 100% Bajan.  This year 30 original songs were entered in the competition and nearly all of them will be among those to be judged at the semi-finals.

The first night of performances will be held at the Alexandra School Hall, while Sunday and Monday’s performances are scheduled for the St. Leonard’s Boys’ Secondary School and the Lester Vaughan School respectively.

The second semi-final weekend will run from Friday, November 8 to Sunday, November 10, this time with all the performances being held at the Combermere School’s Major Noot Hall.

As in previous years, the performances chosen from the semi-final stage will advance to the discipline specific nights and a mixed night for the juniors at the finals. The Dance, Music and Junior nights will be held at the Frank Collymore Hall and the Theatre Arts presentations at the Daphne Joseph-Hackett Theatre, the home of Theatre in Barbados from November 26 to 29.  In addition, for the first time a NIFCA Dance Battle final has been included which will see entrants facing off at Jubilee Gardens in the city on November 16.

Greg Hoyos

This is an impressive collection. Like many others, I never appreciated that such writing talent and range of expression existed – far less flourished – here in Barbados, but this anthology exposes it all. I felt my soul uplifted and my spirits soaring at the literary riches offered up in these pages.

The stories and poems grab you by the throat and don’t let go. Some leave you with a smile, some gasping for air as their narrative unfolds, others in wonder at the sheer creativity within. Can you tell that I enjoyed them all? Well done everyone, and well done, ArtsEtc judges.

In any review it’s tough to mention some entries and omit others. However to avoid simply a tedious list of contents, I must give a personal take on a few outstanding ones.

Right off the bat, Cherie Jones touched me with her bittersweet “How The One-Armed Sister Sweeps Her House” (a baffling but intriguing title). I could feel the characters, live their emotions – and suffer with them at the end, where we are left to our imaginations.

I’ve rarely seen dialect in written form which absolutely works, but in “Automated Reality”, Kerry Belgrave achieved it for me, while giving a thoughtful commentary on our times.

Gale Withers then entertained with a clever stacking of words and lines in “Hurricane Coming”, which had the effect of making me actually feel the event. This feat appeared again in Daniel Boxill’s “Vertigo”, though with less impact and seemingly more show for its own sake. No matter, it remains an enjoyable read.

“Rain Cloud” by Shadon Cumberbatch left me so shaken and sad that I had to stop reading for a while, and simply absorb it. It’s a wonderful first-person telling of family abuse which leaves you feeling sad for every damaged personality in the story – no mean achievement. But a bleak read, indeed. “This Could Be It” from Shakirah Bourne did the same thing for me, they both refer to the unevenness of people.

Corey Springer’s “Jade” was sexy as all-get-out, and very agreeable too. “Prickett’s Well” (Edison Williams) began well as a mystery read but lost me in the characterisation and seemed to peter out in the end. And “RIP2me” (Shanae Gill-Hinds) made me smile.

“Kendrick Goes Missing” (Martin Boyce) contained some Tarantino-like violence and intriguing characters; I wish it had gone further – but also appreciated that it left my mind to fill in the blanks. By contrast, “Home” from Chloe Walker was sweet and gentle.

Sharma Taylor’s “The Woman Whose Laugh Cracked The Sky” was powerful, though I kept wondering why it never developed the mystery of its main character and that laugh. However the first-person style again worked well for me here. By contrast, “A Hand Came Through The Wall” was perfect little gem of a story. And Linda Deane’s “A Way Back” was strongly evocative and quite ambitious, though perhaps deserved a longer-form presentation to bring out its linkages and connections.

I liked Nick Whittle’s “I Pour Another Rum” with its tilt to absurdist, shoulder-shrugging philosophy, though it seemed to promise more than it delivered.

So now I feel bad, having not mentioned everyone and not having given unstinting praise – which was certainly due. All in all it’s an amazing collection of depth and craft. I stand in admiration.

Rodney Ifill, NCF’s Cultural Officer for Visual Arts (c) briefing Makemba Kunle and the full judging panel. Kunle interacted with the local panel of judges and his experience was well received. L to r: Kerry-Ann Holder (standing), Irene Banfield, Chief Judge, Susan Alleyne-Forde, Althea Wood, Ayissa Burnett and Gloria Chung (standing at back).

Five hundred and twenty-three (523) entries were adjudged in the Fine Arts and Craft categories of the 2019 National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA) Visual Arts competition. According to Rodney Ifill, Cultural Officer for Visual Arts and the coordinator of the NIFCA Visual Arts competition, this was a healthy response with the largest contribution of work in this year’s exhibition being submitted from the primary and secondary schools and HMP Dodds. There was a general increase in entries in the young adult category with consistent entrants from the Barbados Community College (BCC).

Judging began last Monday, October 21 and the results are expected to be officially announced on Tuesday, November 12, the morning after the exhibition opens to the public. In the early analysis, the judges mentioned that the overall standard was of good quality with a high showing in the areas of art & craft, where they identified techniques and finishes in the use of media, and demonstrated skills especially in ceramics, textiles, jewellery, colour pencil and painting.

This year’s main exhibition will be centrally located in the old Mutual building on lower Broad Street, a welcomed partnership with the University of the West Indies (UWI), Cave Hill Campus. Ifill added that the National Cultural Foundation (NCF) had also collaborated with a number of Government and private entities, a move which he explained was intended to take the exhibitions into various high traffic areas in the community. In addition to the Mutual building, he identified some of the other venues as First Citizens Bank, Broad Street; the General Post Office, Cheapside; the Supreme Court, Whitepark Road; and the Eric Holder Municipal Centre, St. Joseph.

As with the other disciplines in the festival, Trinidadian Makemba Kunle is on island to add his expertise to the qualified and knowledgeable team of local judges for Visual Arts which includes Irene Banfield, Chief Judge; Gloria Chung; Susan Alleyne-Forde; Ayissa Burnett; Althea Wood; and Kerry-Ann Holder.

Makemba sharing with an attentive group who visited the workshop yesterday. BCC Art students accompanied by Heather Dawn Scott (left) and Corrie Scott (back right).

Chief Cultural Officer, Andrea Wells recently stated that an essential part of these arrangements with the overseas judges is to provide training through workshops, and she confirmed that Kunle conducted a presentation and discussion of his work to first year BCC students yesterday, Monday, October 28 between 1:30 – 3:30 p.m. at the Queens Park Gallery.

The Edmund Gill Retrospective which is the current featured exhibition in the Gallery also formed part of his discussions as he focused on the artist’s work in the context of some common subject areas as well as the differences in their practice.

Makemba Kunle’s bio described him as always having a burning desire for expression via the medium of visual arts and stated that from the early 70s he emerged as one of the most progressive visual artists in the Caribbean.

Trinidadian master painter Makemba Kunle chatting with the NCF’s Chief Cultural Officer, Andrea Wells.

Kunle has contributed to the formation and administration of artistic institutions such as the Caribbean Arts Community and Studio 66 Art Support Community as Artist-in-Residence and Creative Director of the latter.

In 2014, he was honoured with a Retrospective at the National Museum and Art Gallery of Trinidad and Tobago and his works are in some important collections in the Caribbean.

He uses acrylic and oil on canvas and paper, and Carnival is his point of reference. His works have been described as innovative with much masking, double-meaning, patterning and decoration, invoking ancestral memory, retention and comments on society. It is considered self-revealing, spiritual and intriguing.

He has also created stage and set designs, carnival costume designs, portraits, graphic illustrations and cover designs for leading Caribbean writers. More recently, Kunle was set designer for Theatre overseas judge Rawle Gibbons’ Ah Wanna Fall as well as set and costume designer for the closing ceremony of CARIFESTA XIV recently hosted in Trinidad.

Listed among his other interests, Kunle is an Assessor for CVQ Masquerade Design and Construction, and he has also ventured into the Literary Arts as the author of two books entitled A Collection of Illustrated Short Stories and The Caterpillar Who Wanted to Fly.

Local designers listening attentively during one of the Fashion Accelerator Workshops

Sweetheart Sandals by Toni Thorne

Six aspiring Barbadian fashion designers will be participating in the Caribbean Market Centre’s Fashion Accelerator Programme, along with designers from St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad. The programme is facilitated by the Caribbean Export Development Agency.

Local designers Tyreke Nedd, Carla Gittens, Katrina Brathwaite, Alyssa Goddard, Mikyle Gibbons and Tia Olton are a part of a select regional group being prepared for the international market, with a focus on improving access to market and on facilitating the implementation of a go-to market strategy.

Senior Business Development Officer (SBDO) with the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), Andre Hoyte, underscored the importance of the organisation’s support for these six designers as he zeroed in on the shared objectives of this specific accelerator programme as compared to that of the model already in use by the Foundation for its Barbados Fashion Capsule project.

CandiFab by Candi Nicholls

RTS by Gregg Williams

The early stages of the capsule project include testing the products in the

international market, making the necessary adjustments based on feedback from those market interventions and then re-entering the market with a stronger product for sale.  Hoyte noted, “Through the expertise of renowned fashion tutor Sandra Carr, we can be assured that the Fashion Accelerator programme will aid in achieving this common goal, strengthening the products in the key areas of design, fabric choice, finishing and packaging which are all crucial components for successful testing in the international markets.”

As part of its export strategy for creative products, the NCF has also been working closely with a small group of fashion designers on the Barbados Fashion Capsule project to get them into the international market.

Mark Daniel of Avark

Adlai Stevenson of Exclusive Cottons

In speaking about the project the NCF SBDO remarked that from as early as the first quarter of the financial year, the Foundation tested fashion and accessory products in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York and based on that feedback, adjustments were made which allowed the designers to re-enter the market in July 2019 showcasing to retailers and distributors at “Colombiamoda,” the largest fashion trade event in Latin America & the Caribbean.

According to Hoyte the results were great and some of the designers are now producing work based on orders received there, that will now be in markets where over 60 million consumers exist. He used this example to highlight the benefits of supporting these six designers in the Accelerator programme.

NCF’s Senior Business Development Officer, Andre Hoyte and Caribbean Market Centre (CMC) Director, Rodney Powers

As part of the Fashion Capsule, there will be a Fashion Festival on Friday October 25th and Saturday October 26th at the Hilton Barbados.  The NCF will be hosting a Shopping Party on the 26^th which is expected to feature Capsule Collections from the six designers in the Accelerator Programme, as well as the other local designers in the Capsule project CandiFab by Candi Nicholls; YenDor World by Rodney Powers;

Sweetheart Sandals by Toni Thorne; RTS by Gregg Williams; Avark; Exclusive Cottons; Lester Welch; Pauline Bellamy and Samuel Gittens.

 In addition, the NCF in association with the Caribbean Market Centre will be hosting a Business to Business (B2B) session and Concept Storage Development Workshop with the Columbian Fashion Company Makeno for local designers from October 31st to November 1^st, 2019.

The Caribbean Market Centre is designed to support the successful development of fashion entrepreneurial companies through the provision of a range of business support resources and services.  Key elements housed within the centre include designer showroom, seminars or workshops, fashion and trade shows, and various other events aimed at facilitating networking among industry practitioners.

Chief Cultural Officer of the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), Mrs. Andrea Wells remarked that the Foundation already contracts a well qualified and knowledgeable team of local judges each season.  This decision to augment the 2019 judging panels would simply bring another level of valuable expertise to the finals of the competitions and expose our creatives to a cadre of influential persons operating in a broader international sphere.

A total of seven foreign judges will be added across all the disciplines, and confirmations have already been made in the performing arts.  In Theatre, director, playwright and university lecturer, Trinidadian Rawle Gibbons is expected to join the panel.  In the discipline of Dance, former NCF Cultural Officer for Dance, Heather Forde-Butcher, who now lives in Tortola, British Virgin Islands will be offering her expertise.  In the field of Music, the NCF welcomes qualified musician and member of the Oxford and Cambridge Music Club, Trinidadian Enrique Ali.

Essential to these arrangements is the agreement for all judges to provide training for participants through workshops and/or showcases during the period that will improve their skills.

Most of the performing arts sessions will happen around the first few days of December.  For Music, master classes for pianists and accompanists, as well as performance techniques for choirs will be on offer; while in Theatre and Dance, the focus will be on Caribbean forms in performance and on contemporary and jazz workshops respectively.

Having each individual offer his/her experiences, share comparisons with regional and/or international standards, gain an opportunity to witness local talent and to impart some knowledge through workshops and master classes can only augur well for the festival.

Meet the Performing Arts overseas judges

NCF to pay tribute to three icons in the Barbadian artistic community – Richild Springer, Andrea Gollop-Greenidge and Janice Millington.

Three tribute nights are on the cards for the 2019 National Independence Festival of Creative Arts (NIFCA). This was confirmed last Saturday at a press briefing held during the launch of this year’s festival in Queen’s Park, tagged Art in the Park.

The tribute nights will be in recognition of Barbadian cultural icons in the performing arts disciplines of Dance, Music and Theatre – Richild Springer, Janice Millington and Andrea Gollop-Greenidge. The nights in honour of Springer and Millington are scheduled for December 4th and 6th at the Frank Collymore Hall, while Gollop-Greenidge’s appreciation is expected to take place on December 8th at the home of Theatre in Barbados, the Daphne Joseph Hackett Theatre (DJHT). Start time for all three events is 7:00 p.m.

The celebration of the life and work of Richild Springer will tell the story of her journey as the dancer, the choreographer and the teacher, with emphasis on key moments of her career in Barbados as well as overseas. Moments like her work with the Barbados Dance Theatre Company, her performance in recognition of the legend Josephine Baker, in addition to her work with the Peter Goss Company and Sammy Davis Jnr. Various seasoned dance groups and dancers in the community have been invited to showcase a piece in tribute to Springer.

Among the dance highlights for NIFCA 2019 is the inclusion of an award of excellence, as well as a proposal for the possible renaming of the Dance Studio at the National Cultural Foundation (NCF), all in her honour.

When the NCF acknowledges the contribution of scholar, music educator, composer, concert pianist and violinist, Janice Millington, it will be excellence personified. Her impact is so entrenched in the development of music education on the local and even the regional landscape that she has influenced and molded the careers of many musicians in Barbados whether directly or indirectly.

Millington created the Harrison College Orchestra and its Music Department. She pioneered the introduction of Music Education at the University of the West Indies and ensured the addition of Music to the list of subjects for the Caribbean Examination Council.

Many of the island’s top musicians have eagerly consented to be a part of this evening’s proceedings to represent the essence of her musical genius.

The final tribute night will pay homage to actress, story teller, cultural administrator, event planner, manager and producer – Andrea Gollop-Greenidge. She earned her seat at the table of those integral members of the community who laid the groundwork for post-colonial theatre in this country. In 2009, her contribution to the cultural landscape and heritage of Barbados and the Caribbean was recognised with the award of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) presented by the Queen for services to the Performing Arts. Indeed, NIFCA itself also owes her a debt of gratitude as one of its early coordinators from 1974 to 2007.

The evening will feature a variety of theatrical performances and video tributes, linked by a narrative of the journey of this cultural icon, showcasing her legacy through the myriad forms that theatre has taken over the last 50 years in Barbados.

Among the legacy components proposed for Gollop-Greenidge is a commissioned portrait to be mounted in the foyer of the DJHT, as a fitting accolade to a woman with a lifelong passion for Theatre.

Everyday Oyin and Hatty get more familiar with their characters.

Five days of rehearsals have flown by and I have been working with the actors eight hours a day.  Process has always been private for me, especially during dramaturgy – it is like being a midwife to a play.  I am known for being able to work at an incredible pace because once I start working I stay with it all day and even after the actors have left I continue to work.

I keep saying that Mary is an African Caribbean woman and sometimes I say Caribbean, but in English history she is referred to as the first British subject to publish her narrative.  I refuse to call her British.

Mary Prince was born out of her mother’s womb a free woman in Bermuda. Upon being received as a part of the plantation community in Bermuda she was enslaved.  Bermuda was a British colony and by virtue of that she was deemed a British subject. However, today I claim her as the first female African Caribbean woman to publish her narrative. Others have claimed her before me I am sure.

Read the book or watch the play when it comes to your community

Susannah Moodie née Stickland was her amanuensis, her ghostwriter – her name did not appear in the first publication of the text.  I questioned how much Susannah changed in the writing of the narrative because of her own sensibilities.  Mary Prince’s narrative was written as ammunition for the abolitionist to use in demanding freedom for the enslaved.  What is interesting for me in the narrative is that she does not only tell her story, she also tells the stories of all the enslaved people with whom she came into contact.

I started on Monday by revealing my quest to reclaim Mary.  It is like a fire burning within me to liberate her name, liberate her narrative. She was born free and enslaved and made the subject of a colonial empire.  Some may argue against this, but to me Mary is the first African Caribbean woman to publish her narrative and I stand by that. She liberated herself in her lifetime.  You can form your own opinions, read the book or watch the play when it comes to your community.