UG, Theatre Guild remember Nobel laureate, Derek Walcott

Apr 03, 2017 News

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He died leaving behind a legacy through poems and plays.
Born on January 23, 1930 in Castries, St. Lucia Derek Walcott passed away on March 17, in his homeland reportedly after a period of illness.
Walcott became known in 1962 when he published his first collection of poems called In a Green Night, which celebrated the Caribbean. He was a trained painter but shifted his attention to writing as a young man.

Walcott, also a renowned playwright, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1992.
The Nobel Committee described his work as “poetic oeuvre of great luminosity, sustained by a historical vision, the outcome of multicultural commitment.”
Walcott’s immense contribution towards the arts was honoured during a special tribute last Friday when the University of Guyana (UG), Faculty of Education and Humanities in association with the Theatre Guild presented ‘The Vice Chancellor’s Distinguished Artiste in Residence in Concert’.
The event, held at the Theatre Guild, was a spectacular evening of guitar, flute and steel pan playing as students from the University’s Turkeyen and Tain campuses reflected on the life of Walcott by reciting some of his famous poem and dramatization of his plays.
It featured Keith Waithe on flute, who was appointed by UG Vice Chancellor Professor Ivelaw Griffith to the Faculty of Education and Humanities as Artiste in Residence, Gary Menodonza and Herbie Marshall on guitar, Mikey Smith on pan and Roger Cyrus on drums. There was also an art exhibition by students of the Division of Creative Arts at the University. Minister of Public Telecommunication, Catherine Hughes was also presented with some of the memorabilia created for the event.
According to Professor Griffith, “One of the realities of our dear land of Guyana is that we have an opportunity to embrace our talented Guyanese who are in the homeland and who are in the Diaspora. And the embracing of our talented Guyanese whether in painting, music or other of the arts is not only for the performance itself but is important as the University of Guyana as part of our renaissance enables an appreciation of the wholeness of human beings.”
Professor Griffith explained that our society has produced many great artistes but surveys show that most of them are in the Diaspora. The University, he said, as a facilitator of the wholeness of humans must find ways to showcase these Guyanese artists when they return from the Diaspora to enable parts of society to benefit from their presence.
“So when I got an email from a few weeks ago from Keith (Waithe) that he was going to be here. I said why don’t I seize the opportunity in appointing him to be Distinguish Artiste of Residence.”
“This is in part a celebration of a great son of the region (Derek Walcott) who died just a few weeks ago. I have always used for several decades now the fact that the two Nobel laureates from that small island (St. Lucia) from whence my paternal grandmother and my wife are from. They are living testimonies of the powers of individuals and communities to enable great people to be developed. I must use Derek Walcott and W. Arthur Lewis, both of whom are Nobel Laureates both of whom are St. Lucians.”

According to the Vice Chancellor these men were raised by single women because of the death of their fathers.
He added that Walcott and Lewis attended college and became distinguished in their own fields and to be valuable enough to win Nobel Prizes for economics in the case of Lewis and Literature in the case of Walcott.
“In part, it is a tribute to the power of women. It’s a tribute to villages raising people and so we thought it important to celebrate Walcott but also in so doing celebrate the powers of women and the powers of villages that helped to raise citizens.”
Director of Studies at the National School of Theatre Arts and Drama, Mr. Al Creighton, highlighted that Walcott displayed the arts though words and drama and that on his visit to Guyana for the Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA) he challenged then President Bharrat Jagdeo to invest money into the arts.
Creighton recalled that something positive did come out of Walcott’s visit and felt satisfied that he was able to convince a Caribbean head of state to put money in the arts.
A poem entitled The Sea is History by Walcott was recited by Nicholas Peters, a student at Turkeyen Campus.
“Walcott had a position where the sea is concerned. He used it very much in his literature,” Creighton emphasized.
Nikosie Layne and Nicholas Singh, both members of the National School of Theatre Arts and Drama did a dramatic reading of Walcott’s play Ti-Jean and His Brothers.
“My love for Guyana has been my work, even in the United Kingdom it has been influenced by the rainforest of Guyana. And this next piece is called Guyana with Love,” Waithe said.

The mellow sounds from his flute serenaded the audience as he gracefully swayed his body on stage during another well received performance. “We still have another track to play for you don’t be afraid to clap,” Waithe told an elated audience as he embarked on his final track.
In her closing remarks, Professor Paloma Mohamed said “Man shall not live by bread alone but by every note that comes out of the flute of Keith Waithe”. She asked, “How does the University get from planning to close its art department to a moment like this?”
“…Ivelaw Griffith the Vice Chancellor had the moral…to insist that the university though it is cash strapped should not consider only those subjects which people consider to be essential. But the ones that are essential for our souls and the ones that nourish our culture and we want to thank him.”
According to her, students listened to Waithe play at workshops and created some of the beautiful paintings that were on display. “That is an amazing thing to have been accomplished. Some of those pieces of art have been produced in four hours.”  She disclosed that proceeds coming from the sale of these art works will go to implementing steel pan at the university.
(Photos taken from UG-Pace FaceBook’s page)

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