bigdrumnation

Reading Time 6 minsJanuary 30, 2024   “The stand is like a wooden shelf after a storm…. All I can see is some broken bottles so far/ An indication the Carnival is over.”                                                                                                                          – Kitch, “The Carnival is Over”   When the speaker was summoned to the podium at the July 2008 UWI (Mona) Conference, I, in my naiveté, half expected to hear boos and catcalls, for he was a checkered career in politics. Yet, when he rose to speak before many grassroots Jamaicans and quite a few old-time radicals, there was peaceful silence throughout his presentation. Indeed, the… Read More »‘The Root of Our Trouble’: The Crisis of Leadership in Trinidad and Tobago? — Winthrop R. Holder

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Reading Time 1 minsDecember 22, 2023 Fueled by nationalist passion, the Guyana – Venezuela conflict is currently one of the gravest threats to peace in the Caribbean and Latin American region. In “Guyana and Venezuela Playing a Dangerous Zero-Sum Game,” Clyde Weatherhead unpacks the danger of brinkmanship, a game in which Guyana’s ‘gain’ is equivalent to Venezuela’s. So, the net change in wealth or benefit is a moot, only mutual destruction. In “The Caribbean: A Zone of Peace, not a Battlefield for Imperialist Ambitions,” Martin P. Felix explores how the region can avoid this trajectory and emerge as a symbol… Read More »The Caribbean: A Zone of Peace!

Reading Time 4 minsDecember 22, 2023 ‘The OAS and other military pacts are multilateral. The escalating presence of the US military, its Southern Command, military exercises, etc, is only the other side of the coin of Venezuela’s military build-up. Both engage in dangerous saber-rattling and push toward military conflict rather than a win-win negotiated resolution. The US must not be allowed to push this region into the kind of savage war that is going on in the Middle East right now.’ The goal of conflict resolution is to arrive at a resolution that is beneficial to all the parties. This… Read More »Guyana and Venezuela Playing a Dangerous Zero-Sum Game — Clyde Weatherhead

Reading Time 10 minsDecember 21, 2023 ‘Perhaps the most extensive injustice is that the indigenous people of the region, who have experienced genocide and have otherwise been historically marginalized, have not been considered in these decisions. Neither are the issues of exploitation and rape of the indigenous people of the Essequibo region, cross-border crime, migration issues, and the environmental threat to an area that is regarded as one of the best-preserved parts of the Amazon biome.’   In his infamous Star Wars speech on March 10, 1983, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan declared in no uncertain terms that his administration… Read More »The Caribbean: A Zone of Peace, Not a Battlefield for Imperial Ambitions — Martin P. Felix

Reading Time 2 minsOctober 28, 2023   Persophone DaCosta Winner Brooklyn’s 2022 Citywide Flag Award For Teaching Excellence.   “My body starts to move[in the pool]. Any stress, anxiety, sadness, or illness… dissipate. Flags … waving in the air, waistlines rotating… It is more than exercise, more than a workout. This is how I Self-Care and Care for My Community Of Sisters.” Join award-winning Batingua Arts Artistic Director Persephone DaCosta in an in-person Community Caribbean Fitness Session at Mierlyin Dance Studio, Valley Stream, NY, today at 9:30 a.m. and Virtually next week, November 4, 2023, at the same time. Last… Read More »Dancing & Drumming Through the Fall: The Healing and Empowering Powers of Afro-Caribbean Music With Persophone DaCosta/BDN EDITORS

Reading Time 5 mins August 31, 2023 “David is the only person in the Caribbean who has ever been imprisoned for writing a letter.”   What a mind, David’s capacity to overcome obstacles and keep his focus. I sense that he has been doing that since early childhood. For sure, this was very present in his accomplishments at Sandhurst. In that racist institution, he was awarded the stick for being the top Overseas Cadet of his intake. You can read Overseas to mean black, brown, and yellow skin color officer cadets. On his return to Trinidad, there was no acknowledgment… Read More »Lieutenant David Brizan, That Stoic, Elusive Warrior – Rex Lassalle

Reading Time 2 mins                               August 31, 2023 Commemorating Emancipation provides apt opportunities to recognize the spiritual and intellectual forces that have kept us going during enslavement and our ongoing quest for self-determination and reparatory justice. Our African-retentive Kaiso music originated in our struggle for emancipation and permeates our essence. Yet, our indigenous arts have been slighted, not given fair credit in scholarships compared to the established icons of social and political sciences and art flowing from ‘our’ European ‘heritage.’ August 1 marked 189 years since… Read More »Freedom’s Continuous Journey: August Emancipation Month Roundup

Reading Time 3 mins August 31, 2023 Gods of Bruising, the debut novel of Dara Wilkinson Bobb, is a family tragedy centered on nineteen-year-old fraternal twins Dominic and Diallo. It opens with the accidental death of their parents. It examines how this tragedy upends lives while painting a picture of a community of colorful characters living together in a neighborhood that Dominic describes as “gone from middle class to lower middle class to having some elements of a rough block” or as the middle-class policeman derisively calls it “rats teeth poor people.”  This engaging and short but easy-to-read novel is… Read More »READING Dara Wilkinson Bobb’s ‘Gods Of Bruising’ Through An EMANCIPATORY LENS

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