My friend Ken Shipley honored in Antigua

My friend Ken is a good webmaster /graphic designer and an entrepreneur ! He created his company searchantigua.com a couple of years ago. He is always willing to give a hand on project for Culture or social groups...

On Sunday, 7th December 2008, Ken Shipley, was recognized for his talents as a young entrepreneur at the yearly National Youth Awards.
The National Youth Awards is an initiative to celebrate the effort, talent, commitment and diligence of youth and the importance of their contribution to national development.

Congrats to him !

Africulture Website new version

I invite everybody to visit the famous www.africultures.com new version, this website is a mine !!!

I know them from long time and the website has an english section as well. an invitation to discover the incredible diversity and modernity of african creativity...

Jamaica 2nd Reggae Film Festival !

An interesting event! Remind me this St Lucian group Psychokey (they not anymore in the country) who created a live music show based on a movie projected in the back of the stage, the story was about a Ras and his plantation burnt by helicopters... well for sure they could participate in this film festival. www.psychokey.com

Come Monday, February 23 to Friday February 27, 2009, Jamaica will host the second Annual Reggae Film Festival, at Emancipation Park, in Kingston. This event is organised by the Jamaica Film Academy (JFA), through the Ministry of Information, Culture, Youth and Sports (MICYS).

"As you know, the MICYS has many divisions that have film making arms, you have the Creative Production and Training Centre, Media Technology Institute, Jamaica Information Service, Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica, to name a few... plus it also has the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission. So, this is really the place where we see we can finally make something equivalent to the Cuban Film Institute, which has film making under one umbrella, and has therefore become the most productive film country in the region, and one might even say, the hemisphere," Miss Hannah pointed out.

The patrons would see films that they have never seen in Jamaica and probably would never see in Jamaica, but for the Festival. Entries have already started to come in. "We already got a lovely entry from Italy that won the Babel Gum on-line Film Festival award that was judged by Spike Lee and the award was presented at the last Cannes Film Festival,".

The Festival is scheduled for Monday, February 23 to Friday February 27, 2009. There will be screenings in the day under a large tent and during the nights in the open air. Ms. Hannah is encouraging all Jamaicans to support the event, which is free to the public.

The first Reggae Film Festival was held in Kingston, from February 20 to 22, 2008, and showcased several films that have been made about Jamaica's Reggae music and culture. Most of the films were making their debut in Jamaica, as many of them had been made by non-Jamaicans living and working outside the country.

www.jamaicafilmacademy.org/

Cable and Wireless versus LIME ? the taste is sour...

Leaving in the Caribbean and working in all the region, I feel to say something about the corporate image change of Cable and Wireless.

This change of marketing option is a desaster. My fruits vendor in the market said: from Cable and Wireless to Lime ? this is sour !

The company hired to create the entire thing is, as I heard, from Australia. I am as a strong advocate of Culture and self representation and I regret that these guys ignore totally the cultural representation of the islands.

First the choice of color make no sense in the environnement - black as an identity ???
- hello !! here black is the color of mourning and devils during carnaval ! It is as well a color associated to Africa which is very low rated in the scale of values (ask slavery system about this !).
So here we are: LIME employees all in black...
and perception of the public is, is he/she autie died ?

The other impact of this colour is on marketing material. The black is used on bus stops, shops, cars. Have you even stay in a black house in the Caribbean ?
LIME seems to promote the climate change ! this is like an oven... thanks to Lime think-tank team and brilliant consultants.

Second the little illustration for communication: a mouth with the tongue out, is quite absurd in our context. This still a rude attitude here (behave yourself!), and the design inspired by the famous Rolling stone tongue is even not nice...
I've seen in St Lucia a wooden restaurant shop with an ugly soft sandwich designed on it... is that supposed to represent food ? where ?

My question is what is the cost of this mutation ? is the company never considered the people in the Caribbean ?

Well as an illustration, here is a little house "boutique" in Belles in Dominica before and after !
I interviewed the guy who was painting it: he said it is ugly but the company change is giving him a lot of work ... so it look like at the end not everybody is complaining !

Les jeunes de project strong à St Kitts et Nevis

et ben ! ceux là étaient particulièrement agités et attachant. Ils ont failli bouffer notre consultant irlandais Matt (charmant par ailleurs, un bon camarade très enjoué) qui devenait tout rouge...

Le centre est tenu par M. Washington Archibald, un personnage celui là ! avec ses pantoufles, il a été principal pendant longtemps - et va les chercher maintenant au tribunal où il est la dernière chance avant la prison.

Ce qui est rigolo ce sont ses méthodes très peu orthodoxes: il leur apprend le golf par exemple (vu que dans la très chic et proprette St Kitts il y en a 2 ou moins), et il fait venir des prisonniers pour faire les travaux du centre, histoire pour eux de côtoyer un peu les jeunes et de leur parler pour les inciter à pas faire de conneries.
Bon en tout cas, les jeunes là sont pas trop concentrés mais toujours content de s'exprimer: ils ont créée des histoires super et ils ont même fait des petites pièces de théâtre pour le même prix...

une ambiance d'enfer à St Vincent!

Lors de mon court passage à St Vincent et les Grenadines la semaine dernière, je me suis dit: oh là là! qu'est ce que je vais faire un dimanche soir à Kingstown ?
La ville était pleine de gens, venus en famille voir le spectacle sur la place traditionnelle de la ville (petite et biscornue), sur la scène la Ministre de la Culture (et de bien d'autre choses!) trônait de toute son ampleur, les groupes de danse locaux et les chorales se succédaient entrecoupé de Soca du carnaval !!!

Une foule compacte dans les magasins faisant nocturne, les vendeurs de jouets, boisson et plats cuisinés dans le coffre de leur pick-up et les rues illuminées m'ont étonné par leur empressement. Et ttou ça, bien avant les fameux "neuf Matins" tradition de nöel de St Vincent qui amène à l'aube tout un pays au bord de l'eau.
Bref, c'est confirmé ce qui fait bouger les Vicentiens, c'est Noël !

En prime, je rencontre mon ami Tony, directeur de la Culture et son pantalon rouge en satin du meilleur effet.

Reggae Love fest in St Lucia

This year again we have a Love fest festival in St Lucia of hight quality with a line-up this year including Vybz Kartel, Opal, Serani, Cocoa Tea, Richie Spice and Eric Donaldson.

The very interesting is Richie Spice ! The New York Times named “Spice in Your Life” one the best reggae releases of 2004. Spice’s next album “In The Streets to Africa” has since been released riding on hits like “Brown Skin” and “Open the Door” (produced by popular New York radio personality, Hot 97’s Bobby Konders). Konders also produced Spice’s “Youth So Cold” which peaked at number 59 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Chart in 2005.



Yesterday St Lucia has a lot of traffic, including plenty people from Martinique as well.

Voyages dans les pays de l'OECS - POETA

Me voilà de nouveau en tournée dans les pays de l'OECS pour une mission avec POETA, un projet de l'Organisation des Pays des Amériques - OAS - qui forme les jeunes expulsés de l'école et à "problème" à la préparation au monde du travail, à l'informatique, à l'instruction civique.

La tournée se passe bien, avec des jeunes turbulents mais qui sont valorisés par leur pratique de l'ordinateur. Ils ont pas trop l'habitude d'être écouté et racontent des histoires traumatiques: viol, violence, abandon par les adultes... l'autre côté de la plage quoi.

Chaque pays a un partenaire, centre de formation continue, et je prépare un système d'auto-évaluation en ligne pour les jeunes. Ils n'ont pas l'habitude de s'évaluer et on souvent des problèmes de représentation de soi (certains sont en contrôle judiciaire). Comment les faire passer du jugement par les institutions, les adultes, les éducateurs à un regard sur soi positif et constructif ?
c'est ce que je cherche à faire !

www.poetayouth.org

a cultural place in Roma about Africa and Black litterature

A call to all globetrotters !!! If you going to Roma please visit this place.

I have this friend from Italy, she opened a very interesting place in Roma, it is called Griot temporio. It is a cafe and a bookshop, they organise concerts, lectures and debates on Africa litterature and actuality.
You can learn Swahili, Wolof, and participate to writing worshops.

This is a beautiful place with beautiful people to meet...

www.griotemporio.it

info@griotemporio.it

United States Embassy “Cultural Envoy Program” 2009 Call for Proposals

“Cultural Envoy Program” 2009 Call for Proposals

The United States Embassy in Bridgetown Barbados announces a “Call for Proposals” from organizations in Antigua/Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts/Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Proposals should be e-mailed to bridgetownpublicaffairs@state.gov by January 5, 2009.

Please direct inquiries and questions to bridgetownpublicaffairs@state.gov

Below is a brief description of the United States Department of State’s Cultural Envoy Program:

“The cultural envoy program is designed to support projects in which an American can have an in-depth relationship with a cultural or educational institution through intensive interaction with foreign participants over an extended period of time. Through various teaching methods, the envoy is expected to help improve the foreign participants' professional performance level and understanding of American techniques or approaches in a given field. Special consideration will be given to projects that include dynamic parallel outreach to the broader community, particularly to marginalized youth and to minorities.

The cultural envoy program supports short-term programs (10-days to six weeks) for one or two American performing/visual artists, art educators and arts managers to conduct innovative projects through workshops, master classes, lecture demonstrations, seminars, or other training and mentoring for younger professionals.