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Patrick Rahming

Patrick “Pat” Rahming, born in 1944 in the heart of Bain Town, one of what would become thirteen children is considered one of The Bahamas’ foremost creative visionaries. He trained at McGill University as an architect. In addition to his career as an architect, Rahming is also a consummate musician, actor, playwright, poet, and storyteller. His album “Poetry”, released in the early 1980s, is considered by many to be one of the best Bahamian recordings of all time. He is the author of a number of celebrated collections of poetry and an avid activist for the betterment of this great country.

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I am ashamed of my generation

by Pat Rahming

I am ashamed of my generation.

We dropped the ball fifty years ago, which has led to almost two generations of spoilt children. And now we sit on the sidelines, too embarrassed to admit our errors and to speak the truth, consoling ourselves that our children are more technologically advanced than we are, and that we need to “understand” them. We listen to their conversations and repeat the same meaningless platitudes they use to make themselves feel “educated”. All they do for us is remind us that we screwed up.

What does “It starts in the home” mean? Does that statement tell a new parent what to do to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem? Or is there some toxic product in the home that turns children into monsters? The fact is that the statement has no functional meaning beyond finding someplace to place the blame and making the speaker seem enlightened.

Or how about “It takes a village to raise a child”? This is simply an observation by someone from a nuclear family background that extended family communities produce more culturally stable children, but the sentence is used to lament the loss of community in The Bahamas. Unfortunately, it does not offer a bridge between the present social condition being addressed and the ideal being expressed. [...]

CLICK HERE to read full article at Pat Rahming’s blog.

I have done little to change that picture, feeling certain that there would be those pundits of art standing ready to cast doubt on the validity of my commentary with a “That’s her husband—What do you expect her to say?” Besides, don’t we know that the shoemaker’s family are always the last to get shoes? No matter. I will now try to correct an unfortunate omission, leaning on the history of my integrity in speaking and writing.

There is now a compelling reason to write about the art of Neko Meicholas. As evidence of a talent that deserves acknowledgement, three large, intimately related canvases now hang high on the wall at the back of the altar space in the exquisite setting of the chapel of the old St Francis Xavier. It is a fitting setting, as this structure is part of a phoenix-rising-from-ashes tale given physical reality.

The story began on 25 September 2009. Owing to an electrical fault, fire engulfed the rafters of the then 124-year-old church causing extensive damage. In what many have called a miracle (including this writer), the tabernacle was spared and the Eucharist inside was untouched. It was, perhaps, symbolic of what was to come. Archbishop Patrick Pinder, CMG, STD vowed immediately to restore the sacred space. Known to be meticulous in his dealings, Archbishop Pinder took his time assembling the builders, artisans and artists, who would contribute to the restoration and embellishment of the historic structure. [...]

CLICK HERE for full essay at Bahamian Art & Culture’s Issuu site.

Bahamian finds golden success in ‘Moonlight’ film

by Alesha Cadet

Bahamian rapper Travis Bowe is getting his first taste of international success after one of his songs was featured on the soundtrack for this year’s critically acclaimed, multi award-winning film “Moonlight.”

The song is called “Play That Funk” and is the first song Travis recorded with artist Prez-P at Miami’s legendary Circle House Studios.

Learning that “Moonlight” was named the Best Motion Picture Drama at this year’s Golden Globes was an exhilarating feeling for the Bahamian artist, especially since he had no idea how big the movie would become when his song was first selected for the soundtrack.

“I can’t go a day without someone asking me if I’ve ever watched the film. The movie is about a young man growing up, battling with homosexuality, and reflects on the conflicted and fluid masculinity of young black men. From his childhood to adulthood he struggles to find his place in the world with feelings that it will not allow him to explore,” said Travis. [...]

CLICK HERE to read full article on Pg 11 in The Tribune Weekend.

The translation conversation

Migration and navigating blackness in Bahamian womanhood

There is a very specific kind of uneasiness in black Bahamians as we try to translate our blackness when we move into other spaces, and it is most felt and visceral when we emigrate. While the African diaspora is very much real and very much alive, there’s often this unspoken but palpable sense as Bahamians - given our history - that we can’t quite always tap into our blackness when we’re placed elsewhere; that we don’t quite feel a part of the main. We feel that our ties are tenuous, and when you add in the complexity of identifying with black womanhood on a global scale, the waters become more muddied.

For the eighth National Exhibition (NE8), Giovanna Swaby addresses this discomfort directly in “I Learned In Passing” (2016). Through this displaced domestic setting, Swaby builds up a narrative that so many of us can identify with as black Bahamian women travelling abroad. There are framed images including snippets of dialogue outlining incidents of racial microaggressions: those lesser-known, smaller, but more insidious moments of stereotyping practices that can so often be left unaddressed because they are seen to be ‘harmless’ ignorances, rather than a big part of the patriarchal machine. Ornate wallpaper and frames make an intimate home for the project in the ballroom of the NAGB. It is an unabashedly and unashamedly domestic, feminine space. [...]

CLICK HERE for full article in The Nassau Guardian.

If there were such a thing as a rock star of hurricanes, it would be Bahamian meteorologist Wayne Neely.

Amongst the “weather set”, he’s become known as “Mr. Hurricane” for his love of weather and weather systems, which has spurred the writing of 10 books on the topic of hurricanes. His latest is titled “The Greatest and Deadliest Hurricanes of the Caribbean and the Americas: The Stories Behind the Great Storms of the North Atlantic”.

Neely’s latest book is his biggest to date and includes all of the major hurricanes to impact the North Atlantic — the Caribbean, North America, Canada, Bermuda and Central America — from the time Europeans first encountered hurricanes in the region in 1494 to Matthew in 2016.

“This book is different from any of the other books. I’ve included all the major hurricanes of the region, and the stories behind the hurricanes, so the book, technically, is much better than any I’ve done in the past, and a much better read as well,” said Neely, 46. “For history buffs, this will be an excellent read.” [...]

CLICK HERE for full article in The Nassau Guardian.

Artist’s work inspired by brother’s death

Doongalik announces first exhibition for 2017

by Pamela Burnside

Doongalik Studios is pleased to announce their first exhibition for the new year entitled, “A Whole New World: Journey to Neverland”, a display of new works by Bahamian artist, Ryan Turnquest that were inspired by the tragic loss of his younger brother, Chris Turnquest, in a boating incident in Nassau Harbour on October 1, 2016, a tragedy that hurtled the Turnquest family into a painful roller coaster ride which continues to affect them all as it remains unresolved.

The works on display in the Exhibition are the result of the artist’s ongoing emotional response to the incident which drew him forcefully back into his art. After obtaining an Associate’s Degree in Art from the College of The Bahamas, Turnquest entered Savannah College of Art and Design in 2007 where he studied Industrial Design. He is making plans to complete his final year and graduate from the programme. [...]

CLICK HERE to read full article in The Bahamas Weekly.

Nurturing art criticism in the Caribbean

Creative journalism workshop held in Kingston, Jamaica

by Keisha Oliver

For far too long, creative communities in the Caribbean have danced around the notion of art criticism as a form of public discourse. For the professional artist and writer, who as students valued peer feedback and professional assessment, how is it conceivable to be expected to abandon the very thing that allowed you to grow? Art criticism by no means exists as a direct attack on the artist, but is an immediate response and personal interpretation of creative work. By providing authentic reviews to visual art, films, theatre, music, and literature, the critic creates an open dialogue making the arts more accessible to a wider audience. Without this critical discourse, our cultural ecosystem will disappear.

Last week, eleven arts writers from Barbados, The Bahamas, Dominica, Jamaica St. Kitts and Nevis, and Trinidad and Tobago participated in a five-day creative journalism workshop that challenged this issue. Hosted by The British Council in partnership with NGC Bocas Lit Fest, and the Department of Literatures in English at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, Jamaica, the workshop addressed the shortage of trained arts writers and culture journalists across the Anglophone Caribbean. [...]

CLICK HERE for full article in The Nassau Guardian.

A song inspired by Bahamian life and culture

Doctor-musician releases new single that tells the story about life during election season

“I selling my vote for one government job, two piece o’ land, money in my hand… Mr. Politician what you gone do for me?”

The rhythm and the drums get you moving, while the lyrics get you thinking. “Government Job” is the new single that tells the story about life during the general elections in The Bahamas.

Through his lyrics Dr. Ian Alleyne-McQuay wants people to pause and to think about whether they’re “selling” their votes. If so, what are they selling them for? He wants people to be conscious of the impact of leadership based on the majority vote. In its hilarious format and rhythm, Dr. Alleyne-McQuay vividly portrays the demands of Bahamians during election season in The Bahamas.

He says the song was inspired by Bahamian life and culture, and that the song speaks to people from all walks of life in the Bahamian community and credits them for the inspiration behind the lyrics. [...]

CLICK HERE for full story in The Nassau Guardian.

An artful Asue

Jeffrey Meris hosts unique project at NAGB.

Artist Jeffery Meris has taken the popular Bahamian practice know as “asue” and translated the concept into an interactive art show. “Asue 20/20” is a series of participatory objects, from the Yorubic tradition.

Mr. Meris invited 19 people throughout New Providence to interchange objects in response to a prompt or object he creates. Much like an economic asue, each week one person receives all 20 objects created/exchanged until the cycle is completed and all 20 participants have received an item.

This cultural practice of communal saving is quickly dissipating from the Caribbean Diaspora. Mr. Meris examines the cultural institution, while simultaneously building bridges that technology is dismantling.

The work, according to the artist, is also positioned in relation to blackness, as the practice of asue was a form of cultural resistance formed in response to slavery and the aftermath, which prohibited black people from saving money in banks.

CLICK HERE to read full article on Pg 7 in The Tribune Weekend.

Caribbean artists mine their immigrant identities

Though not every work is politically charged, this show arrives at a tender time in the country’s history, when cultural and ancestral histories feel at risk of erasure or condemnation.

by Monica Uszerowicz

“How do you prepare yourself for the possibility of becoming invisible?”

This question is part of a much longer title, “A History of Massacre (How do you prepare yourself for the possibility of becoming invisible?) ‘A hundred years after the U.S. occupation began, the deoccupation has yet to come…,’” a video by Jamaican-born, Miami-based artist Jamilah Sabur. It’s a fair question for a massive hunk of the world’s population, if they haven’t been marginalized to invisibility already. But the experimental short film specifically references “the recent exodus of Haitians from Brazil to the US,” the artist told Hyperallergic. “I found myself preoccupied with the root cause of migration, the destructive trade policies, and the legacy of brutal US occupations. Haiti is the center of this global condition.”

Sabur’s work is part of Champions, a West Palm Beach Armory Art Center exhibition. Curated by Jane Hart, it showcases the work of 16 contemporary Caribbean artists, each living in South Florida. [...]

CLICK HERE for full article at Hyperallergic.
CLICK HEREto visit the exhibition site of Champions.

British-Ghanian artist wins Artes Mundi Prize

The Ghanaian-born film-maker’s work draws on themes like migration, colonialisation and the environment.

by Jane Morris

Since it was founded in Wales in 2002, the biennial Artes Mundi Prize has produced winners that live up to its title: “arts of the world”. Xu Bing, the first winner, hails from China, Eija-Liisa Ahtila, the second, from Finland, N.S. Harsha from India, Yael Bartana from Israel, Teresa Margolles from Mexico, while last edition’s recipient was the Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates. For the first time in its history, this year’s winner is the British artist John Akomfrah, though the themes of his work—which include migration, colonialisation and the environment—could hardly be more international.

Akomfrah was announced as the winner of the £40,000 prize at a celebration Thursday evening at the National Museum Cardiff, the host of the Artes Mundi exhibition, alongside another Cardiff-based arts institution, Chapter (until 26 February). He is showing a powerful, 40-minute, two-screen video, Auto Da Fé (2016), which muses on the theme of mass migration over a 400-year period. “I wanted to focus on the fact that many people have to leave because something terrible is happening, it’s not just about leaving for a better life, many people feel they have to leave to have a life at all,” Akomfrah says. [...]

CLICK HERE to read full article in The Art Newspaper.
CLICK HERE to view John Akomfrah’s video on “Why History Matters”.

Artist Christo cancels ‘Over the River’ project in protest against Trump

After 20 years of planning and spending $15m of his own money, the artist says he has no interest in finishing the project under the current government

by Dan Duray

The artist Christo has pulled the plug on his Over the River project, which would have covered 42 miles of the Arkansas River in silver fabric for 14 days, as part of a protest that significantly raises the bar for other artists opposed to the presidency of Donald Trump.

“I came from a Communist country,” Christo, who was born in Bulgaria and became an American citizen in 1973, told the New York Times. “I use my own money and my own work and my own plans because I like to be totally free. And here now, the federal government is our landlord. They own the land. I can’t do a project that benefits this landlord.” [...]

CLICK HERE to read full article in The Art Newspaper.

The artists who have chosen to stay in Syria

While most have fled the conflict, some remained to document the suffering

by Tim Cornwell

The civil war in Syria has fuelled an exodus of the country’s creative individuals: artists, film-makers, writers and poets have relocated to cities such as Paris and Berlin. But some veteran visual artists have chosen to stay. They include Mouneer Al Shaarani, 64, a calligrapher and book designer who has exhibited his work around the world. He moved back to Syria from Egypt during the war to “live and work here in order to inspire”, he has said.

Youssef Abdelke, 65, whose work is in international collections such as those of the British Museum in London, has chronicled the pain of the war in extraordinary charcoal sketches. He was detained by Syrian authorities for five weeks in 2013. Despite this, he chose to remain in Damascus. [...]

CLICK HERE to read full article in The Art Newspaper.