armelle on the road

Mes étudiants de français jouent Molière à St Lucie

2010-03-23T18:34:00.006-04:00

Francophonie day à St Lucie!

Ma classe de littérature française de SALCC a préparé une scène du Bourgeois Gentilhomme et c'était rigolo, surtout le U !!

donc voici Monsieur et Madame Jourdain en pleine dispute et la servante Nicole qui se mèle de tout !

merci à Aviane, Keesha et Shaan pour leurs efforts et à toute l'équipe qui les a aidé pendant les 10 jours de répétition.

some pictures from the fun launching of Aimé césaire book

2010-03-23T17:03:00.004-04:00

I had fun introducing aimé Césaire to young artist of ST lucia and watch what they did with it !!!

armelle

word alive the poster

2010-03-23T13:53:00.002-04:00

word alive festival programme

2010-03-23T13:46:00.002-04:00

Thursday 25th March 2010, 6.00 pm

Hosted by Barbara Small Jacobs

Address: Adrian Augier
John Robert Lee

7.00 pm : Book Fair Opens
Music by Mamai Kw’yol

World Premiere Launch of Derek Walcott’s ‘White Egrets’

Introduction by Eddie Baugh
Poet and Professor Emeritus UWI Mona, Jamaica
Readings by Derek Walcott

Book Sales and Signing Reception

Word and Image: Secondary Schools Visual Art Exhibition Inspired by the poetry of Derek Walcott

The Moving Metaphor:
Video installation By Davina Lee

Friday 26th March 2010

Film conference
Host for opening: Bernard Fanis
Dr. Hilary Brown on Standby to deliver Feature address
Sugesstion: Davina to introduce all presenters and panelists for the day

7.00 pm Opening Address
Sen. Hon. Allen Chastanet, Minister of Tourism and Civil Aviation

Feature Address
Dr. Len Ishmael, Director General Of The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States

Film Conference Session 1: A Caribbean Film Aesthetic

Presenters of FCS1:
Mahmood Patel , Filmmaker
Introduction of presenter by Davina Lee

Film Session 1’s Panel:
Larry Bain of Alexander Bain Productions
Lisa Dublin of Shine Studios

Film Conference Session 2
From Dream To Screen: The Business of Film Making

Presenter of FCS2: Frances Anne Solomon

Film Session 2’s Panel:
Mathurine Emmanuel
Jessica Canham

Lunch Film

Film Conference Session 3
Building Capacity: Film and the Future of Caribbean Creative Industries

Presenters of FCS3:
Tony Coco-Viloin,Film Commissioner, Guadeloupe

Film Session 3’s Panel:
Panel
Anita Bully, Film Commissioner, Dominica

Book Fair Opens

Introductory Film: Power of the Vagina

Feature Film Presentation: A Winter Tale, By Frances Anne Solomon

Saturday 27th March 2010

Word Alive 5 Judges
Alwin Bully, McDonald Dixon, Kentillia Louis

MC: Pringles
After Word Lime With DJ Play and Scady

Film Workshop: Cinematography Presenter of Film Workshop: Mahmood Patel

Book Fair Opens

Word Alive 5 Competition
Featuring : Roger Bonair-Agard ,Trinidad New York, Kei Miller, Jamaica

Sunday 28th March 2010 10.00 am

Book Fair Opens, signature of books

Brunch Under the Big Tent

a happening for the launching of the Cesaire booklet

2010-03-15T21:03:00.003-04:00

The OULA Publishers launch

The event will be a cultural evocation with music, poetry, painting, slam, theatre, film and video art... A complete tribute in English and French to the man and the poet, including young St Lucian artist's production and Césaire's text.

with contribution from:
Naomie Grandison (song)
Julius Hollenseide (sound)
Shayne Cherry (poetry)
Clayton Rhule (visual arts)
Davina Lee (film)
Glenn Charléry (Poetry)
Nya Sydney (poetry/song)
Germaine Joseph (scenography)
Chavon Cazaubon (acting)
Mc Donald Dixon (poetry)
Luther Francois (music)
Antonia (dance)
Marc Matthew (theatre)
Kendel Hippolyte (theatre)

And a cocktail...

On Wednesday 17th March, 2010 from 6:30pm at the Alliance Française Pyramid.

Contact: Oulapublishers@gmail.com.
The booklet is available for purchase in local bookshops.

is organised in collaboration with: the Alliance Française, Headphunk, All Biz Limited and Options Inc.
thank you to all of them for their support.

My little booklet Once upon a time aimé Césaire

2010-03-15T17:20:00.004-04:00

This is it, here is the english version of Once upon a time Aimé Césaire: a Martiniquan Poet.
This booklet is for young readers and students, just to give a flair of the man and artist, just to tease the curiosity and provide a minimum of information to young generation and english speakers who do not know about him.

All the books of my publishing company based in ST Lucia are printed in 3 languages: english, french and spanish - now communication and distribution are the challenges. If you know about any education institution interested in providing appropriate and cheap material to students... please contact me.

the booklet is available for sale in bookshops in St Lucia and soon in the region (working on it !) - but you can contact me if you want some. (12$EC/3€/ 4SUD)

next step after the french and the english version, the spanish one !
for a more integrated caribbean.

a new theater play in St Lucia!

2010-03-03T22:36:00.002-04:00

the poster says all !

Headphunk at Charms Thursday 4th March

2010-03-03T14:43:00.002-04:00

Here they are again ...
the group of poets, slamers, drumers, musicians and designers of St Lucia will perform at Charms from 7pm.

join us................

the Obama text on the race issue in USA - a play in St Lucia

2010-03-03T14:36:00.003-04:00

It was yesterday at the Cultural Center,
a very interesting event.
The text in extenso of Obama with just one actor and no effects.

I find it a success... thank you to José Pliya...

BBC search for 2mn documentaries

2010-02-16T17:09:00.001-04:00

The BBC - BBC World TV and World Service radio is looking for 2 minute documentaries from audiences everywhere. Someone wins a prize and some entrants get to see their work on the BBC. They also get their work looked at by distinguished curators from around the world.

The contest is called MyWorld and all the details are here:

www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/specialreports/myworld.shtml

Africa World Documentary Film Festival in BARBADOS

2010-02-09T16:31:00.003-04:00

Africa World Documentary Film Festival,
BARBADOS

Feb 18-21 2010 at EBCCI Cinemateque.

Last year’s first Africa World Documentary Film Festival met with such a warm welcome from the Barbados audience that it’s become an annual event. The second Festival will take place from 18-21 February in the Cinemateque of the Errol Barrow Centre for Creative Imagination.

AWDFF is the result of an international partnership between the Center for International Studies at the University of Missouri, Saint Louis and the Department of Language, Linguistics and Literature, UWI, Cave Hill. The AWDFF sees documentary filmmaking as having a special role to play in capturing and representing the lives and cultures of the people of Africa and of African descent worldwide. This year, there will be 25 films set in South Africa, Cuba, Brazil, Jamaica, Senegal, Ghana, Guinea, Haiti, Dominican Republic,
Rwanda, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Kenya, St Croix, Mali, Rwanda, Ivory Coast and the USA. Dealing with subjects from disability to empowerment, genocide, loss and redemption to creativity against the odds, the documentary format shows us the many ways we define ourselves and the multiple uses of film.

Through the Festival, not only are film-makers from Africa and the diaspora in dialogue, but so are audiences in St Louis and Barbados. So that the St Louis Director and his team, as well as the local curators, can exchange views with the audience, discussion time has been built into the programme. Screenings run 6-10 on Thursday and Friday, 2-10 on Saturday and 3-10 on Sunday.

The full programme is available on
http://www.cavehill.uwi.edu/fhe/SpecialEvents/AfricaWorld.htm

Or: www.cfis-umsl.com and click on AWDFF

WORDalive 5 - more petry in St Lucia

2010-01-27T17:30:00.001-04:00

poetry with music WORDALIVE5

is on…! Sat.March.27.2010 SAMAANS PARK - 8.00 PM

Dynamic performances, new and emerging poets!

competing and non-competing CASH AWARDS to top performers

Pre-Register NOW!

send name and contact info:

info@landmarkcaribbean.com

Recent samples also useful

sponsored by 1st National Bank …here for you in association with

landmarkevents and The St. Lucia Art Festivals Company

Headphunk - poetry event in Castries

2010-01-27T14:56:00.001-04:00

Headphunk is on again at the same venue, Charms Cafe. - Castries

Thursday January 28th from 7pm

Our feature writer for the night will be Kendel Hippolyte.

Come listen to established poets, alongside new upcoming writers, and original music.

headphunk: evoking creative consciousness

Labowi promotions E-Forum

2010-01-20T14:37:00.000-04:00

Labowi promotions E-Forum: Laborians Home & Abroad: Partners in Development

On behalf of the Nobel Laureate Week Committee chaired by Her Excellency Dame Pearlette Louisy, and in collaboration with the Laborie Development Foundation, we are pleased to invite you to participate in the e-Forum that will take place between the morning of Thursday 21 January and the evening of Sunday 24 January. The theme of this e-Forum is "LABORIANS HOME AND ABROAD: PARTNERS IN DEVELOPMENT". Its purpose is to bring together Laborians at home and abroad, especially young people, to discuss their respective roles in community development, and how they can work more closely together. We expect that this e-Forum will help to improve communication between Laborians at home and abroad, to increase the involvement of Laborians living overseas in community development activities in Laborie, and to identify possible joint activities.

The e-Forum will be hosted by http://www.facebook.com/l/449df;www.ilovelaborie.com, the community's new Website. To participate, log-on to the e-forum section of the site, where you will find very simple instructions on how to contribute to the discussion, with four sets of questions:
what can Laborie do for Laborians overseas?
what can Laborians living overseas do for Laborie?
how can Laborians and Friends of Laborie remain in touch and informed about the development of the community?
what are the priority projects that Laborians at home and abroad can work on together, with other partners, for the benefit of the community?

WOle OSyinka conference in ST Lucia - my introduction

2010-01-19T08:43:00.004-04:00

Hey people,

here is the text of my introduction.
Wole Soyinka text will be printed soon.

I will post more picture later.

Introduction of Professor Wole Soyinka

Nobel Laureate Week – Derek Walcott lecture
18th January 2010
By Armelle Chatelier

Her Excellency Dame Pearlette Louisy, Governor General of St Lucia
Prime Minister the Hon. Stephenson King
Hon. Ministers: …
Members of the Diplomatic corps
Lady Lewis & family
Sir Dunstan & Lady St Omer

Derek & Sigrid Nama

Wole

You will have noticed that I used only the first names of the two writers
present and recipients of the Nobel Prize,
well because Wole said:
« This prize has such prestige and impact on people’s imagination at all
levels that you become the property of the world».

Well, Yes you are.

In St Lucia we say, “Derek said, or Derek is doing this”, and nobody asks
which Derek. In West Africa when we talk about Wole… everybody knows just who is meant.

It surely takes a lot of work to “make a name” but the ultimate achievement is to become a first name, familiar and close to the
people.

I have 5 minutes to introduce Akinwande Oluwole "Wole" Soyinka to you. How can I avoid the two difficulties of the exercise – platitude and panegyric?

To do so, I will invoke the spirits of my mother family, Griots from Senegal (a caste of historians, storytellers and musicians) who walk alongside the
great men of West Africa, accompany them, give them the words, keep and transmit their memories.

It is friendship that brings Wole over the seas, to meet his brother in
literature, in theatre, in Nobel recognition: Derek Walcott.
If you meet the man, you meet the country.
Who is Derek Walcott without St Lucia?
and What is St Lucia without Africa ?

Despite the enforced amnesia – Africa is everywhere, in traces, as
reference, in the faces of the people in St Lucia. There is a persistent
memory that fights against the denial: the food, the dances, the music, the
language – they all include, woven in the social fabric, the motherland. The
last Kele (Shango) priest of St Lucia was, till the 90’s, using a West African
language in his ceremony… when he invoked Yorùbá spirits, right here in Fond Assau.

I am invoking the Yorùbá deity Ogun - whom Wole Soyinka regards as kindred and protector spirit - to guide us as we appreciate the special man we have with us tonight.

It is the power of roots and Culture that motivates him to be “raconter”, to
tell and to show in 8 poetry collections, 5 memoirs, 2 novels, 21 plays and
5 collections of essays, the essence of Human Nature.

As Wole says “Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.” And the words on paper put him at great personal risk and eventually led him to jail.

It is the injustice that drives him to identify with the people of Biafra, with the people of Nigeria, with all the oppressed people in the world against military governments here and there, denouncing “the oppressive boot and the irrelevance of the colour of the foot that wears it".

As a writer, he helps us to continue to dream of an Africa of peace, creativity, solidarity, mediation. As a man of action, he gives us courage everywhere.

Wole said “And wherever humanity is involved, that's my constituency”.

Indeed St Lucia with its Ameridian people, African people, European people, Indian people, is a microcosm of the world, a cross section of humanity.

Well to finish - I caution Professor Soyinka:
Be careful ! Dame Pearlette once joked that there must be something in St Lucia’s water for us to have two Nobel Prize winners so stick to the wine you appreciate so much, because after this trip you may receive an other Nobel Prize.

Folk research center has a new site - under construction

2010-01-15T17:10:00.002-04:00

Hey,

I am working on FRC website
hope you will like it
more info online, text, vidoe, audio and photos...

it must be a super website with unique content.

I will inform you of the launching soon.

UWI pays tirubte to Derek Walcott -

2010-01-15T17:09:00.003-04:00

St Lucia is renowned as the birthplace of 1992 Nobel Laureate for Literature Derek Walcott. There’s even a bust of the literary giant in the Derek Walcott Square. The island, fondly dubbed the “Helen of the West Indies”, was also the home of the late University of the West Indies (UWI) lecturer Dr Patricia Ismond.
Ismond also had the distinction of examining Walcott’s work in “Abandoning Dead Metaphors: The Caribbean Phase of Derek Walcott’s Poetry”...

read more

Wole Soyinka is coming to St Lucia !!!

2010-01-14T14:39:00.003-04:00

WOLE is coming to ST Lucia !!
he is arriving saturday and leaving the tuesday...

His lecture is the Monday 18th January at 7.30 at NIS conference center.

The African-Caribbean Association of St lucia is organising sunday a boat ride for him to the Pitons..; with a short visit in Soufrière Area.

and he will assist to the launching of the Nobel Laureate week sunday night.

I will have the honour to introduce him before his lecture and this is too much for my little shoulders of franco-senegalase women adopted in St Lucia :-)

anyway we will have a great time with the meeting Derek Walcott - Wole Soyinka over the ocean and joining for theater and poetry.

well..; I will give you some news and post some pictures of our great trip and intellectual journey to the country of Ogun - nigerian god protecting WOle.

I just watch news on BBC and see Wole Soyinka not happy about politicians of his country, some news about NIgeria...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jan/12/nigeria-president-quash-death-rumours

nobel Laureate week in St Lucia - programme

2010-01-08T13:34:00.004-04:00

Nobel Laureate Week 2010
January 17th to 23rd

Theme: Celebrating Excellence At Home and Abroad

Sunday, January 17th

OPENING OF NOBEL LAUREATE WEEK

Staging of “The Harrowing of Benjy” by the Soufriere Action Theatre and extracts from the “Joker of Seville” by the School Performing Arts Company – National Cultural Centre, 6:30.p.m.

Monday, January 18th
Youth Video Conference “Homecoming”– UWI Open Campus, Morne Fortune 10:00 a.m.

Derek Walcott Lecture – Delivered by Wole Soyinka, Nobel Laureate (Literature 1986), National Insurance Centre Conference Room, 7:30 p.m.

Tuesday, January 19th
The National Awards of Excellence hosted by the Ministry of Education and Culture – National Cultural Centre, 10:00 am.

Book Launch – “Love Me” by Gemma Weekes – UWI Open Campus, Morne Fortune, 6:00 p.m.

Re-Launch of Television Series “New Perspectives”, Panel discussion – HTS Channels 4, 34, 8:30 p.m.

Wednesday, January 20th
Schools’ Choral Music Festival – National Cultural Centre, 10.00 a.m.

Thursday, January 21st
Opening of The National Portrait Gallery – St. Lucia National Archives, 10:00 a.m.

Web-Based Seminar - Laborie Community Internet Forum hosted by www.ilovelaborie.com, continuing to 24th January)

Sir Arthur Lewis Memorial Lecture - Presented by Mr Peter Adrien - National Insurance Centre Conference Room, 7:30 p.m.

Friday, January 22nd
Wreath-laying Ceremony – Tomb of Sir Arthur Lewis, Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, 10:00 a.m.

Arts and Crafts Showcase hosted by Options Designs – Derek Walcott Square, 10:00 a.m.

St Mary’s College Tribute to the Laureates – National Cultural Centre, 7:30 p.m.

Saturday, January 23rd NOBEL LAUREATE DAY

Radio St Lucia’s “80 in 80” Final Programme – Live broadcast from the Derek Walcott Square, from 9:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

St Lucia Chamber of Commerce Business Awards – hosted by the St Lucia Chamber of Commerce, Sandals Grande St Lucian Spa and Beach Resort, 7:30 p.m.

“Breakout” – Dance production performed by the Silver Shadow Performing Arts Academy, National Cultural Centre, 8:00 p.m.

Friday, January 29th
and “Pantomime” by Derek Walcott – A Dramaworks

Saturday, January 30th
(Barbados) Production – National Cultural Centre, 8:00 p.m.

more on face book http://www.facebook.com/reqs.php#/group.php?gid=181208835981

Launching of Gemma weekes book in St lucia

2010-01-08T13:28:00.003-04:00

Programmed into Nobel Laureate Week celebrations,
January 19th launcing of St Lucian book, the novel Love Me! of Gemma Weekes young st lucian author.

the event will include a reading of some excerpts from the critically-acclaimed work, some music, and a Q&A session.
It is free entry and there will be books on sale!

UWI Open Campus
on the Morne Fortune
at 6:00
the 19th January.

happy new year to all !!

2010-01-08T12:50:00.002-04:00

There is a lot of things happening in St Lucia for this new year and I was busy with end of year activities (including parties !)

well, here are the good news....

again the Festival Vibrations Caraibes in Paris

2009-12-04T12:56:00.003-04:00

Everybody know Coline Toumson in St Lucia,
she used to live here for some months.
She created this beautiful Festival 3 years ago
It presents visual arts, music and conferences during 2 weeks in Paris.
Participants are from all the Caribbean...
from the 3rd to the 15th december 09

http://www.vibrationscaraibes.com

NATIONAL ARTS & CULTURAL FESTIVAL in St Lucia

2009-11-28T21:15:00.002-04:00

NATIONAL ARTS & CULTURAL FESTIVAL in St Lucia
a sample of the ear production

Opening Night
Saturday 28th November - 6:30 pm ($10.00)

Visual Arts Exhibition

Monday 30th November to Saturday 5th December, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm

Book Fair
Monday 30th November to Saturday 5th December, 10:00 am to 6:00 pm

Drama Nights

Monday 30th November - 8:00 pm ($20.00)

Tuesday 1st December - 8:00 pm ($20.00)

**Film & Audio-Visual Night [organised by PACE]

Wednesday 2nd December - 7:00 pm ($5.00)

Dance Nights

Thursday 3rd December - 8:00 pm ($20.00)

Friday 4th December - 8:00 pm ($20.00)

Folk & Traditional Night

Saturday 5th December - 7:00 pm ($20.00)

-----------------------------------------------------

Festival of Carols
St Peter’s Catholic Church in Dennery
Sunday 6th December - 7:00 pm

Head PHunk - creative counciousness

2009-11-23T16:44:00.004-04:00

Head Hunk
la nouvelle scène St Lucienne !!
de la poésie, du SLAM, des percusssions.

Head Phunk - Evoke Creative Consciousness

Last night’s Performers

Katherine Atkinson
Stan Bishop
Glen Charlery
Jason Sifflet
Jason Lovence
Naomi Grandison
Diana from Guyana
Kingsley Peter
Gemma Blasse
Shirnelle Charles
Rhikki Alexander (wrote on spot and performed ‘A City’s Death by Lack of Fire’)
Stephen Dantes with Naya and Jason Lovence backing up
Shayne Ross

Next Head Phunk, coming soon

PACE Strategic plan meeting

2009-11-23T14:44:00.003-04:00

Workshop on a Strategic Plan for PACE
Thurs Nov 19th at 9:00 a.m. at the Pastoral Centre

The meeting was attended by 30 persons from various sectors. A good, short and productive meeting indeed !

A draft plan was circulated earlier for comments. This crucial meeting laid down a strategic plan for the CREATIVE SECTOR in St Lucia which includes fashion, music, film, visual and performing arts, arts and crafts, advertising, audio-visual and architecture.

This plan will guide the work of PACE for the next 2-3 years so please we need your involvement.
Maxine Alleyne-Esprit of the Export Development Unit of the OECS Secretariat will be there as well as Dr Cletus Bertin who presented about ICT and Culture.

This workshop was made possible by the assistance of SLSCI.

PACE had a beautiful week / PACE et sa belle semaine

2009-11-23T13:12:00.006-04:00

Two activities with Frances Ann Solomon in St Lucia

Friday Nov 20th – Film Premier of ‘A Winter Tale’

Trinidadian Film Director Frances-Anne Solomon was here on Friday for the St. Lucia premier of her film “A Winter Tale”. Ms. Solomon who now lives in Canada also puts on annual film festivals there featuring Caribbean and African film producers. Come support a Caribbean film producer.
The Caribbean Cinemas as agreed to premier the film. Ms. Solomon met with members of PACE after the film in the party room at the Cinema.

Saturday Nov 21st – Workshop with Trinidad Film Producer

On Saturday November 21st at 3:00p.m. at Bay Gardens Inn we hosted a session with Frances-Anne Solomon to discuss a number of film related issues – she was talking about her experience as a film director/producer, the Caribbean Tales film festival in Canada and the possibilities for St. Lucian film producers in Canada.

http://caribbeantales.ca/filmfestival/

Carbon emission - events

2009-11-23T12:57:00.002-04:00

I found this website who is helping event manager to estimate their Carbon emission by event !

it is in french only but I am sure we can find the same in english...
It is time for the Caribbean to get involved in carbon emission advocacy, so all the festivals in the region can show to their public that we are in it !

http://www.evenementresponsable.fr/comment-ca-marche.php

a film festival in Dominican Republic !

2009-11-11T13:01:00.004-04:00

18-22 November 2009 - 3rd edition of the Dominican Global Film Festival

An other film event in the region !
It seems that film and audio visual is badly needed in the caribbean - well more opporutnities to show our local production as well.

let's make movies now.

Claude Lévi-strauss est mort... triste journée / Claude Lévi-Strauss died

2009-11-03T17:21:00.003-04:00

C'est bien triste en effet même s'il avait 100 ans !
tant de choses à dire... voyons ici un bel article pour non spécialistes.

http://www.liberation.frculture/0101601012-levi-strauss-un-deracine-chronique

donc relire Tristes Tropiques...

the first Caribbean manga from French West Indies

2009-10-30T12:18:00.003-04:00

Hey do you know that teenagers are reading more mangas than anything else ?
based on this, Caraibe éditions created the first Caribbean Manga done by Elodie koeger and Hector Poullet well known for his translation in kreol of many comic strips.

a nice book, who is helping in teaching teenagers in local culture in a fun way !

St Lucia has comic book as well done by St Omer... maybe a regional collaboration to push ?

www.caraibeditions.fr

A caribbean review of books !

2009-10-30T11:57:00.003-04:00

for all litterature lovers, local news and critics
go to visit the blog on caribbean review of books

www.antilles.blogspot.com/

only in english, sorry french folks...

a new blog on TV, cimema in Martinique

2009-10-29T11:04:00.003-04:00

here is a new blog about Image, TV and cinema in Martinique.

Unfortunlately, only in french but you can watch some videos of work in progress and launchings.

***************

un nouveau blog de réflexion sur l'image, le cinéma, la télévision en Martinique.

http://www.feyfepiti.net/

Upcoming Alliouagana Festival of the Word in Monserrat

2009-10-28T14:00:00.007-04:00

Celebrating Words Written, Spoken, Sung and Performed

THURSDAY 12 November 2009

7:00 p.m. Public Lecture by Professor Carolyn Cooper: "Sweet and Sour Sauce: Sexual Politics in Jamaican Dancehall Culture"

FRIDAY 13 November 2009

6:30 p.m. Cocktail Reception hosted by H.E. Governor Peter Waterworth and Mrs. Waterworth
7:00 p.m. Grand Opening Ceremony
• Prize-Giving for the 2009 Creative Writing Competition
8:00 p.m. CALYPSO REVIEW – Chair: Mr. C. T. John,
Professor Gordon Rohlehr: "Calypso Reinvents Itself"
Dr. Hollis (Chalkdust) Liverpool: “Smut in Calypso”
Kenneth Allen, QC: “Calypso: The Montserrat Perspective”
Dr. Clarice Barnes: “A Balancing Act”

9:00 p.m. Behind the Songs: Composers, Performers and Musicians
Speak: (Justin ‘Hero’ Cassell; Herman ‘Cupid’ Francis;
Cecil “Cepeke” Lake)
11:00 p.m. Calypso Lime and Extravaganza with Inna Vybes Band

SATURDAY 14 November 2009

9:00 a.m. Marie-Elena John: “From Novel to Screenplay: The Process with Unburnable”
10:00 a.m. Dr. Merle Hodge: Excerpts from 2 novels: Crick Crack, Monkey and For the Life of Laetitia
11:00 a.m. Yvonne Weekes: An extract from Volcano and from the new play Blue Soap
12:00 noon Open Mike Sessions with Professor Carolyn Cooper
1:00 p.m. Creative Writing (Poetry) Workshop with Professor Funso Aiyejina and Dr. Merle Hodge
3:00 p.m. Publishing Workshop with Cherise Fisher
4:00 pm Rachel Manley: Reading from Drumblair; Slipstream and Horses in her Hair
5:00 p.m. Funso Aiyejina: Reading from his collection of short stories The Legend of Rockhills and Other Stories
6:00 p.m. Pauline Melville: Excerpts from The Ventriloquist’s Tale and Eating Air, hot off the Press
8:00 p.m. Dramatic Performance: Storyteller Pierrot Grenade, Felix Edinborough arrives and Skit by Young Theatre Enthusiasts

SUNDAY 15 November 2009
10:00 a.m. Memoir Writing Workshop with Rachel Manley
11:00 a.m Rachel Manley: Reading from Drumblair; Slipstream and Horses in her Hair
12:00 noon In Translation Workshop with Edgar Nkosi White and Play Reading of Count It All Joy
1:00 p.m. Open Mike Sessions with Professor Carolyn Cooper
2:00 p.m. Earl Lovelace: Selections from A Brief Conversion and Other Stories, Salt, and from forthcoming Novel, It’s Just a Movie
3:00 p.m. Austin Clarke reading from More and The Polished Hoe
4:00 p.m. Edgar Nkosi White: Discussing Langston Hughes’ role as translator and the impact he had on Caribbean Writers;
Translations of Garcia Lorca’s A Poet in New York, Nicolas Guillen’s Son,Jacques Roumain Masters of the Dew and Sergei Esenin’s The Black Man
5:00 p.m. J. A.George Irish: Adding a Spanish Caribbean Flavour with his translations of Poetry by Nicolas Guillen. Also presenting on “Dramatic Traditions in Montserrat” (Major Vincent B. Browne “Brongo”; David Edgecombe; Edgar Nkosi White and Yvonne
Weekes
6:00 p.m. Howard Fergus: Reading from I Believe and new work about Obama
7:00 p.m. A Celebration of E. Archie Markham Pauline Melville “My Memories of Archie” and Excerpt from At Home with Miss Vanessa
Tribute from Tindall Street Press
Tribute by Prof. Howard Fergus and reading from Death in the Family

8:00 p.m. Dramatic Performance Pelau: The Second Serving produced by Plenty Plenty Yac Ya Ya (Chadd Cumberbatch, A-dZiko Simba and Friends)

www.litfest.ms

Touloulou french Guyana tradition in St Lucia

2009-10-26T16:42:00.003-04:00

You are invited in a French Guyana party at Gaiety saturday 31st October 09 from 8:00
with musicians Michel alexander and Quèquette King of Carnival 2009 ! come to discover a very a live tradition...

a presentation on Touloulou bal tradition was done at Alliance Francaise last thursday.
here are some pictures.

October Kreol month in St Lucia

2009-10-26T16:34:00.003-04:00

hey a lot of things happening in St Lucia for Kreol month ! The week end was busy in all activities.

Kreol Dikté competition is coming organised by Folk Research Center

conferences here is the program (it came a little late but is very intresting)

Tuesday 27th October SEMINARS:

Ms.Juliette SMERALDA: Problematic to the straightening of “Kinky” hair within the Afro-caribbean populations

Mr. Amilca DE VASSOIGNE, historian, Relationship between the African Culture and the Caribbean Culture

Both lectures will be presented in the Creole Language.
VENUE: The Alliance Francaise TIME: 6.00PM

Wednesday 28th October, KWEYOL POETRY AND MUSIC

Come and enjoy an evening of Music and Poetry which is part of the month-long Creole Heritage Month observances organized by the Folk Research Centre:

- Ras Isley
- Ken Hardy
- George “Fish” Alphonse
- Marcian JnPierre
- Marc Matthews, Poet and Actor from Guyana
- Augustin “Charlie” Julien and Hilary La Force
- Frank Norville, Emerson Nurse and Elra Ermay

VENUE: The Alliance Francaise TIME: 7.30PM

Premier colloque des médias de la Caraïbe en Guadeloupe

2009-10-09T10:25:00.002-04:00

Premier colloque des médias de la Caraïbe

Le 1er colloque des médias de la Caraïbe sera organisé le vendredi 16 octobre 2009, au centre culturel de Sonis, aux Abymes, en Guadeloupe autour du thème :

« Les médias, outils d’intégration et de développement dans la Caraïbe ? »

Il s’agit pour l’hebdomadaire Etincelles Nouvelle d’initier avec des journalistes caribéens une véritable réflexion sur l’état de la presse d’opinion dans cette région du monde.

Ce colloque devrait aussi permettre de s’interroger sur les moyens à mettre en œuvre pour faciliter des échanges entre les médias régionaux.

La barrière de la langue, est-elle un obstacle ? Comment les technologies de l’information, et de la communication, peuvent-elles faciliter les échanges et une meilleure intégration ?

Il apparaît également important, au moment où, à travers le monde, la presse écrite subit une profonde mutation, d’analyser de manière prospective, comment les médias de notre région, doivent envisager l’avenir et leur développement dans une perspective d’intégration.

Cette journée d’échanges et de réflexions, pour laquelle de nombreux journalistes de la Martinique, de Cuba, d’Haïti, de Sainte-Lucie ont d’ores et déjà confirmé leur présence, devrait déboucher sur la création d’un Bureau d’Information de Caraïbe ; BIC qui pourrait être une réponse concrète portée à cette volonté d’intégration.

source : www.madinin-art.net

Armelle in Guyana

2009-10-09T10:08:00.004-04:00

At the launch of Guyexpo 09 (theme: developing business in a low carbon environment), the President made an interesting presentation on the Low carbon issues for his country. After the exercice done by St Lucian citizens to express their opinion at Copenhague (following the WWW initiative and organised by St Lucia national Trust last week)

Guyana is an important country for the regional culture because of the controversial CARIFESTA, but the amazing cultural mix and heritage make it a fascinating country for all cultural activist.

In Madhia you can find St lucian communities singing La Wose, Amerindians different ethnies and Indian temples... and I find a Morrocan café in Bartica, the city of Gold miners !!!

more on Guyanese finidngs later.

an interesting film festival in Guyana

2009-10-09T09:55:00.004-04:00

I was in Guyana last week for the Guyexpo 09, I met some film and media people there and discovered an interesting film festival, in an homophobic environment: The SACOD movie festival.
It is not only about gays in the world but as well against all discriminiation...

if you want to participate, please follow the link.

St Lucia - Castries SLAM poetry at Kimlan's

2009-09-24T16:37:00.004-04:00

hope it will be a regular meeting ! I like the poster for sure...

Save the pitons !! Sauvons les Pitons !

2009-09-22T18:57:00.005-04:00

I just create a blog to advocate for the Pitons in St Lucia.
Saint Lucia National Trust members (I am one) decide to take action regarding the UNESCO letter evocating a possible deletion of the Pitons area from the list of Natural Unesco World Heritage site.

So we trying to wake up all the citizens in order to have the Government to do something urgently.

Part of this campaign, http://save-stlucia-pitons.blogspot.com/

please visit and pass the petition to a maximum of people.

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Voici le blog que j'ai crée à la suite d'une réunion des membres du St Lucia National Trust, qui ont décidé d'une campagne pour sauver l'inscription des pitons au classement Unesco des sites naturels patrimoine mondial.

Nous essayons de réveiller les citoyens et de faire pression sur le gouvernement pour que quelque chose soit fait urgement pour protéger le site.

faites passer la pétition et visiter le blog avec toutes les actions:
http://save-stlucia-pitons.blogspot.com/

armelle

armelle chatelier

Man Better Man play in St Lucia

2009-09-20T12:26:00.001-04:00

CAMDU & SPAC (student performing arts company)present Errol Hill's Man Better Man

Sunday 20th September, 2009 at 4.30 pm
& Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 23rd, 24th, 25th September at 12.30 pm

at the National Cultural Centre

Tickets $10 adults, $5 children

contact: kathrine Atkinson

un nouveau ferry entre Guadeloupe et Dominica

2009-09-20T12:14:00.001-04:00

Officially inaugurated on the 25th july of 2009 in Portsmouth (North of Dominica), Carribean spirit launches its fast ferry service Dominica to Pointe-à-Pitre – Guadeloupe, via Grand Bourg – Marie Galante.

The new fast ferry service is operated by the newly renovated fast catamaran vessel ‘SPIRIT I’ of the Compagnie Maritime de la Caraïbe (CMC), owned by the LORET Group, which constitutes the largest conglomerate of private companies headquartered in Guadeloupe.

SPIRIT I (ex-Acacia, which was taken over by CMC from BRUDEY & Frères last year) has been completely renovated -both inside and outside- to enhance passengers’ comfort and to meet the stringent security requirements for maritime services as imposed by the European Union.

SPIRIT I, constructed in 1993 in Sweden, has been fitted with two engines of 1960 KW, speed about 30 Knots, with a length of 136 feet and a width of 36 feet, offering a capacity of 350 passengers and 6 crew, i.e. 356 persons in total.

Services:

SPIRIT I will be connecting the north of Dominica with the capital of Marie-Galante and the main port of Guadeloupe four times a week (of which one non-stop service a week to Guadeloupe) on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, until the end of August 2009, after which a bi-weekly service has been planned during low season.

Rates are competitively priced from US$ 79 return per adult, roundtrip fare, incl. VAT (for frequent travelers).

Kweyol classes in St Lucia

2009-09-11T13:26:00.001-04:00

KWÉYÒL CLASSES in St Lucia

The Folk Research Centre is offering classes in Kwéyòl literacy and in Learning to speak Kwéyòl at the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College from 5pm - 7pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Classes will be delivered by trained, qualified tutors and is organized by the Kwéyòl Language Committee of the FRC.

Kwéyòl classes will commence on Sept 22nd to end on October 22nd and Dec.11th 2009. Morning classes are also available on Wednesdays & Fridays.

Interested persons are asked to complete registration forms which will be available from the Central Library, the Folk Research centre, the Morne Library, and all Gov’t Ministries. Please return completed registration forms to the Folk Research Centre, the Central library and the Morne Library by Wed, Sept 16th, at the latest.

For further information please call the Folk Research Centre at 452 2279 or 453 1477.

Ferry service soon for five Southern Caribbean destinations

2009-09-05T21:16:00.002-04:00

with L'Express des Iles, it will be a perfect complement ! we will travel from South to North of the eastern Caribbean !!
very welcome.

Ferry service soon to be a choice for five Southern Caribbean destinations

By Linda Straker, eTN Staff Writer | Aug 19, 2009
ST. GEORGE’S , Grenada -

Five destinations in the southern Caribbean will soon enjoy an inter-island passenger ferry service that will cost almost one-third of the amount it cost to travel to the islands by air.
As of October 01, 2009, the service will be offered to residents of Barbados , St. Vincent , St. Lucia , Trinidad and Grenada . Owned and operated by BEDY Ocean Lines in Grenada the service will officially be launched on October 1, but will make its maiden voyage departing from each of the destinations on October 20, 2009.

Costing between US$120 and US$140 and already inclusive of relevant government taxes associated with inter-island travel.
The duration of a trip from each country will range between one and half hours to three and half hours. BEDY Ocean Lines CEO Benjamin Ross said.
The company had originally planned to launch the service in July, but had to delay the service to facilitate a second ferry. This has resulted in one ferry making St. Vincent its home and will service the St. Vincent to Barbados and St. Lucia routes, while the second ferry will be based in Grenada and will service the Grenada to Trinidad and Barbados route.

The seating capacity per boat will be 260 and 300, respectively. The company hopes that very soon into the operation, other neighboring countries will be added.
Speaking about safety, Ross said that the vessels, with American and Caribbean crew, would contain a radio system to communicate with the nearest port and immigration at each destination.

There will also be certain rules and regulations in place for passengers' safety.
Speaking about the baggage and ticketing system, Ross said the free baggage allowance would be two pieces at a maximum of 60 pounds, plus a carry-on. Tickets will be valid for a maximum of 60 days will be non-refundable and passengers would be allowed to change their reservations up to three hours before a scheduled departure.

Promising to provide patrons with a fast, reliable, comfortable, safe and extremely cheap way to travel, the ferry services come at a time when the traveling public has been negatively affected by high airline rates and baggage restrictions.
“This ferry will be offering daily service to the islands mentioned and management is confident that customers will have a perfect way of reuniting with families and friends while business persons will now have a reliable mode of travel,” the company said in a statement.

Call for Papers for New Book

2009-09-05T21:06:00.002-04:00

The Remaining Colonies in the Caribbean - Call for Papers for New Book

House of Nehesi Publishers, based in Philipsburg, St. Martin, invites contributions (articles, essays, speeches) for the upcoming book, The Remaining Colonies in the Caribbean (working title).
The submission deadline is November 1, 2009 and the estimated publication date is February 2010.

Edited by Lasana M. Sekou, the book will explore the state of independence movements in the remaining colonies in the Caribbean region. The position paper should include a brief background of the history of independence-related ideas and activities within the specific territory or territories, with a focus on approaches, challenges, comparisons, and stages of progress.

Articles must be unpublished and should be a minimum of 10 pages and maximum of 16 pages. All submissions must be in English (submissions in Dutch, French, Kwéyòl, Papiamentu, or Spanish must be accompanied by the English translation for publication). Authors will retain copyright to their paper upon publication and will receive 10 complimentary copies of the book.

For more information, contact
House of Nehesi Publishers,
P.O. Box 460,
Philipsburg, St. Martin
or by e-mail at offshoreediting@hotmail.com, nehesi@mac.com, or Nehesi@sintmaarten.net.

www.houseofnehesipublish.com

back to work

2009-09-04T12:58:00.002-04:00

Hi everyone,

after a long holiday from publishing, everybody is back to work... St Lucia has a lot happeining these days in term of ICT and Culture. I am part of the 2 new associations in these sectors an will give you regular update.

armelle

nouveau report du FESMAN de Dakar

2009-07-30T11:01:00.002-04:00

Festival des Arts Nègres

Prévu du 1er au 14 décembre 2009, avec pour thème la "Renaissance africaine",
le troisième Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres - Fesman - initié par le président Sénégalais Adboulaye Wade, est reporté à une date ultérieure.

Annoncé pour la première fois en 2004 lors de l'inauguration de la 6ème Biennale de Dakar, il n'en est pas à son premier report. Le Sénégal avait déjà accueilli le premier Fesman en 1966.
Voir l'article du poète Sénégalais Amadou Lamine Sall qui revient sur cette première édition qui avait marqué les esprits.

Second International Conference on African Culture and Development

2009-07-28T11:54:00.003-04:00

La Deuxième Conférence Internationale sur la Culture Africaine et le Développement (ICACD) se tiendra à Accra au Ghana du 15 au 18 novembre 2009.

Le thème d'ICACD 2009 porte sur la " Culture africaine et les Objectifs du Millénaire pour le Développement " (OMD).

Pour plus d'information consulter le site www.icacdafrica.org ou contacter info@icacdafrica.org.

**********************************************

The Second International Conference on African Culture and Development (ICACD) that will be held in Accra, Ghana November 15th to 18th 2009.

The theme for ICACD 2009 is Culture and the Millennium Development Goals (MDG).

For more details and information please visit: www.icacdafrica.org or contact info@icacdafrica.org.

2009 Saint Lucia Studies Emancipation Lectures

2009-07-27T10:52:00.005-04:00

The Folk Research Centre, in association with the Cultural Development Foundation presents the 2009 Saint Lucia Studies Emancipation Lectures.
Keynote speaker is Professor Humphrey Regis.
Other lecturers are Mr. Laurent ‘Jomo’ JnPierre and Dr. Kyneata Joseph.

The Saint Lucia Studies Conference was organized by the FRC in 2004 to provide the opportunity for persons doing research into various aspects of Saint Lucian life to present their findings. Where it has not been possible to host a full Conference a series of lectures has been organized. From the beginning, the Cultural Development Foundation has partnered with the FRC in the hosting and presentation of the lectures.
This year all the lecturers are Saint Lucian.

Humphrey A. Regis has studied print and broadcast media; mass communication theory and research; and the relationships between mass communication and history, culture, development, and immigrant adjustment. He also has studied the Caribbean community, the world African community, and the global community. He has used insights from these studies in his development of perspectives and conducting of studies on the relationships between mass communication and contemporary cultural imperatives. To the study of the relationships, he has made contributions that experts call independent, authoritative, inter disciplinary, and even “seminal.”
Regis has coordinated an undergraduate course, an undergraduate sequence, a graduate program, a Program in Liberal Studies, and a Department of Journalism and Mass Communication. He has served on a council responsible for undergraduate liberal arts requirements; served on a committee responsible for the handshaking between colleges in a university; coordinated a Conference on Relationships Among Members of the World African Community; and edited scholarly journals that focus on African American and World African Community issues. He uses mass media to teach insights into the relationships between mass communication and a number of other subjects he integrates in his work -- history; culture; orientation to reference groups; location in global social space; cultural definition, continuance, and change; “globalization;” and “globalism.”
His lectures for the 2009 Saint Lucia series are entitled “Our ‘Mindemancipation’ and foundations of Christianity”. Apart from his main lecture in Castries, he will be speaking in a number of communities around the island.

Mr. Laurent ‘Jomo’ JnPierre has been involved in environmental issues and ethnobotanical research for many years. He migrated to North America in 1994. He has more than 10 years experience working as an environmental anthropologist and curator of a small herbarium and library (in the Caribbean and the United States). He holds an International Diploma in Herbarium Development Techniques (including plant taxonomy) from Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. From Hartwick College, NY, USA, he obtained an undergraduate BA degree in Anthropology with minors in Biology and Religion. His Ethnobotany MSc. (University of Kent at Canterbury, UK) dissertation focused on the sustainable use of Coccothrinax barbadensis a palm used for broom-making in the Caribbean. He is now known as the “broom-man.” A Laurent World Broom Collection is housed and named after him at the University of Michigan.

Mr. JnPierre will speak on the role and place of grounds provision in socio-economic development.

Dr. Kyneata Joseph is a graduate of the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College and St. Joseph’s Convent. She continued her education at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus, where she read for a BA degree in History. It was in her final year of undergraduate study that she became interested in the history of Indians in Saint Lucia. The recipient of a Post Graduate Scholarship from the UWI in 2001 Dr. Joseph began extensive research on the Indian community in St Lucia. Her research culminated in a dissertation entitled “A History of Indian Indentured Labour: The Saint Lucian Experience, 1859 to 1903” for which she was awarded a doctoral degree in 2008. Presently, Dr. Joseph lectures Caribbean History at the University of the Southern Caribbean, and at the University of West Indies Open Campus e-learning programme.
Her lecture will be based on her research into the arrival of East Indians in St. Lucia.

Following is a programme of the lecture series.

Monday 27th July 2009 Prof. Humphrey Regis, Our "Mindemancipation" and Foundations of Christianity @ CDF Conference Room 7 pm.

Tuesday 28th July 2009 Dr Kyneata Joseph, The Emancipation Project: The Great East Indian Experiment @ CDF Conference Room 7 pm.

Wednesday 29th July 2009, Mr. Laurent JnPierre Rediscovering the Role of Ground Provision in the Quest for Socio-Economic Empowerment during Pre and Post Emancipation in the Caribbean Islands. @ CDF Conference Room 7 pm.

Thursday 30th July 2009, Prof. Humphrey Regis Our “Mindemancipation” and Foundations of Christianity. @ St. Isidore’s Hall, Soufriere.

Conférence à Laborie, St Lucie - 6 aout

2009-07-27T10:43:00.003-04:00

Le 6 aout à 7h, au marché de Laborie se tiendra une conférence sur "Arts et Divertissement: leur role dans notre émancipation culturelle", tenue par Winston Phulgence et Amala Luncheon et le nouveau directeur de Folk Research Center, Kentry Jn Pierre.

tous à vos canoes...

SMS special service for Africa by Google

2009-07-22T09:43:00.002-04:00

Google unveils SMS service for Africa
June 30, 2009

Google on Monday unveiled a new service designed to provide information via SMS text message to mobile phone users in Africa, where mobile phones are prevalent but Internet penetration is low.

"At Google we seek to serve a broad base of people -- not only those who can afford to access the Internet from the convenience of their workplace or with a computer at home," the Mountain View, California, company said in a blog post.

"It's important to reach users wherever they are, with the information they need, in areas with the greatest information poverty," Google said.

The Internet search and advertising giant noted that Africa has the world's highest mobile phone growth rate and that mobile use on the continent is six times higher than Internet penetration.

"Most mobile devices in Africa only have voice and SMS capabilities, and so we are focusing our technological efforts in that continent on SMS," it said.

Google said Google SMS, which will be available first in Uganda, would provide information, via SMS, on a number of topics including health and agriculture tips, news, local weather and sports.

Google also said that it is also launching a service called Google Trader, an SMS-based application that helps bring together buyers and sellers of product or services, from used cars to livestock to jobs.

Google said another service, Google SMS Tips, enables a mobile phone user to have a Web search-like experience. A user enters a text query and Google returns relevant answers after searching a database.

Google said Google SMS Tips and Google Trader were developed in partnership with several organisations, including the Grameen Foundation, an offshoot of the pioneering Grameen bank founded by Nobel peace laureate Muhammad Yunus.

AFP.

Memory of the World UNESCO - What about Caribbean ?

2009-07-21T23:05:00.003-04:00

Memory of the World

UNESCO's programme aiming at preservation and dissemination of valuable archive holdings and library collections worldwide

New nominations for Memory of the World Register to be approved next week
9th Meeting of the International Advisory Committee (IAC) of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme will gather from 27 to 31 July 2009 in Bridgetown, Barbados, to make recommendations concerning the inscription of documentary heritage on the Memory of the World Register.

check the list.
Caribbean is well represented with St Lucia presenting Sir Arthur Lewis papers, Barbados with a lot of proposal, Dominican Republic and an interesting Bible in Papimiento... but the most interesting for me is a joint proposition for a register with slaves names from different countries including Dominica and St Kitts.

Memory is important for the futur...

a new Jamaican media association / Une asso jamaicaine du film

2009-07-14T22:30:00.002-04:00

new Jamaican media association / Une asso jamaicaine du film

Après l'association des Industries culturelles de St Lucie (PACE) dont je suis trésorière, la Jamaique commence le même processus.

A suivre...

The Caribbean Writer as Warrior of the Imaginary / L’Ecrivain caribéen, guerrier de l’imaginaire.

2009-07-10T18:07:00.002-04:00

The Caribbean Writer as Warrior of the Imaginary / L’Ecrivain caribéen, guerrier de l’imaginaire.
a book edited by Gyssels, Kathleen and Bénédicte Ledent (Eds.)

This bilingual collection illustrates the concept of the ‘Warrior of the Imaginary’, as defined by Patrick Chamoiseau, in a multi-faceted corpus of texts. Francophone contributions explore the role of the Caribbean writer in works by Chamoiseau, Édouard Glissant, Daniel Maximin, and Joseph Zobel. Essays in English focus not only on familiar writers (Dionne Brand, Edwidge Danticat, Wilson Harris, Jamaica Kincaid, Caryl Phillips, Derek Walcott) but also on less widely studied voices (Robert Antoni, Albert Helman). Other contributions deal with such ‘fighting areas’ as Afro-Brazilian music, film, and Mutabaruka’s militant poetry. The whole testifies to a surprisingly coherent imaginary, one that goes beyond the ‘balkanization’ of the Caribbean archipelago.

************************************

Dans ce collectif bilingue, le concept de ‘Guerrier de l’imaginaire’ tel que défini par Patrick Chamoiseau est illustré par un corpus de textes variés. Plusieurs des articles en français engagent directement le cycle romanesque de l’auteur martiniquais, d’autres étendent l’interrogation de la fonction de l’auteur caribéen à l’écriture glissantienne, maximinienne et zobélienne. Études en anglais portent sur des écrivains dont le renom n’est plus à faire (Dionne Brand, Edwidge Danticat, Wilson Harris, Jamaica Kincaid, Caryl Phillips, Derek Walcott) mais donnent aussi la parole à des auteurs jusqu’à présent moins étudiés (Robert Antoni, Albert Helman). Enfin, quelques-unes des contributions portent sur d’autres ‘terrains de lutte’, comme la musique afro-brésilienne, le cinéma, ou la poésie militante de Mutabaruka. L’ensemble témoigne d’un imaginaire étonnamment confluant, au-delà de la ‘balkanisation’ de l’archipel caribéen

Carnaval à St Lucie - 18 au 21 juillet

2009-07-08T15:41:00.004-04:00

C'est Carnaval à St Lucie

Le Groovy Soca monarch a nominé cette année une jeune chanteuse qui promet dans la section Soca (ah c'est pas de l'intello mais ça bouge) Qpid est son nom et Davina Lee a réalisé sa video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUIhCp3wKf8

pour toutes les news sur le Carnaval :www.luciancarnaval.com

news on hackers clubs/ dernières sur le mouvement des hackers

2009-07-08T14:38:00.003-04:00

Hi,
if you want to know more about the Hackers clubs in the world you can connect to the site and search for cities. The only ones in the Caribbean is in Puerto Rico and in Colombia...
http://hackerspaces.org

i really think this is a citizen based network who works for our freedom, in the use of technology for the best and all.

when a hacker club in the west-indies ?

**********************************

Coucou,

il y a un bon article dans le Monde sur le mouvement des Hackers, libertaires et citoyens, ils sont les mieux placés pour éviter que la technologie ne soit la propriété que d'une élite au service seulement de quelques uns.

à quand un hacker club dans les antilles ???

http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2009/07/08/les-nouvelles-tribus-du-net_1216676_651865.html

allez voir la carte sur http://hackerspaces.org.

call for participation Artist on pollution

2009-06-25T22:02:00.003-04:00

www.incident.net
image from studio eleven

INCIDENT's Call for Participation on the theme: POLLUTION.
Deadline: September 30th 2009

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POLLUTION (english below)

Depuis quelques années, la prise en compte écologique est parvenue au premier plan des préoccupations humaines. La pollution, liée à une intense activité humaine, qui s'est accélérée ces 50 dernières années, est à l'origine des bouleversements environnementaux mettant en péril l'équilibre de l'écosystème planétaire.

Dans l'univers médiatique contemporain, la notion de pollution intervient dès lors qu'un message est altéré, transformant ou rendant difficile sa réception. D'un autre côté, la pollution apparaît aussi dans la transformation qu'elle opère sur le message, comme un élément révélateur d'un trop grand polissage du flux hypermédiatique contemporain. Dans la question environnementale, la pollution indique un excès, une saturation, qui constitue donc un indicateur et une mise en garde à plus de "précaution" et de prise en compte des écosystèmes.

La pollution est un fait nouveau qui apparaît avec la révolution industrielle. Son appropriation, sa représentation par les artistes est donc aussi un fait nouveau. Si visuellement, on peut en trouver des représentations chez William Turner (dont les travaux sont de nos jours utilisées par des scientifiques pour modéliser les changements climatiques), c'est surtout chez les expressionnistes que le motif de la pollution comme excès apparaît dans toute sa force de représentation: les toiles urbaines de Georg Grosz, les violentes déconstructions cubistes, sont autant de signes d'une cacophonie urbaine naissante à la fin du 19e siècle.

Si la pollution renvoie instinctivement à un brouillage visuel représenté par le déversement des fumées des nouvelles industries lourdes du 19e siècle, c'est aussi l'apparition d'un nouvel environnement sonore saturé de bruits qui rend compte de transformations importante dans l'espace vital de l'être humain. Hors de toute passivité face à ce nouveau fléau, Luigi Russollo s'enthousiasme dans "l'Art des bruits" de l'apparition de nouvelles formes sonores, de bruits, que ses contemporains ne tardent pas à s'approprier. Ces nouvelles formes sont un miroir évident d'une société plus nerveuse, souvent urbanisée, où la pollution des machines est devenu l'environnement de vie des contemporains.

La pollution enfin est corollaire de notre commerce quotidien avec l'électricité et le numérique qui transportent nos oeuvres de l'esprit en les transformant. Le propre même de ces nouvelles technologies de la communication est de transposer les médias en d'autres signaux, en d'autres codes, modifiant, déteriorant au passage l'information, donc en quelque sorte la polluant.

La pollution n'est pas toujours matérialisable par une altération visible de notre environnement: d'autres formes de pollution émergent, invisibles, et qui ont des effets induits dont nous sommes encore peu à même de mesurer les répercussions: pollutions électromagnétiques rendues audibles par Robin Rimbaud dans son projet sonore "Scanner", saturations cognitives dans le déferlement informationnel du réseau internet, transformation du regard face aux déferlement d'images numériques errodées par leur transcodage.

Entre destruction visible et révélation d'un fourmillement invisible de formes microscopiques, le motif de la pollution innerve l'intégralité de notre rapport à notre environnement, plus encore dans notre commerce quotidien avec les machines dont l'apparente inocuitée cache des répercussions fortes sur la transformation du genre humain.

Texte de Claude Le Berre.

Appel à projets 2009 d'INCIDENT sur le thème de la POLLUTION.
Date limite d'envoi des oeuvres: 30 septembre 2009.

Merci de bien vouloir nous envoyer par mél (incident@incident.net):
- Une description de l'oeuvre
- Une courte biographie
- Votre oeuvre (ou son url).
Attention: seules les oeuvres utilisant activement les technologies (interactivité, générativité, flux du réseau, etc.) seront retenues.

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POLLUTION english
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In recent years, concerns about the environment have reached the forefront of human concerns. Pollution, a result of the intense human activity which has accelerated in the last 50 years, is at the origin of the environmental changes that currently put in danger the global ecosystem.

In the contemporary media universe, the notion of pollution becomes apparent in the alteration of messages or signals, by transforming or impeding their reception. At the same time, pollution also appears as a transformation which operates on the message, revealing the over-polished nature of the contemporary media stream. In the physical environment, pollution indicates excess and (over)saturation, acting as an indicator and a warning for greater consideration of the ecosystem.

Pollution’s significance dates back to the industrial revolution. Likewise its appropriation and representation by the artists is also a relatively recent phenomenon. If we can find visually representations in the work of William Turner (whose pieces are today used by scientists to model climate change), it is particularly with the expressionists that the concept of pollution as excess appears in all its strength of representation: Georg Grosz's urban paintings, and the violent deconstructions of the Cubists are indeed clear signs of the urban cacophony at the end of the 19th century.

If pollution sends us back instinctively to a visual static represented by the smoke produced by the new heavy industries of the 19th century, it is also the appearance the new saturated noise environment that speaks to the significant transformation of the living space of the human being in the era. Irrespective of the generally passive response to this plague, Luigi Russollo is inspired in "The Art of Noises" by the appearance of new sound forms that he and his contemporaries did not delay appropriating. New forms such as his are a clear sign of a sensitized, often urbanized society, where the pollution by machines became and integral part of the people’s environment.

The very purpose of new technologies of communication is to transpose one form of media into signals, into other codes, modifying and degrading the information, and thus in a sense polluting it. Pollution is in the end a corollary for our daily work of using electricity and digital technology, modifying our works of the mind by transforming them.

Pollution is not always realized through a visible change of our environment: other forms of pollution appear, sometimes invisible, and which have repercussions which we still have difficultly measuring. For example: electromagnetic pollution made audible by Robin Rimbaud in his sound project "To scan", the cognitive saturations in the informative flow of the Internet, and the transformation of the regard in the face of the endless flow of digital images degraded by their transmission.

Between visible destruction and the impact microscopic effects, the question of pollution impacts at every level our relationship to our environment, especially in our daily interactions with machines where visible innocuousness often hides strong repercussions for the transformation of the human race.

By Claude Le Berre.

A Radio program on returning to Caribbean

2009-06-22T14:14:00.002-04:00

There will be a programme aired on BBC Caribbean looking at the experience of returning Caribbean nationals today:

See Forum: The returning diaspora www.bbc.co.uk/caribbean

The BBC website also has some interesting comments from people.
The programme was aired on Sunday June 14 from 4pm Eastern Caribbean Time
and will be available on BBC FM in the Caribbean:
Jamaica: BBC 104 FM - 104.5 / 104.7 / 104.9 FM /104.3 FM /104.1 FM
Trinidad and Tobago: 98.7 FM
Antigua: 89.1 FM

The programme will also be available via some BBC Caribbean partner stations and online at www.bbccaribbean.com

thanks to Dominican Diaspora network !

SoucouYan in Dominica / Bataille de Soucouyan en Dominique

2009-06-22T13:51:00.005-04:00

La Dominique la semaine dernière a été agitée par une histoire de sorcières. Deux sorcières ce sont croisées dans la rue à Roseau. elles sont restée immobile pendant 5 heures refusant chacune de passer d'un côté. Le Maire de Roseau devant une ville paralysée a du intervenir personnellement, et l'embouteillage monstre a bloqué la ville, tout le monde venant voir le spectacle.

Le plus intéressant dans cette histoire, c'est que comme pour beaucoup d'événements de la Dominique, tout c'est retrouvé sur le Net en quelques minutes...
en allant sur Youtube vous trouverez des références, et même des films d'animation sur le sujet !
les Soucouyans sur le Net !!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oRnzDR3HlE&feature=related
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0SFp2qe_p4

**********************************

Whatch the last news online about a battle of Sookooyans in town Roseau. Dominica.
as usual in Dominica everything in on the Net - right away after the event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oRnzDR3HlE&feature=related
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0SFp2qe_p4

Let me give you the definition of Soucouyan given by Lennox Honychurch:

A spirit character in Dominican folklore. The Creole version of one of
the West African night time forest spirits. The soucouyan is a woman
who sheds her skin at night and flies around the place in the form of a
ball of fire sucking blood from animals and people. The angular
branches of the Silk Cotton or Formager trees (Ceiba pentandra),
associated with the spirit world throughout the Americas, are believed
to be a resting place for soucouyans. If the abandoned skin is found
and rubbed with salt, the spirit will have difficulty putting it on
when she returns. Later, she can be identified by incurable sores on
her legs. This also happens if she is injured while out sucking blood.
A calabash of peas placed next to the skin will cause delay, as she
will have to count them before returning to human form. If the sun
rises before she is finished counting she can be caught. The word comes
from the French, to suck. It has been recorded that dancing lights,
believed to be soucouyans, have turned out to be small swarms of mating
fireflies or 'La Belles'.

armelle

Il était une fois une princesse. Once upon a time a princess

2009-06-22T12:46:00.006-04:00

Fallen Princesses.
Please visit the work of an american photographer Diana Goldstein on a feminist vision of Fairy tales.
Funny and tragic ! she has a blog as well...
http://www.dinagoldstein.com/

http://www.dinagoldstein.com/wordpress/

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Princesses déchues
Le travail d'une photographe américaine Diana Goldstein qui a une vision féministe des contes de fée.
Drôle et tragique.

http://www.dinagoldstein.com/
Elle a aussi un blog:
http://www.dinagoldstein.com/wordpress/

A very good point of view on Internet and its impact on the way we are thinking!

2009-06-05T16:22:00.005-04:00

Je vous invite à lire l'article de Nicolas Carr, Est ce que Google nous rend idiot ? traduit de l'anglais et publié en 2008.
Un peu long mais salvateur, sur les processus de remodelage de nos intellects par les nouveaux outils du Net.

************************************

For the original version of this powerful article about the impact of Internet on the way we are reading.
in english.

Toronto Announcing the CaribbeanTales Film Festival Industry Series

2009-06-05T11:55:00.003-04:00

Committed to the development of Caribbean-themed cinema here in Canada and around the world, the 2009 CaribbeanTales Film Festival announces its new industry workshop series.

Celebrating its fourth anniversary, the Caribbean Tales Film Festival this year presents the CaribbeanTales Industry Development Program (CTIDP), an initiative that offers industry activities such as training workshops, roundtable sessions, and panel discussions on film practice, business development and marketing, and storytelling.

Workshops include: Guerilla Filmmaking, a practical day-long session led by renowned Jamaican cinematographer Franklyn ‘Chappie’ St. Juste (The Harder They Come), exploring ways in which Caribbean heritage directors and producers can use film to tell stories close to their heart.

Other sessions include: "Working with the NFB" by National Film Board of Canada Producers Lea Marin and Anita Lee, "Navigating The Festival Circuit", by international festival programmer June Givanni, "Caribbean-themed Animation" by Camille Selvon Abrahams of Trinidad-based Animation studio Anime Caribe, and "Art for Social Change" led by veteran filmmaker and owner/general manager of Gayelle The Channel Christopher Laird.

Friday 10th July is YOUTH DAY, and there will be a special edu-tainment program tailored for the interests of young people 12-18.

The CaribbeanTales Annual Film Festival is North America's only standalone event offering the best of Caribbean cinema from around the world. It will take place over four exciting days from July 9th to 12th 2009, at the William Doo Auditorium (45 Willcocks Street), New College, University of Toronto.

With the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and in partnership with New College, University of Toronto and U of T’s Caribbean Studies Program, this year’s theme, Caribbean Film – A Tool for Education and Social Change, brings together filmmakers and producers from Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, Barbados, Antigua, the Eastern Caribbean, the UK, Africa, the U.S., and Canada.

The Festival this year honors the career of award-winning international director Euzhan Palcy from Martinique, who became the first woman of African descent to direct a Hollywood movie, with MGM’s A Dry White Season (1989), starring Donald Sutherland, Marlon Brando and Susan Sarandon.

The Caribbean Tales Film Festival is founded by award-winning director, filmmaker, and producer Frances-Anne Solomon whose last feature film A Winter Tale (for Telefilm Canada/CHUM Television) won many prestigious international awards, including most recently Special Mention in the Diaspora Category at the 2009 Fespaco Festival (Africa's Oscars, held biannually in Burkina Faso, West Africa).

She is the president and artistic director of the two companies she created: Leda Serene Films and CaribbeanTales, whose selected projects include HeartBeat – a documentary series profiling Caribbean musical creators; Literature Alive, a many facetted multimedia project profiling Caribbean authors; and the Gemini-nominated Lord Have Mercy!, Canada’s landmark multicultural sitcom, for Vision TV, Toronto1, APTN and Showcase.

CaribbeanTales is Canada’s premier multimedia company that creates, markets and distributes educational films, videos, radio programs, audio books, theatre plays, websites and events, that showcase the rich heritage of Caribbean Diaspora worldwide.

World Summit on Culture and Arts 2009 - septembre

2009-06-03T18:10:00.003-04:00

IFACCA’s World Summits are triennial events aim to provide an opportunity to discuss key issues affecting public support for the arts and creativity. As well as catering for IFACCA members and affiliates, the Summit is open to representatives of national arts funding bodies, ministries of culture, culture networks, city and local government, foundations and the private sector, and arts policy makers, researchers, artists, arts educators, administrators and anyone interested in arts support and policy.

The theme of the Summit is Meeting of Cultures: Making Meaning Through the Arts. Further information on the programme is published on the website.

A major component of the preparation for the Summit is a survey being conducted on IFACCA’s behalf by ERICarts: ‘Achieving Intercultural Dialogue through the Arts and Culture?’ The deadline for responding to the survey has been extended to Thursday 28 May and we would be grateful if you would provide a response as they will form the basis of a discussion paper to be distributed to all participants to reflect on before travelling to Johannesburg.

Previous World Summits have been held in Ottawa, Canada (2000); Singapore (2003); and NewcastleGateshead, UK (2006).

The Summit will be co-hosted by the National Arts Council of South Africa and IFACCA, with the support of the South African Department of Arts and Culture, the Gauteng Provincial Government, Department of Sport, Arts, Culture and Recreation and the City of Joburg: Directorate of Arts, Culture and Heritage and the Johannesburg Tourism Company.

The theme of the Summit is Meeting of Cultures: Making Meaning Through the Arts.

The context for the theme is a world which is increasingly divided by ‘cultural’ rather than political ideology, where feelings of being threatened by ‘other’ are largely based on ignorance about ‘other’. Increased globalisation, through economic integration, is often criticised for ‘homogenising’ the views and interests of economic and militarily powerful nations, at the same time that diversity and the desire to build ‘multicultural’ societies has become increasingly important. The implementation of the UNESCO Convention on the Promotion and Protection of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions is just one example of this.

Notwithstanding the recent collapse of communism and apartheid, the world remains – and is in fact, increasingly – divided, with adverse implications for global relations, for nations and for communities within nations. Such divisions – at least in how they are expressed or perceived – have taken on a more ‘cultural’ form.

The arts – music, theatre, dance, literature, film, visual arts and craft etc – are seen by some as a possible bridge between cultures, to provide safe, non-threatening points of entry into understanding ‘other’.

Martin Scorcese works on restauration of african films

2009-06-03T17:59:00.003-04:00

Scorcese annonce "Touki bouki" et "Transes" en téléchargement gratuit après restauration juin 2009 - projets culturels

Au dernier festival de Cannes de mai 2009, le réalisateur américain Martin Scorcese a annoncé que la fondation qu'il préside, la World Cinema Foundation, allait mettre en ligne des films du répertoire qu'elle contribue à restaurer.
Pour cela, la WCF s'associe avec "The Auteurs", une cinémathèque virtuelle, "Be-Side", un fournisseur d'accès, et "Criterion", qui distribuera les films sur support DVD.
Quatre films restaurés seront très bien tôt mis en ligne gratuitement, dont deux africains : "Susuz Yaz" (Metin Erksan, Turquie, 1964), "Touki Bouki" (Djibril Diop Mambety, Sénégal, 1973), "Transes" (Ahmed El Maanouni, Maroc, 1981) et "Hanyo" (Kim-Ki-younk, Corée du Sud, 1960).

from africultures.

******************************************************

You can watch one of the most famous senegalese film restaured by Martin Scorcese foundation and done by the great Filmaker Djibril Diop Mambety who used to call me Djiné cote d'ivoire (Mamywata/ Mamadlo) !
we all loved him so much....

read this and watch the movie:

Films Restored by the WCF

TOUKI BOUKI
Senegal, 1973

Written and directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty.
Editing: Siro Asteni.
Director of Photography: Pap Samba Sow, Georges Bracher.
Music: Joséphine Baker, Mado Robin, Aminata Fall.
Sound: El Hadji Mbow.
Production Company: Cinegrit.
Starring: Magaye Niang (Mory), Mareme Niang (Anta), Aminata Fall (Tante Oumy), Ousseynou Diop (Charlie).
Running time: 88’. Colour.
Language: Wolof with French/English Subtitles.
From:GTC Paris.

Restored in 2008 by the World Cinema Foundation at Cineteca di Bologna / L’Immagine Ritrovata Laboratory.

The story of Touki Bouki goes back centuries: men have always set out for new lands where they believe time never stops… Only few adventurers seem to make it, but that has never stopped anyone…

Djibril left his country with the dream of finding success and solace in Europe. He soon discovered, however, the cruelty of life. While his dream fell apart little by little Djibril found he was unable to leave “Europe”, his host country. That was when returning to Africa became the real dream for him. Ending his days in Africa was a dream he would never fulfill.

“Touki Bouki is a prophetic film. Its portrayal of 1973 Senegalese society is not too different from today’s reality. Hundreds of young Africans die every day at the Strait of Gibraltar trying to reach Europe (Melilla and Ceuta). Who has never heard of that before? All their hardships find their voice in Djibril’s film: the young nomads who think they can cross the desert ocean and find their own lucky star and happiness but are disappointed by the human cruelty they encounter. Touki Bouki is a beautiful, upsetting and unexpected film that makes us question ourselves.What a pleasure and what an achievement for Martin Scorsese’s Foundation to give Djibril Diop Mambéty a second life. To all those who support cinema: bravo!”

50 movies presented in Martinique May-June

2009-05-28T17:27:00.001-04:00

à L’ATRIUM et en Réseau : 50 FILMS TOUS FORMATS CONFONDUS

Du Vendredi 5 au Samedi 13 juin 2009

Images, Cinéma de la Caraïbe insulaire et Cinémas d’ailleurs

3 Sections :

Section Panorama -fiction- Section ‘la mémoire vivante’ - pour restituer celle de la Caraïbe insulaire et du Sud, Section ‘le monde comme il va’ –documentaire- pour l’entrevoir dans sa diversité culturelle et géographique (en lien avec la Sélection Jean Philippe Matime du Documentaire de Martinique) en présence d’invités (France Zobda, Felly Sédécias, Tony Coco-Viloin…)

des événements à L’ATRIUM et en RESEAU :

- à L’ATRIUM :

- vendredi 5 : Ouverture en présence d’invités et de partenaires (film d’ouverture « Haïti chérie »)

*mercredi 10: ‘Mercredi Cinéma’ Journée spéciale La Muestra ( ‘Segunda Muestra Itinerante de Cine del Caribe’ dédiée aux enfants et aux adolescents )

* jeudi 11 : Le documentaire et le monde comme il va

* vendredi 12 : La Mémoire vivante/Dialogue des arts

* samedi 13 : Clôture –Palmarès du Prix J P Matime-

Et durant tout le Festival : des séances Tous publics en soirée et apm, des Matinées Scolaires à la salle Frantz Fanon// des Espaces Rencontres et des séances Clubs Cinéma à la salle la Palabre...// une soirée en Plein air sur l’esplanade le mercredi 10 ...

- en RESEAU : programmation hors les murs dans les salles de cinéma, des salles audio-visuelles, le réseau des cybers bases … et autres salles éphémères :

*mardi 9 ‘Mardi du Cinéma en réseau’, … séances Clubs Cinéma - ansam tou pa tou - en communes

‘D OUVAN’

-à compter du 26 mai Scolaires gratuites : 10 programmes de La Muestra à la salle Frantz Fanon …Contact Andrée Médec amedec@cmac.asso.fr 0596 70 79 37

-Mercredi 27 mai à 18h ADHESION aux Clubs Cinéma à L’Atrium :Devenez membre des Clubs Cinéma en participant au choix des 7 titres en DVD de la M3M (droits institutionnels) www.cine3mondes.com qui seront programmés durant les RCM 2009 dans les salles La Palabre et Frantz Fanon …ce choix sera précédé à 15h30 et suivi à 19h30 de PROJECTIONS de DVD surprises –Entrée libre-…Contact Alex Grandin agrandin@cmac.asso.fr 0596 70 79 42

-Mercredi 3 juin : Prix Jean Philippe Matime du Documentaire de Martinique : séances publiques à la salle Frantz Fanon (entrée libre) des films en Compétition (1èreséance à 11h), en présence du Jury…Contact L’ARCM , Steve Zébina stevezebina2046@hotmail.com 0696 29 98 89

Coordination générale : Alex Grandin agrandin@cmac.asso.fr 0596 70 79 42

Invitation to meet a congolese photographer

2009-05-14T10:44:00.002-04:00

I invite you to discover the work of Baudoin Maouanda from Congo.
I found this exhibition on young people studying in the streets very touching. In All african cities you can find them reading under street lights, trying to find light, fresh air and quiet space (houses are croweded).

a beautiful vision showing how knowledge is precious and the amount of effort to succeed at school in Africa.

click on Diaporama

Loi HADOPI - liberté de l'Internet en danger

2009-05-13T16:44:00.005-04:00

Loi HADOPI en France

Vous pouvez signer l'appel contre la loi et en savoir plus sur l'avis des producteurs et artistes indépendants de France.
Je rappelle que cette loi sera adoptée aussi dans les Antilles française !!! et donc nous touche tous.

Un petit rappel de la menace:
Ce qui est prévu pour les internautes en cas de téléchargement illégal

Voici les conséquences pour l'internaute des dispositions du projet de loi sur "la diffusion et la protection de la création sur internet", qui devait être voté mardi en nouvelle lecture à l'Assemblée avant une adoption définitive par un ultime vote du Sénat mercredi 13 mai 2009.

QUEL MECANISME DE SANCTION EN CAS DE TELECHARGEMENT ILLEGAL? .

premier avertissement envoyé à l'abonné par courriel. . en cas de récidive dans les six mois, deuxième mise en garde par courriel éventuellement assortie d'une lettre recommandée. . en cas de nouvelle récidive dans un délai d'un an, possibilité de suspension de l'accès à l'internet pour une durée comprise entre deux mois et un an, assortie de l'impossibilité de souscrire un autre contrat pendant la même période. . toutefois, si l'abonné accepte de faire amende honorable par écrit, la suspension pourra être réduite (un à trois mois). . les avertissements et sanctions seront envoyés par une Haute autorité pour la diffusion des oeuvres et la protection des droits sur internet (Hadopi), instituée par la loi. . les envois de courriels et recommandés devraient commencer à l'automne, et les suspensions en 2010. . l'abonné sera avisé de la date et de l'heure des téléchargements illégaux qui lui sont reprochés. S'il veut en connaître le contenu, il pourra s'adresser à l'Hadopi. . l'Hadopi prononcera les sanctions au terme d'une procédure contradictoire. L'abonné pourra faire appel de la décision devant la justice

QUID DES ABONNEMENTS INTERNET-TELEPHONE-TELEVISION?

La suspension s'appliquera uniquement à l'accès à des services en ligne. Dans le cas d'offres incluant la téléphonie et la télévision (triple play), l'abonné sanctionné continuera à recevoir ces deux services

PAYERA-T-ON L'ABONNEMENT EN CAS DE SANCTION?

La personne sanctionnée devra continuer à payer son abonnement sauf si elle décide de le résilier selon les modalités prévues. Le texte considère que le fournisseur d'accès n'a pas à assumer les conséquences du comportement de l'abonné.

QUE SE PASSERA-T-IL SI L'ABONNE N'EST PAS LE PIRATE?

Le texte repose sur l'obligation faite à l'abonné de surveiller son accès à l'internet. Des logiciels de sécurisation pour empêcher le téléchargement illégal seront proposés aux abonnés par les industriels et les fournisseurs d'accès à l'internet

QUE PREVOIT LA LOI POUR LES ENTREPRISES ET COLLECTIVITES?

Si le téléchargement illégal provient d'ordinateurs appartenant à une entreprise, une collectivité, un établissement scolaire, une bibliothèque etc..., l'Hadopi proposera une sanction alternative pour éviter les conséquences d'une suspension de l'abonnement. Elle prendra la forme d'une injonction à l'abonné de prendre des mesures pour prévenir un renouvellement et à lui en rendre compte.
(AFP) 12/05/09

Africa Time for Peace

2009-05-12T17:31:00.003-04:00

Here is the work of an old friend David Gakunzi from Burundi.
He is working since many years for an Africa United and Diaspora in the world.

check this site...
www.africatimeforpeace.com

Jam rek (the peace only in wolof) for my brother.

St Lucia Jazz - what happen ?

2009-05-12T16:45:00.006-04:00

Bon, alors cette année pour des tas de raisons je n'étais pas vraiment dans le Jazz vibes et je n'ai pas vu beaucoup de concerts. D'abord il a plu très fort et ça décourage pas mal - les deux pieds dans la boue.

Mais j'ai été à Jazz à Laborie dans le Sud le Dimanche 3 mai. C'est bien, c'est sur la plage, c'est gratuit, les petites dames du coin sont là pour écouter du Jazz, du vrai.
C'est organisé par une association remarquable Labowi Promotion, qui fait un boulot local du tonnerre... bref on soutient.
Donc le programme c'était Bluemango en vedette, y se sont bien éclatés
et avant eux, Kalil Kouhen percussioniste Marocain avec Barbara Cadette musicienne St Lucienne: étonnant mélange des genres.

Le samedi un autre événement a eu lieu dans le Sud, le fameux Fond d'or Jazz qui invite chaque année un groupe de Compa et qui semble avoir fait une erreur de programation.

Pour le reste, le week end a été si pluvieux que le programme officiel du main stage du Jeudi à été reporté à Vendredi mettant Kassav le même jour que Amy Winehouse !! mais là encore il a plu la moitié du temps.
Bon alors Amy était très avinée et pas très stable comme on peut le voir en ligne sur Youtube. Mais bon elle pas venue de loin, elle habite là de toute façon.

Dimanche enfin Jazz a pu avoir lieu normalement... et les gens en ont profité un maximum !!!

Ziggy Marley 's project for children

2009-05-12T16:34:00.005-04:00

More caribbean culture for children ?

Ziggy Marley is doing a promotional tour of Family Time, Marley's first ever full-length children's music project. Ziggy perform tracks from his just released album Family Time, Marley's third solo release.

Ziggy Marley is best known in the children's arena for composing the theme song for the popular PBS series Arthur and is the voice of Bernie, the Rasta jellyfish in Shark Tale the animated feature from Dreamworks.

My kids love the Ras jellyfish in Shark Tale....

Martinique, Aimé Césaire already one year !

2009-04-20T14:37:00.004-04:00

I was in Martinique last week and it was the first anniversary of Aimé Césaire death.

The program of activities is long but I assist to 3 events:

- at the cemetery the Maire of Fort de France - Serge Letchimy had a little ceremony with less than one hundred persons

- the Parti Progressiste Martiniquais had a breakfast - they sale T-shirts and books

- the SERMAC - cultural center create a show with the students of art classes in presence of officials.

I am informing you that french post office did create a stamp with Césaire

here are some pictures. and pretty soon the english and spanish version of the Aimé Césaire for kids booklet, we are working on it !!!

St Lucia National Trust Earth Day

2009-04-20T14:32:00.002-04:00

The Saint Lucia National Trust and its Southern and Western membership groups will be observing International Earth Day on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009, with its usual hosting of Sòlèy Kouché. Members are invited to attend and participate in an eclectic programme of activities such as inspiring messages, poetry recitals, cultural presentations and much more.

This year’s observance is under the theme “Greening Fair Helen” and will be held at three locations;
The Pigeon Island National Landmark from 5:00 pm,
The Moule a Chique Lighthouse from 4:30 pm and
the Soufriere Square from 4:00 p.m.

photo from details to zooming

2009-04-20T14:16:00.002-04:00

In an article about the new National Geographic infinite picture (I don't think they need any exposure - it is nice but not really interesting- flat representation), I just discovered Chris Jordan, he is an american photographer who works on a zooming concept.

visit his site, he is talking about pollution and destruction.

Incredible !

www.chrisjordan.com

ICT in Africa - an inspiration for Caribbean ?

2009-04-06T10:46:00.003-04:00

Dear Caribbean Friends,

I have the feeling that ICT practices and projects in Africa could be an inspiration and a dialogue for the region. Do not believe figures and your pré-jugé ! most of the technologies are implemented in the continent and a lot of ICT for Human Development projects are created there. Inovation and social concern. Just watch UBUNTU elaborate in South Africa.

The african Development Bank just decided to finance for 25 Million of USD new satellite for the continent.

Here is an example of interesting project (bilingual). This is a competition of blogs of journalist in West Africa to promote democraty.

Remise des prix du concours « Waxal Blogging Africa Awards »
Le 9 mars 2009, l’Institut Panos Afrique de l’Ouest (IPAO), en collaboration avec Highway Africa et Global Voices Online, a organisé la remise des prix du « Waxal Blogging Africa Awards » concours destiné à promouvoir, en Afrique, le développement des blogs par les journalistes et les organisations de la société civile.

IPAO: http://www.panos-ao.org/

LAKOUZEMI again in Martinique- 11th april 09

2009-04-03T17:50:00.005-04:00

What is this ? a strange cultural event, a happening in a coq fight arena with intellectual and artist. With no subvention from government !!!
In creole: Lakou = An lakou ; Zémi : Caribe gods
the program is :

o Débats : Monchoachi, Gérard Nicolas, Jean-Marc Terrine, Sylvana Rangoly, Roland Pavila
o Musique : ChyenFèmyizik, Léon Sainte-Rose, José Marie-Rose
o Danse : Christiane Emmanuel
o Pawol nan bouch: Neg Madnik, Simone, Papa Slam
o Projection de films : Christian FORET
o Théâtre : Patrick Womba,
o Atelier pawol : Alin Légares
o Atelier pour enfants : Emmanuel Sarrotte
o Travaux in situ de Plasticiens : Yvan Manuel, Bruno Pédurand, Christian Romney
o Atelier audiovisuel : Christian FORET &KEN

Christiane Emmanuel is performing but I will love to assist for more st Lucians to assist and participate ... but this is Kalalu time.

well if you feel to see something new, just cross the channel - mental, culturel, linguistic.

LAKOUZEMI

SANMDI GLORYA 11 AVRIL 2009, 11H - 23H

PITT THOMASSIN, BARRIÈRE-LA-CROIX, SAINTE-ANNE… DÉ-ZÉRONÈF (février 09)…NOU KA VANSÉ TOUJOU
PA NI LIMIT : AUTOSUFFISANCE INTÉGRALE
LAREL-NOU AN TOUT’REL

DEBATS & Danse, Musique, Théâtre, Expositions, Ateliers, Boutique
Menu à 15 euros, Entrée libre, Mandé pou sav : 06 96 82 14 42

9th annual Calabash International Literary Festival - 22 May 09 - Jamaica

2009-04-03T17:38:00.003-04:00

Calabash 2009 is on!

[March 27, 2009 — Kingston, Jamaica]
Miracles happen. At Calabash we’ve always known this to be true. At the first Calabash in 2001, a flock of yellow butterflies hovered like a mist over the festival tent on the first day. They stayed with us until the final day, when they disappeared. What could that have been but a miracle?

On Friday, March 27, we experienced our most recent miracle — the Jamaica Tourist Board informed us that they’re committing US$40,000 to the festival. A few minutes later, the CHASE Fund informed us of their commitment to fund the festival for the next three years.
And so it is, that on Friday, May 22, the 9th annual Calabash International Literary Festival will take place at Jakes, in Treasure Beach, St. Elizabeth, Jamaica.

We’d like to thank the members of the boards of these two organizations. They have made it possible for this festival that means so much to so many people to continue giving of itself to all those who hold it dear. This list includes hotel operators, taxi drivers, restaurant owners, booksellers, fishermen, artisans, massage therapists. People who sell fruit.

The list would not be complete, however, without the mention of the people of Treasure Beach and their elected representatives past and present. Ordinary citizens at other times of the year — they transform themselves into maitre’ds and concierges at festival time. They become mayors. They become tour guides. They treat each and every one of the thousands of people who come to visit like a princess or a prince.

To the people of Treasure Beach we want to say, “Thanks for your faith. Thanks for your dignity. Thanks for your annual contribution of spirit and sweat and imagination. Without you, this festival could not exist.”

Thanks for helping us to be the greatest little festival in the greatest little district in the greatest little country in the world.

"Esperance" an Independance show of Dreina Frederick

2009-04-03T17:08:00.004-04:00

Pour les 30 and d'indépendance de St Lucie, un grand show Espérance a été crée par Dreina Frederick, Metteuse en scène, Adrain Augier pour les costumes et Mrs. Collymore pour la chorégraphie. Sur une musique de Barbara Cadette, Boo Hinkshon.

Prévu pour le grand stade, il a finalement eu lieu dans une salle multisport pour des raisons météo. Durant 2 heures, il fini par un gigantesque drapeau de plusieurs dizaines de mètres déployé par la foule des acteurs.
Plus de 200 personnes en scène, ce show certes un peu grandiloquent avec des longueurs et beaucoup de naïvetés - n'en reste pas moins très fort visuellement et regroupent les meilleurs talents du pays - danseurs, musiciens, théatre, poètes et costumiers.

c'était le Dimanche 8 mars 2009.
Et Dior, ma fille portait la croix egyptienne...

Kalalu festival à ST Lucie les 11&12 avril

2009-03-23T16:00:00.005-04:00

4e édition de Kalalu festival, premier festival musique du monde de la région.
C'est bien, c'est varié, c'est safe, c'est pas cher (60 EC$ par jour).

venez tous ! / everybody is invited !
I will be liason officer for the soukouss band - it will shake all over...

Martinique signed agreement saturday

2009-03-16T09:38:00.007-04:00

I want to congratulate all my martinican friends about the agreement signed by all parties in Martinique saturday.
This agreement is incredible, it includes all aspect of social and economic life of the island and was signed by representatives of all sectors...

While St Lucia is celebrating the 30th Independance anniversary, we can observe some similarities in the societies.

A beautiful text "CONTRE LES ETATS GENERAUX EN GUADELOUPE ET MARTINIQUE
VIVANTS !" from Patrick Chomoiseau was published by Le Monde the 13th of March.

Annette Mbaye D'Erneville

2009-03-16T09:21:00.004-04:00

Please meet my Antie from Senegal - an amazing women, journalist, poet, feminist, curator, writer and the most alive and funny person I know.

Here is the link to a film "Mere Bi" (The mother) made by her son Willy Mbaye. enjoy.
The movie

Annette MBAYE D'ERNEVILLE (born in 1926)

Annette M'baye was born in Sokone Senegal in 1926. Unlike many of her contemporaries,Annette M'Baye was educated primarily in Senegal, receiving her teaching degree from the École Normale d'Institutrices (Teacher's College) in Rufisque, 1945. After a short tenure as the General Superintendent of the École Normale in Rufisique, M'baye left Senegal to study teaching and education in Paris. Upon her return to Senegal in 1959, M'baye became a reporter and (in 1960) the commissary of the Regional Information in Diourbel. In 1963 M'baye founded and became principal editor of the Senegalese women's magazine "Awa." Still immersed in journalism, she became Program Director of Radio Senegal shortly thereafter.

Throughout her various careers, M'baye continued writing poetry. While she does not completely avoid the African struggle for independence, M'baye rarely ventures into the political treatises of her Senegalese colleagues, David Diop and Leopold Sedar Senghor. Her two published volumes explore her love for humanity, the trials of human endeavor, and, especially, the power of women in African society. Highly personal and stylized, her work continues the African poetry tradition of her generation by breaking at the walls of free-form expression.

http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php?vue=notice&id_notice=CPD09001141

Martinique and Guadeloupe: the end of revolution...

2009-03-12T15:06:00.002-04:00

An agreement was signed yesterday in Martinique between french goverment, entrepreneurs and Unions united in the Comittee of the 5th February.
The strike is over with schools reopening today even if the situation still a little confuse. The agreement on 200€ raise of minimum wage is done... still a lot of people are unemployed and the international crisis will impact on the island.

The maire of Fort de France, Serge Letchimy collapse after his intervention between a group of Banana farmers, Committee members and Police. The rumor gave him dead ! but he is ok now...

more info later...

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Selon l''AFP, "L'accord sur les salaires a été signé dans la nuit de mercredi, le collectif annonce sa volonté d'assouplir le mouvement, l'école pourrait reprendre partout et les zones devraient rouvrir.
Seule la grande distribution risque de rester fermée.
"C'est le début de la sortie de la crise" explique Michel Monrose, président du collectif.

Après la signature dans la nuit d’un accord sur les bas salaires entre le patronat et le "Collectif du 5 février", qui mène le mouvement contre la vie chère depuis près de cinq semaines, la Martinique se dirigeait mercredi vers la fin de la grève...
Patronat et Collectif ont fait suffisamment de compromis pour parvenir à définir le smic qui servira de référence pour bénéficier de la prime de 200 euros nets (pour les bas salaires jusqu’à 1,4 smic) et les revalorisations pour les salaires au-dessus (entre 1,4 et 1,6 smic) et au-delà de 1,6 smic. Le salaire de référence choisi est un 1/12e de la rémunération annuelle (incluant les primes et le 13e mois pour ceux qui en reçoivent un). Sur cette base, 47.000 personnes vont bénéficier des 200 euros, soit plus de 60% des salariés du privé.

Une augmentation de 4 % est actée pour les 8.400 salariés gagnant entre 1,4 et 1,6 smic, et une de 2% pour les 22.000 salariés au-delà de 1,6 smic. Cet accord est applicable à compter du 1er mars. "Nous avons fait de gros efforts pour sortir de ce conflit, a déclaré."

A video on riot in Martinique this week

2009-03-10T13:47:00.002-04:00

A lot of people ask me about the situation in Martinique.
St Lucie start to greet some Martinican coming over to shop ! this is funny. Remember the timle of the Dissidence, when Martinican came over to runaway from french Government during the second world war.

Well, 4 days ago it was hot there. Some Beke gave money to Dock guys for them to release some containers of goods. The 5th February committee block the containers and the Police came to assist. The Police shot on people. Fortunately nobody was injured... but the tension still big there.
The school reopen this week. Wait and see.

have a look:

http://www.facebook.com/inbox/readmessage.php?t=1007692647696

thanks to Thierry Porchel for his movie.

Iyanola Book Fair and Literary Festival - March 20th – 22nd 2009

2009-03-03T13:32:00.005-04:00

Iyanola Book Fair and Literary Festival
March 20th – 22nd 2009
Independence 30, 2009
Open Campus, UWI, Saint Lucia

Draft programme:

FRIDAY March 20th — Opening Ceremony 8-9h

Voices – Part 1(5 readers, 4 mins each)
Jacques Compton, Michael Aubertin, George Goddard, Gabriel Auguste, Maria Fontenelle, McDonald Dixon.

The culminating piece is a choral reading of Walcott’s poem, Sainte Lucie which will allow for,but not depend upon, participation by all.

8.00 pm Fair and Festival declared open by H.E. Governor General

Refreshments
Performances by Folk Music Band

SATURDAY March 21st

12: 00 noon Book Fair, Art & Crafts Exhibitions open

9.30 am – 1.00pm Workshop on Creative writing
Workshop leader: Mervyn Morris, Jamaica

9:30 am – 1:00 pm Workshop on CXC Theatre Arts
Workshop leader: Rawle Gibbons, Trinidad

9:30 am – 1:00 pm Seminar on desktop publishing (SALCC)

10.00 am – 12 noon, “Literature for children” - Children’s workshop: readings, dramatizations, their own work etc.
Workshop leader: Angel Caglin

10.00 am – 1:00 pm Symposium on “Literatures in Kweyol” (with participants from St. Lucia, Dominica, Martinique, Guadeloupe, Cayenne.)
Co-ordinator: Lindy-Ann Alexander

LUNCH BREAK FOOD COURTS

2.00 pm – 3.00 pm Voices - Part II [8 readers @ 6 mins each]
Anderson Reynolds, Modeste Downes, Rudy Gurley, Rudy Avril, Tyshia Julitta,
Esther Phillips (B’dos), Fish Alphonse

3:00 pm - 3:30 pm Musical Interlude: Steelpan and Flute Duo

3.30 pm – 4.30 pm Caribbean Semi-lime - 1
Interview with Reading – Mervyn Morris
(Interviewer: Royston Emmanuel)

4.30 pm – 5.30 pm Voices – Part III
Travis Weekes, Gandolph St. Clair, Villiard Tobierre, Galicia Blackman, Nasha Louis,
Nadge Augustin, Ashanti, Robert Sandiford (B’dos)

5:30 pm – 6.00 pm Fish with Lapo Kabwit

6.30 pm – 7.30 pm Caribbean Semi-lime II (The Grotto)
Interview with Reading – George Lammin
Interviewer: John Robert Lee/Alwin Bully

8.00 pm – 10 pm WORD ALIVE

10.00 pm – 11.00 pm Food court/musical entertainment

SUNDAY March 22nd

12.00 Book Fair & Exhibition Food Courts open.

2.00 pm – 4:00 pm Music and the Word on Sunday:
LRF Soundworks, Barbara Cadet,Emerson Nurse et al with: Afro Lyrix, Tanbou Mele, SAT with Stevaco, Ken Hardy, Jason Sifflet and Dianne Phillip, Ras Isley, Marcian JnPierre, Nkrumah Lucien, Marc Matthews

Culminating with Bro Resistance (T&T)

4.00 pm – 5.30 pm Voices – Part IV
Omar Perez (Cuba), Raphael Confiant?(M’tique), Joby Bernabe? (M’tique), Jane King, Robert Lee, Adrian Augier, McDonald Dixon, Hazel Simmons,

6:00 pm – 7:30 One man Performance- Kendel Hippolyte: I came upon this town

7:30 pm – 8:30 pm Finale: Book fair/Food Court/Exhibitions
Musical Entertainment

Le nouveau site web du St Lucia National Trust

2009-02-25T14:35:00.005-04:00

Le St Lucia National Trust a un nouveau site web qui reste à remplir. L'organisation a une nouvelle politique, est en train de définir son programme pour les 5 ans à venir et cherche à mieux communiquer sur ces activités. C'est la plus ancienne des institutions de patrimoine et environnement de St Lucie...

www.slunatrust.org/news.php

meet my friend Newton Aduaka filmaker

2009-02-25T11:26:00.004-04:00

Newton Aduaka and Valérie Osouf are my friends. There are filmakers. They participate in Barbados Film festival a couple of years ago, I hope we can invite them to present their work in the Caribbean pretty soon.

I invite you to watch this video of Newton presenting his work and particularly the last one about Children Soldiers in Africa.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/newton_aduaka_tells_the_story_of_ezra.html

Bio of Newton Aduaka

Born in Eastern Nigeria, Newton Aduaka and his family moved to Lagos in 1970 at the end of the Biafran War. In 1985 he left for England to study engineering, but discovered cinema. He graduated from the London International Film School in 1990, and in 1997 established Granite Film Works. In 2001, Aduaka's debut feature film, Rage, became the first wholly independently financed film by a black filmmaker in the history of British cinema to be released nationwide. It opened to critical acclaim. He has made many short films as well.

Between 2005 and 2007, he co-wrote, directed and executive-produced Ezra, his first non-independently funded film, for Arte France. The film won the Grand Jury Prize at several film festivals, including FESPACO, Durban, Amiens and Balafon, and was an official selection at Sundance and Cannes.

A Barack obama Street in Martinique !

2009-02-20T18:09:00.004-04:00

The French Caribbean island of Martinique has commemorated Barack Obama’s historic ascension to the presidency of the United States by naming a street in his honor. The newly dubbed Rue Obama extends from the heart of the picturesque city of Le Diamant, located along the island’s pristine southern coast, to the sea. Gilbert Eustache, Mayor of Le Diamant was very proud of the event Fittingly, the street measures 144 meters for the 44th President of the United States.

Obama Street

Muriel Wiltord, director for the Martinique Promotion Bureau/CMT USA, commented on the designation, stating: “Here in Martinique, as in other communities around the world that boast a predominantly African heritage, we are extremely proud and excited about President Obama’s victory. Our own Aimé Césaire was a crusader for Civil Rights in the Caribbean and Europe on a comparable level to great American leaders like Martin Luther King, so for us the victory is all the more sweet."

Interesting how the Caribbean people are vibrating to this election ! The First one is Martinique !

Martinique Carnaval Cancelled !

2009-02-20T10:41:00.006-04:00

After some hesitation, the Maire of Fort de France Serge Letchimy cancelled the Carnival for security reasons. Most of the other towns cancelled already their Fetes.
This is a big discussion among cultural people and general public in Martinique: is Carnival must be maintained ? How to show solidarity to the mouvment ? If Carnival is played, how this will impact on the image of the Martinican population during a strike ?

Going/ not going ? The different band leaders have different position...

but Vaval is dead before his time !

General strike in Martinique and Guadeloupe

2009-02-19T13:44:00.010-04:00

Guadeloupe is on general strike since the 20th of January. The committee in charge of the organisation of the strike is called the LPK, it includes all Unions, civil society NGO's. The island protest against the price of life which is 40 % more that in France even if transport cost is only 10% of it and colonial situation who gives in priority best jobs to French people... The island is closed, no food, no gas, no transport, no school !!!

French government sent more troups in the island and the Minister in charge of the FWI was playing a game, negociating in Guadeloupe and steping back on promesses in France.
Yesterday, a militant died, killed in a riot by a lost bullet.

Martinique join the strike the 5th February, and 20 000 persons were in the street. Since then the situation is the same, shortage of Gas, no school, no bank, no supermarket...
In the meanwhile, a french TV program on the economy of the FWI call "BEKE land" was broadcasted the 6th February, in which it is explain how the Beke - white descendants of aristocratic estate owners - are still the master of the islands. They are 1 % of the population and own 45 % of the land, most of the supermarket, and half of the commercial traffic coming to the island is dealed by them !
In this Tv program a Beke was proud to tell that in 400 years the bekes never mixed with negroes... in an apartheid system very well organised.
This gives more reasons for the strikers to continue and negociate with the French Government.

There are many online text, petition, articles and circualting email but I consider the "Manifeste pour les produits de première nécessité" of a Collectif of an internationlly recognized intellectuals (Ernest Breleur, Patrick Chamoiseau, Serge Domi, Gérard Delver, Edouard Glissant, Guillaume Pigeard de Gurbert, Olivier Portecop, Olivier Pulvar, Jean-Claude William) as the most powerful.
There is as well a call to boycott all the products sold by the Beke which provide a long list...

But more than a racial question, which is more evident in MArtinique than in Guadeloupe this is a political and economical question. FWI have an average of 30 % of unployment (France was between 5 and 10% these last years) many people are living under poverty level and young people are lost.

So let's see what happen after the allocution of the french president tonight, thursday 19 on the events.

et vive la Révolution !!

Découverte archéologique à Cas en Bas - St Lucie

2009-02-10T14:57:00.006-04:00

Enfin des nouvelles directes sur les découvertes de Cas en Bas. Donc en effet, le Professeur Carine Hofman de l'Université de Leiden en Hollande est bien à St Lucie en visite privée. Le site est connu puisque fouillé il y a 30 ans pour seulement une petite partie et jamais de sépulture trouvée. A l'époque, il a été daté à 1200 ap JC. Sa famille a trouvé un ensemble de 30 sépultures apparentes découvertes par l'érosion.
Cette érosion est due en grande partie à la totale déforestation du projet Raffle à Cas en Bas et à la construction d'un hotel. Les écosystèmes sont fragiles, on le savait, mais chaque fois nous en avons la preuve, impuissants.

C'est un cas de sauvegarde urgente. Plusieurs ministres st Lucien sont venus voir et ont promis de couvrir le site avec de la terre en attendant que l'équipe revienne cet été pour une fouille minutieuse.

En attendant on espère que les voitures vont cesser de rouler sur le site... et que enfin une prise de conscience va se faire.

à bientot pour de nouvelles aventures archéologiques donc.

plus d'infos sur l'archéologie à St Lucie sur le site de l'université !
http://archaeology.leiden.edu/

St Lucia : A new archeological site discovered !

2009-02-02T17:21:00.005-04:00

Exciting and fresh news from yesterday: recently a tourist was walking on the sea shore in the Cas en Bas area, when he came across a bone. He happened to be an archaeologist and to his trained eye this was no ordinary bone. He sent the bone for Carbon dating, and guess what? It is 1000 year old!

It seems that an archaeological team from Holland has arrived on the island and they have delimitated an area with a barrier tape (ah ah in front of Atlantic Ocean) and placed pegs wherever they have discovered bones, clay pots and other artefacts - this appears to cover a large area!

Well I am not surprised as Cas en Bas is a perfect cove... this whole coast is full of Amerindian sites - and nobody seems to care about this history. Worse! Bulldozers are creating golf courses, and more, all over St Lucia.

It is time for a serious look at the cost of what is called here development (townhouse, hotels and massive concretisation) despite the degradation caused to our heritage sites and the general environmental destruction. There seems to be a lack of common sense and values by everyone.

St Lucia urgently needs an effective policy on Heritage sites applied by a government which is not merely a real estate agent!

Help !!!!!!!!!

I will investigate further and soon give you some news about this new Amerindian site ....

Thanks to Dany for the info.

Googel ocean - le dernier continent en 3 D

2009-02-02T16:27:00.004-04:00

Une bonne nouvelle pour la Caraibe ! après tout n'est pas la mer qui nous relie ?
en espérant que les 5% choisi le soit selon une logique mondiale !

selon Le Monde: "Google a présenté, lundi 2 février, une nouvelle version de Google Earth, son logiciel d'exploration virtuelle de l'Univers, qui permet désormais de voyager en trois dimensions dans les profondeurs des océans, observer le relief sous-marin et suivre la migration des espèces aquatiques. Il a fallu dix ans de collaboration avec plus de 80 organismes scientifiques et des dizaines d'ingénieurs de Google pour mettre au point Ocean.

Mais seule une petite partie des 5 % de la surface cartographiée des océans et des mers est disponible dans des images en haute résolution et détaillées. Pour cela, Google s'est associé avec l'US Navy, la NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration), le National Geographic, la BBC, la Cousteau Society et une vingtaine de partenaires qui lui apportent des images satellites, des vidéos, des photographies, des données historiques, géologiques et météorologiques en temps réel."

http://www.justmagic.com/GM-GE.html

A new Music festival in Martinique with Youssou Ndour !

2009-01-30T15:54:00.004-04:00

Here is a new festival KASKODFESTIVAL in the North of Martinique organised by the Town of Le Precheur, they have an impressive programation:
Dominik Coco
Steel Pulse
and Youssou NDour from Senegal !!!!!

"You" as we call him in Dakar, is a great artist, he started singing at 15 years old and since then tour worldwide. What I like about him, he chooses to stay in Senegal, develop project with the Youth, help the country.
You can go and see more about him at www.youssou.com/Templates/Biography.html

You's drummer is my cousin Baye Gueye Faye, a funny little guy, with magic in his hands, coming from a traditionnal family of drummers - Sing Sing family and mixing tradition with actual inspiration.

I hope you can go to this show !

www.kaskodfestival.net/

Public poetry in St Lucia, Feb 3

2009-01-28T17:12:00.004-04:00

FROM THE ST. LUCIA WRITERS' FORUM

The St. Lucia Writers' Forum will be holding its first public poetry reading on Tuesday, February 3, 2009 at the Central Library, Castries at 7 pm.

The event will showcase the poetic talents of its members Kensley Peter, Gemma Blasse, Erica John, Morgan George, Marcian Jn. Pierre, Valentino Cenac, Benedicta Gould and Stan Bishop.

The poets will be reciting their original pieces as well as selected pieces written by our esteemed Nobel Laureate for Literature, Hon.Derek Walcott.

Other specially-invited guests will be present to witness the new direction the Forum is geared towards.

Admission is free.

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Le Forum des écrivains St Luciens organise une session de lecture de poésie le 3 février 2009 à Castries à la Bibliothèque Centrale à 19h. Les membres du Forum - Kensley Peter, Gemma Blasse, Erica John, Morgan George, Marcian Jn. Pierre, Valentino Cenac, Benedicta Gould et Stan Bishop liront leurs oeuvres ainsi que celles de Derek Walcott. L'entrée est libre.

Lancement du Livret Il était une fois Aimé Césaire, mercredi 28 janvier

2009-01-27T16:42:00.003-04:00

As I said in November 08, this is the launching of the "Once uppon a time Aimé Césaire" booklet for kids.

Launching will be done by the Town of Fort de France in Martinique who ordered it, tomorrow Wednesday 28 January 2009, it is a little booklet with a lot of images and short texts, trying to explain who was Aimé Césaire - a great poet and writer from Martinique, and what was so interesting in his life - as an important politician of Martinique in France.

I created it with the main idea that the kids will remember 2 things: a poem and the concept of Negritude.

I hope we will translate it in English and Spanish pretty soon to give the Caribbean exposure this great man need. This is a pity to see that is better well known in Africa that in his region...

Let's work on that. Any partner interested ?

une réunion francophone à la Nouvelle Orléans

2009-01-26T20:29:00.001-04:00

C'est le 23e Congrès du Conseil International d’Études Francophones à lA NOUVELLE-ORLÉANS le 21 juin-28 juin 2009.

Il va y avoir MICHEL TREMBLAY, figure emblématique de la littérature québécoise, qui sera l’invité d’honneur du CIEF cette année. En plus de nombreuses sessions de communications pluridisciplinaires sur la littérature et la culture dans le monde francophone, le congrès proposera des tables rondes et des séances de lecture d’écrivains, une librairie, des réceptions, des soirées culturelles et des excursions.

Qu'est ce que c'est que ça le CIEF ?
Crée en 1987, le Conseil International d'Études Francophones est une association internationale, à but non lucratif, ayant pour objectif le développement des études, de la recherche, des publications et des productions francophones ou portant sur la francophonie dans le monde.

allez-y voir : www.cief.info/

Ils ont lancé un appel à communication,
allons-y répondons !
Plus on est de fous plus on rit... donc en juin à la Nouvelle Orléans.

Nobel Laureate lecture in St Lucia yesterday 21st January 2009

2009-01-22T12:00:00.007-04:00

Yesterday night was the Derek Walcott Lecture. It is part of the program of the Nobel Laureate week in St Lucia. This event launched in 1993 by Sir John Compton to honour the 2 prize winners from the country. The twin peaks of excellence !

It was delivered this year by Professor Kenneth Ramchand of Trinidad and Tobago who has written several books on West Indian Literature, the most notable being The West Indian Novel and its Background. Professor Ramchand lectured for several years at the University of the West Indies and is now a Professor with the University of Trinidad and Tobago.
Derek Walcott, his wife, the Governor general of St Lucia and many important people of St Lucia were present at the event.

An interesting subject for us cultural activist: "Cultural literacy". Prof. Kenneth Ramchand explored it from the point of view of cultural literacy in the caribbean litterature and of course in Derek Walcott work. He presented an opposition - for the old generation of writers- between the colonial litteracy represented by the school system and the oral/popular literacy and its resistence strategies.
He gave a definition of cultural literacy in 2 parts: the functionnal one - a shopping list of what a caribbean person should know (name of plants and animals, heros and historical facts, language uses, songs...)and a more diffuse one - a set of facts, feelings and behaviour producing a cultural background, a reference for the artist.

The main question was: what about now ?
what about cultural resistence to the ongoing cultural supremacy ?
what tools the caribbean intellectuals, writers and other artists have to fight it ?

To me this is the "end of the Independence" as a historical sequence, like Ahmadou Kourouma, famous Ivoirian writer described it in the early 90's in West Africa. It brings a huge question about identity and development. The intellectuals involved in this independance process had a big job to do: create a national identity, fight the colonial representation and highlight proudly the local/unformal/popular culture.
In doing so, they frozed it. To pass local culture - mostly oral - on an academic form killed it in a way.
Is the national culture is functionnal and adequate now for young people ?
What is the perception in the population of school programs trying to include choosen pieces (by who? on what criteria?)of the "local culture" ?

Well, the generation gap and the failure of the elaboration of a national culture alive were mentionned during the discussion. Reference were made of "Young writer" such as Nalo Hopkinson or Kendal Hippolyte in St Lucia, working on this question.
(Kendal I know you are retired this year - how long do we stay young in St Lucia ??)

discussion to be continued...

The committee had printed 2 booklets on the past lectures.
The committee had a website - but it is not updated since 2006 !

Happy Obama' day !

2009-01-20T09:24:00.004-04:00

Barackomania is very strong in the Caribbean and we can find in the streets different expression of the popular enthousiasm.

Today everybody feel something special, even if we are not sure of what happen after, we still enjoy simply the day and the event of Barack Obama, a son of Africa ! - becoming President of the most powerfull country of the world.

As my friend Rabia AbdelKrim Cheikh said many years ago, all citizens of the world must vote in the american election, because the power of this country is so incredible and the impact of their policy on the world so strong that we all have to give our word about it.

SO enjoy it - and happy Obama day !

let's go to Museum online !

2009-01-14T17:58:00.007-04:00

Visit the Prado for zero
maybe some ideas for African and Caribbean museums ?

Hey, did you know about the Prado museum online ? Well here it is, you go to Google earth on the PRADO location (Madrid is in Spain for the bad student in geography) and you click on icon Obras Maestras ! you will look at the painting in such details that even your eye cannot catch them...

Velasquez, Bosch, Goya Rudens and Greco. let's enjoy beauty.
we need all the arts - from all part of the world online now!
so we can enjoy and reduce carbone production as well.

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Voir le Prado gratis

La mise en ligne concerne Les Ménines de Velasquez, Le Jardin des délices de Jérôme Bosch, Les Fusillades du 3 mai de Francisco Goya, Les Trois Grâces de Rubens ou encore Le Chevalier à la main sur la poitrine du Greco.

Pour visualiser les œuvres, il faut positionner le navigateur Google Earth sur le musée du Prado, à Madrid, et ensuite cliquer sur l'icône "Obras maestras" pour ensuite entrer dans chacun des tableaux comme on pourrait le faire avec une loupe.

Impact énergétique de Google

2009-01-14T17:32:00.003-04:00

TIC vert !

Un physicien de l'Université de Harvard, Alex Wissner-Gross rejette une partie des informations données par le Times à propos de la production de CO2 d'une recherche chez Google."Le Times nous a attribué à tort le chiffre de 7 grammes de CO2 émis par requête Google, explique le jeune chercheur de 27 ans. Dans notre étude, nous nous sommes concentrés exclusivement sur l'ensemble des sites Internet et nous avons constaté, qu'en moyenne, une visite sur un site traditionnel émet 20 grammes de CO2 par seconde."

M. Wissner-Gross confirme en revanche le fait qu'une requête Google possède une empreinte environnementale. "Tout ce qui est en ligne a un impact. Même Google est d'accord avec ça !", se défend-t-il. Le chercheur espère ainsi que cette polémique portera davantage l'attention sur l'importante quantité d'énergie consommées par les centres de calcul des grandes entreprises. "La question des économies d'énergies concerne l'ensemble des infrastructures de nouvelles technologies. Ce n'est pas un problème spécifique à Google."

St Lucia -January 18–25th Nobel Laureate Week 2009 - Celebrating Excellence: Nurturing Talent

2009-01-13T11:03:00.002-04:00

Chaque année St Lucie fête ses deux Prix Nobel - the twin peaks of Excellence en référence aux Pitons de la Soufrière. Pas mal pour un pays de 150 000 habitants non ?

alors voilà le programme...

St Lucia Nobel Laureate Week 2009 - Celebrating Excellence: Nurturing Talent

January 18th – 25th.

Sunday, January 18th.

Opening of Nobel Laureate Week

Staging of “The Merchant of Venice” by the Schools’ Performing Arts Company – National Cultural Centre, 6.30.pm.

Monday, January 19th.

Repeat performance of “The Merchant of Venice” for Secondary School students – National Cultural Centre, 10.00 a.m.

Lectures hosted by the Constitutional Reform Commission- Gros Islet and Vieux Fort

Tuesday, January 20th.

Schools’ Choral Music Festival – National Cultural Centre, 10.00 a.m.

Panel discussion – “Sir Arthur Lewis and the Current Global Economic Climate” NIC Conference Room, 7.30 pm.

Wednesday, January 21st.

Launch of The Nobel Laureates Memories Project – St. Lucia National Archives, 10.00 a.m.

The Derek Walcott Lecture :“Cultural literacy”– Presented by Prof. Kenneth Ramchand - NIC Conference Room, 7.30 p.m.

Thursday, January 22nd.

The National Awards of Excellence hosted by the Ministry of Education and Culture – National Cultural Centre, 10.00 am.

“Showcasing our Laureates – Confronting Economic Challenges at the Community Level” hosted by the Micoud Development Foundation, Exhibition of the works of the Laureates -10.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m.

Panel Discussion : “The Relevance of the Sir Arthur Lewis Model in the Current Global Economic Climate – Developing Community-based Savings and Investment as a Response” – 6.00 p.m.

“The Odyssey: A Tribute to Derek Walcott” hosted by the St. Mary’s College – National Cultural Centre, 7.30 p.m.

Lecture hosted by the Constitutional Reform Commission – Soufriere

Panel discussion – Excellence in the White House? : Implications for St. Lucia hosted by Labowi Promotions – Laborie, 7.30 p.m.

Friday, January 23rd. NOBEL LAUREATE DAY

Wreath-laying Ceremony – Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, 10.00 a.m.

Arts and Crafts Fair hosted by Options Designs – Derek Walcott Square, 10.00 a.m.

The Sir Arthur Lewis Memorial Lecture: “Pension Reform as an instrument of genuine social and economic development” – Presented by Dr. Marius St. Rose - NIC Conference Room, 7.30 p.m.

Saturday, January 24th.

An Evening of Music - “Tribute to Charles Cadet” presented by The Cecilian Rays – National Cultural Centre, 7.30 p.m.

Sunday, January 25th

“A Black Woman’s Tale” presented by Gemstones Theatre Production – National Cultural Centre, 7.30 p.m.