A new dimension to Carifesta

Someone actually said to me that it is “doomed” and something always goes wrong.

Well, the only mishap thus far has been attending the book launch of Haitian writer Edwidge Danticat and listening to her read from her new, highly emotional work, only to discover that no one in Barbados can buy a copy. Her fans can barely contain their disappointment.

This new book, called The Art of Death: Writing the Final Story, needless to say, brought forth anecdotes from many in the audience who shared their experiences of the death of a parent.

Danticat was not alone in launching a new book. The esteemed poet Kamau Brathwaite also launched Liviticus and Jamaican poet Mervyn Morris gave a glimpse of his new collected poems, Peelin’ Orange, in which some of the old poems are remade.

The launches formed part of a symposium organised jointly by the Barbadian Ministry of Culture, Sports and Youth and the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill Campus. It was an innovative enterprise organised by co-convenors Dr Marcia Burrowes, coordinator of cultural studies at Cave Hill and Andrew Millington, a Barbadian UWI lecturer at the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination, and a filmmaker.

Film featured somewhat prominently at this event, as did discussions about the state of the arts in the Caribbean and issues surrounding reparation.

I gather that the ministry felt that the return to intellectual discussion and dialogue between art practitioners and academics would bring a new dimension to Carifesta. Hence the imposing title of the symposium: The Caribbean, the Arts and the Cultural Industries: Negotiating Tradition, Aesthetics, Economics and Legacy.

And indeed the convenors sought to address these many issues.

There were discussions, readings, film screenings, dance and, what is most important for Carifesta, a meeting of minds and an opportunity to network. There was also a special Derek Walcott Day dedicated to this great poet who died in March.

The most dominant topic of the five days was tourism. Not how to entice tourists, but how to create markets for tourism that are non-exploitative. It is interesting to note how this shift in emphasis is happening worldwide. Governments are beginning to realise that while tourism brings much needed revenue to a country, its effects can be detrimental on the landscape and on the psyche of a people.

The issue of tourism is being discussed in Holland, for example, which many residents feel is literally overrun with tourists. The city of Amsterdam can barely accommodate these visitors, who are encouraged by cheap airfares and the new global business of Airbnb.

As a result of these concerns, there is a suggestion that the city should get rid of the red light district, which is a focal point for many prurient sightseers.

Tourism, as virtually every writer from the Caribbean notes, brings with it a danger of what is now designated neo-enslavement.

The problem is both the attitudes engendered by tourism and the fact that those who benefit most are those who already have the greatest wealth and resources.

At the Carifesta symposium there was animated discussion on what tourists expect when they arrive in the Caribbean. Sun no doubt. Sea obviously, but also sex or, at the very least, the promise of it, according to academic Angelique Nixon, who has written a book about the Caribbean and tourism, titled Resisting Paradise: Tourism, Diaspora and Sexuality in Caribbean Culture.

Many Caribbean islands still try to live up to that promise of paradise.

But increasingly, the idea of cooperative endeavour, in particular in the arts, is eme rging as an altern a t i v e to what some see as the exploitation of our resources.