bigdrumnation

Reading Time 5 minsOn Friday, I played with another Carriacou string band — either the Strugglers or the Stragglers—vowels here are really a problem for me. But it was pretty great. But . . . oh, what did I do? I took a bus to Windward, the northeast tip of the island. It’s where the boatbuilding tradition of Carriacou was first introduced, by Scottish people, I think. Wandering around Windward I sensed that the relation between the people here and the sea is really vital and strong. They build all these boats — still do it. On the pier at… Read More »II. Deep Connection Between People, Land, and Sea — Jeff McNish

Reading Time 3 minsSo yes, Thursday I get to go to Belmont (a village in the southern part of the island) and rehearse with a band for Parang.  Who knows what that could have meant?  Wednesday, I was walking between Hillsborough and L’Esterre (where Sonnel lives) looking for a guest house that wasn’t booked for the Parang Festival.  Along the way, I ran into Sonnel who was coming back from the funeral of the woman for whom they had the wake Tuesday night.  He and I walked to the tire shop of his cousin, Gus (where we’d played Tuesday night… Read More »III. Hillsborough is the Place for Me! — Jeff McNish

Reading Time 2 minsThere’s so much more: Boat-tailed grackles– a bird species Bridget had identified for me in Montserrat on Alcyone’s first pass through the Caribbean.  Googling them I learn they may actually be Greater Grackles, whose range includes the Caribbean.  Frogs run over on the road.  Goats everywhere.  A snake run over on the road. A couple ah donkeys.   I arrived in Belmont around 4:30, met Uncle Winston, the bandleader, and composer (“Margerita!  Seniorita!  We doan wanna play dat ting.  We wanna play tings we kyan nous!  El muchacho!  El Parango!  We doan wanna play dat ting.  We wanna… Read More »IV. A Nice Mix Of Nature And Art — Jeff McNish

Reading Time 1 minsCARRIACOU PARANG JOURNALS “You’ve got to meet this guy; he took a red-eye flight from San Francisco just for the Sparrow Concert… and is returning to California tomorrow!” That’s how Ken “Bari” Murray, who was saving an up-close seat for me, greeted me as I entered the David Rubenstein Atrium, Lincoln Center, on November 21, 2019. “You’re kidding?” I responded in disbelief, for I wondered how both Ken and this white guy from California knew about the event when it was relatively unknown or wasn’t buzzing in New York’s Caribbean community.  However, this skepticism began to fade when I… Read More »Carriacou Parang Journals — Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 4 minsA new voice from the ‘margins’ challenges the narratives about gender, color, and power. ___________________________________________________________________ By LENNEL A. GEORGE What is poetry? In an essay, Poetry is Not a Luxury, Audre Lorde discusses poetry as a mode of communicating and accessing our emotions. She writes that for women of color poetry is necessary for survival and provides new ways of being and striving for justice in the world. Camonghne Felix, in her powerful debut collection, Build Yourself A Boat, provides us with a collection of poems that do exactly that. Her poems are taut, tender, and often… Read More »Giving Voice to the Nameless

Reading Time 1 minsWith the quest for social change, a new era of black female leadership is emerging challenging social norms and providing fresh, self-determined voices that can no longer be ignored. Their contributions are as varied and as diverse as their myriad backgrounds. One such figure is 26-year old Caribean American Camonghne Felix, a poet, writer, public intellectual, and political strategist. Currently, Director of Surrogates & Strategic Communications at Elizabeth Warren for President, Ms. Felix was recently listed by Black Youth Project as a “Black Girl From the Future You Should Know.” Her first full-length collection of poems, Build… Read More »To Be Young, Gifted and Black

Reading Time 1 minsCommemorating Emancipation should also provide apt opportunities for us to recognize the spiritual and intellectual forces that have kept us going during slavery and our struggle for self-determination. Kaiso music originated in our struggle for emancipation. One of the foremost of our Kaiso legends, Winston “Shadow” Bailey, transitioned to the ancestors on October 23, 2018. In recognition of Shadow’s contribution to the enlightenment and social well-being of our people, he was the recipient of awards throughout the Caribbean and was posthumously awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of the West Indies.    Shadow has not always… Read More »Welcome to BDN’s Post-Emancipation Issue: “Not Black Socrates, But Shadow (Winston Bailey) Learning Under An Oak Tree”

Reading Time 9 mins[I of V] Big Drum Nation’s Introduction August 23, 2019 “The Caribbean may well have produced [a Socrates, Descartes or Spinoza], but I am not aware of any records of their thought.” – St Hope Earl McKenzie, The Loneliness of a Caribbean Philosopher. “I come from the land of the giants…/The land where these giants walk/Despite the stings and the arrows/When them boys walk, they cast a long shadow.” –3Canal, “Giants” “This is our symbol–Beauty famous in the slum/The hungry boy who/Tomorrow shall become/The country’s hero.” – Eric Roach, “The Flowering Rock.” I. Shadow and ‘Self-Acquired Knowledge.’  “You… Read More »The Allegory of the Dungeon: Not Black Socrates, But Shadow (Winston Bailey) Learning Under An Oak Tree – Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 9 mins August 06, 2019 BDN Introduction When I first came across the photograph of the slave it felt white-hot with meaning, as if it would burn The Observer page on which it was printed. For years I’ve kept that newspaper among my working files, but always face down. Neither the subject nor the photographer was named, only the date and the place: 1863, a Louisiana cotton plantation. And the fact that the man was a slave who had been flogged by his “owner”. Photographs of suffering and oppression are commonplace, have been for a long time. Dachau,… Read More »DO YOU REMEMBER? — Kim Johnson