artBeat Narrative

The seeds of artBeat Collective, Inc. were planted in a 2006 poetry seminar. Inspired be an exchange of their written work, founders, Montana Ray and Claudine Kanku Page, began a dialogue regarding the capacity of poetry to express ideas of social currency. 

Montana and Claudine were further united by an interest in East African culture; Claudine was fundraising to bring a local poet of Congolese origin, Omekongo wa Dibinga, to speak on Georgetown's campus, and Montana had previously worked as a curator for the Nommo Gallery, in Kampala, Uganda. In each other they found a shared objective to use the arts to fashion a positive self-image and promote communication across cultures. 

Calabash Festival

How are we practicing freedom? How are we writing it?

artBeat envisions establishing an international arts festival in DC; and, as such, we are ever explorers on the search for models: real people making things happen. Happily, one such example of things not only happening but being done right at the hands of Kwame Dawes, Justine Henzell, and Colin Channer is the Calabash Festival in Treasure Beach, Jamaica. http://www.calabashfestival.org/

In it's eighth year, Calabash is a well-executed, well-attended, and free gathering of a diverse spectrum of writers, including an ample representation of emerging female poets like Aracelis Girmay, Jackie Kay, and Achy Objeas. As well as big hitting Diasporic voices like Derek Walcott and Yusef Komunyakaa. And many other artists and attendees from Europe, Africa, Latin America, and North America. Despite the international presence, the gathering, set in an otherwise sleepy fishing village, retained an energy and expression of freedom that characterizes Caribbean writing and struggle.

To place this all in a historical context: this year marked the passing of Aime Cesaire, who speaks to both the ambiguities of Caribbean life and culture and the power of a cultural gathering such as Calabash: "I have a different idea of a universal. It is of a universal rich with all that is particular, rich with all the particulars there are, the deepening of each particular, the coexistence of them all. " Lettre à Maurice Thorez. And to place this in a contemporary struggle: this is also the year that Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding declared that he would not allow homosexuals to form part of his Cabinet. A comment that was addressed in the manner that Objeas described as "talking back to power" by Thomas Glave, the editor of the anthology Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles and the first reader at Calabash 08.

The people Calabash draws share an interest in engaging with the world through their writing. As a festival, it knows it's history. It's political. It's relevant. It's good quality writing. The gathering also includes three open mics., opportunities for young writers to read their work in the presence of a robust creative community.

Also of interest to the artBeat community is the way in which Calabash combined artforms. There was a film showing of Perry Henzell's No Place Like Home, which for the uninitiated is a great introduction to Jamaican music and life, including the complex relationship between American and Jamaican artists. Also prominent, naturally so, was the relationship between Jamaican writing and music. Bob Andy, all dressed in white and brandishing a white hanky, lead what felt like a revival on the cloudy Sunday afternoon with the sea framed by a mosaic stage, declaring, "My revolution started. I'm gonna live my life."

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