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Folk Festival honours Wordsworth McAndrew
Yesterday, a symposium celebrating Guyanese culture and people who have helped to contribute to the spectrum of the diverse way of life brought home the colourful aspects of Guyana.
The Guyana Cultural Association of New York, in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and the University of Guyana, made this possible.
It was through their love and passion that they came back to their country of birth to help the younger generations get a glimpse of what folk use to be like, one beneficiary said.
Guyana Folk Festival 2008 was inspired by the late Wordsworth McAndrew, who was a cultural icon in the Caribbean, and a Guyanese, an organizer said.
Mc Andrew had said that in his view the folklore of people is at the root of their being, and to cast it aside is to set oneself adrift culturally, an act which one performs at one’s peril.
Mc Andrew had an impacting understanding of folklore, to which he shared his knowledge. He worked on various pieces, such as literature and music; it is through these works that he grounded the Guyanese society in a rich and diverse cultural history, the organizer said.
At the symposium, there were many Guyanese, both local and overseas-based, who are trained in the field of arts and craft, oral heritage and performing traditions.
The arts and craft exhibition was kicked off by Elfreida Bissember who is the Curator of the national collection at Castellani House.
It displayed works by Phillip Moore, who painted pieces such as Three Folk stories which was painted in 1970; Obeah Drum which was painted in 1981, and there was the famous piece of Bat and Ball Fantasy which depicted his memory of what cricket used to be like and the different customs that they used when he was playing the game in his boyhood days. The exhibition also showcased pieces from Gary Williams and Gary Thomas.
Bissember noted that folk is the way of life for the Guyanese people. He added that culture came from the rural society which is embedded in the towns and villages. She said that it was then diversified through industry and technology.
The second half of the symposium saw discussions from Ian Robertson, who is attached to the University of the West Indies, St Augustine Campus.
He did an interesting piece on Berbice Creoles and who found the only surviving member of the Dutch Creoles Lexicon.
A Berbician by birth, he attended the Queen’s College then went on to the University of the West Indies.
In his research, he studies pieces on creoles’ languages in Guyana and oral traditions in the English teaching in the Caribbean.
Dr. Claire Smith from the School of Theology in Missouri, USA did a piece on “Guyanese Proverbs and the Community Building” in relation to religion. Other members from the panel included Gillian Greaves and Allan Fenty.
The organizing committee includes Dr. Vibert Cambridge, Dr. Juliet Emanuel, Dr. Prem Misir and Dr. James Rose. The theme for this year’s symposium is “Celebrating Mac, folk, identity and national cohesiveness”.
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