Fiftytwo years after our Caribbean culture burst out onto the Canadian landscape at Expo 67 in Montreal, we are positing our Canadian pride with a Caribbean vibe. For us, CARIFESTA is an important experience that will renew our sense of artistic identity by being absorbed in the many and diverse practices of this ‘high mas’ of Caribbean cultural and artistic expressions.
Through our artistic offerings, we will showcase our strides forward; our evolution, as we seek to unravel the twists and turns of our artistic practice. There is something exhilarating in our “Carib-being”, which has always inspired our relationship with our Caribbean heritage. Even the wreckage left over from our historic trials and tribulations forms an important part of the triumphant spirit with which we create our art. In his 1992 Nobel lecture, poet laureate Derek Walcott describes “Antillean art” as the “restoration of our shattered histories, our shards of vocabulary, our archipelago becoming a synonym for pieces broken off from the original continent.” |
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