bigdrumnation

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

Reading Time

Reading Time 1 minsRegional Headquarters, Kingston, Jamaica, April 20, 2019 – The following statement is issued by the Vice-Chancellor of The University of the West Indies, Professor Sir Hilary Beckles in immediate response to news of the passing of Sir Alister McIntyre, who served as UWI Vice-Chancellor during the period 1988-1998. Shocking is the news that our Sir Alister has passed. Larger than life in his long sojourn, it is difficult to embrace the finality of this existential fragility. The people of the Caribbean, and their University of the West Indies—which he served as Vice-Chancellor—will not be impoverished by his… Read More »UWI Pays Tribute to Sir Alister McIntyre

Reading Time 1 minsPrime Minister’s Office, Barbados Sir Alister McIntyre Statement by Prime Minister of Barbados, The Honourable Mia Amor Mottley QC MP on the passing of Sir Alister McIntyre. I am deeply saddened to learn of the passing today of one of the Caribbean’s most treasured scholars, Sir Alister McIntyre, a respected economist, educator, administrator and true champion of regional integration. This son of Grenada and son of the Caribbean will forever be remembered fondly as one of the Titans of the post-Independence Caribbean to whom we owe much. My association with Sir Alister goes back to my days as… Read More »Sir Alister McIntyre, Titan of the post-Independence Caribbean has died

Reading Time 3 minsWritten by Dr. Keith Mitchell It is with great sadness that I learnt of the passing of Sir Alister McIntyre. Grenada, Jamaica, and in fact the entire Caribbean has lost a dear son who has left us a rich legacy, characterised by profound knowledge and unwavering commitment to regionalism. Grenada was his homeland and Jamaica was where he lived but much of his life was spent in service to the people of the region. In his early career as a lecturer in economics at the University of the West Indies, at the St. Augustine Campus in Trinidad and… Read More »TRIBUTE BY PRIME MINISTER, DR. KEITH MITCHELL ON THE PASSING OF SIR ALISTER MCINTYRE

Reading Time 7 mins Celebrate 40 years of the Grenadian Revolution March 13th 1979 – the day the Grenadian Revolution was launched. Given the small size of Grenada – 133 sq. miles – population of 100,000 – and the lopsided and dependent economy that the British Empire had lefton decolonisation, improving the economic performance of the countrywas always going to be an uphill struggle, with the only bonus being thatthe elimination of the previous government’s corruption gave an immediate boost to the exchequer. The Gairy regime had left no database of statistics, indeed there was no mechanism for collecting any… Read More »Celebrate 40 years of the Grenadian Revolution

Reading Time 7 minsFebruary 24, 2019 “I went away, I leave, and I come back home, I come back to stay.”Andre Tanker, “Back Home’, 1974“You should never leave home if you wasn’t comin’ America to make yuhself better.” Dawad Philip, “Invocations” 1979 The epigraph that frames this review underscores the challenge that most immigrants face: How to navigate a space for self and the larger band of fellow migrants in the not-always-friendly new setting. Little wonder, then, that from very early on in his sojourn in America, Dawad Philip beganorganizing and making a difference (as featured in the NY Times… Read More »Making A Way in this World: A Review of Dawad Philip’s ‘A Mural by The Sea’ — Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 7 mins Happy Independence Day Grenada! Today, Grenada marks the 45th anniversary of political freedom and sovereignty from British colonialism which was won on February 7, 1974. Such milestones provide apt opportunities for reflection on the path traveled together as a people as well as on the future course. Arguably, the most important ingredient in nation building is leadership. Martin Luther King, Jr. has said that “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” How has Grenadian leadership measured up over these 45 years? A reflection on some qualities of leadership from a… Read More »Grenada at 45: Dr. Anthony Bridgeman Reflects on Grenada and Leadership.

Reading Time 5 minsJanuary 7, 2019 VOICES CARRY by Mervyn Taylor 102 pp. Shearsman Books. In this sixth collection of poems from Mervyn Taylor–a seasoned poet, whose brilliant, incisive, powerful first collection I had the pleasure of reviewing—the verse abounds with intensity, subtlety and a preoccupation with everyday matters, large and small.   Through humor and irony filtered into language that is both sublime and quotidian, the poet tackles a myriad of topics such as the disappearance of his favorite childhood spaces in Belmont, the rising violence in his native land of Trinidad, gentrification in Brooklyn, and the weight of… Read More »Giving Substance to Memory: A Review of Mervyn Taylor’s Voices Carry by Lennel George