Daily Archives: June 8, 2017

MIAMI, FL Barbados is the Caribbean National Culinary Team of the Year, according to a release issued by the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA).

The Bajan team won the top honors in the finale of the 2017 Taste of the Caribbean culinary competition at the Hyatt Regency in Miami Wednesday evening, after also bagging individual honors for Ryan Adamson, Caribbean Bartender of the Year, and Damian Leach for Seafood.

Kenneth Molyneaux from the British Virgin Islands was crowned Caribbean Chef of the Year and also took home the top prize in the Beef Competition. The Cayman Islands Melissa Logan was Caribbean Pastry Chef of the Year, while Kenria Taylor from The Bahamas was Caribbean Junior Chef of the Year. The Chocolate winner was Bonaires Sherundly Bernabela.

We really applaud all these Taste of the Caribbean participants, their national hotel and tourism associations, team managers and sponsors for developing 14 astounding Caribbean national teams to compete at this event, said Frank Comito, Director General and CEO of CHTA. The teams commitment to the region showed in the heart and soul that each of the participants invested in their presentations, he added.

Presented by CHTA, Taste of the Caribbean hosted cooking and bartending competitions between teams from The Bahamas, Barbados, Bonaire, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Curaao, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, St. Maarten, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

This years event was held June 2-6 at the Hyatt Regency Miami.

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Barbados Wins Top Culinary Honors At 2017 Taste Of The Caribbean; BVI Takes Chef Of The Year - VI Consortium (press release)

Not to be outdone by his predecessors, Barack Obama and George W. Bush, who signed the bill declaring National Caribbean-American Heritage Month, June 6, 2006, Donald Trump Wednesday, May 31, issued his first CAHM proclamation.

The Trump proclamation honored the 11th anniversary of the month, which pays tribute to Caribbean immigrants and their contribution since slavery to these United States.

The irony of the Trump proclamation was hardly lost on this writer, especially because it comes at a time of great unease for the Caribbean and immigrant community across the country.

It comes at a time when the U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agency has boasted of increased deportation rates, stating in a report recently that its deported some 41,000 immigrants in 100 days back to their countries of birth, especially to Latin America and the Caribbean.

While ICE continues following the Trump executive orders of January, rounding up and deporting not just criminal immigrants but immigrants whose only crime has been to live in the U.S. without legal working papers, and his Department of Homeland Security threatens to repatriate 58,000 Haitians back to Haiti next January, Trumps National Caribbean-American Heritage Month proclamation pays tribute to Americas greatest undocumented immigrant Caribbean nativeAlexander Hamilton.

Throughout our history, Caribbean Americans have helped create and maintain the strength and independence of our Nation, the proclamation reads. Alexander Hamilton, who came from poverty in Nevis, was a key contributor to our Constitution and the first Secretary of the Treasury, helping to establish our modern financial system and to create the United States Coast Guard.

The irony, however, lost on the man who tweeted a word that does not exist, covfefe, is that Hamilton was undeniably an undocumented immigrant.

The Nevis-born Hamilton, who went on to become an American statesman and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, simply arrived from St. Croix, Virgin Islands in 1772. He did not have a visa or a work permit or a green card, but history tells us he merely entered the country and began studying here.

And like many immigrants, Hamilton struggled, and then strived and excelled, much like millions of undocumented immigrants today are doing and seeking a chance to legally keep on doing.

In identifying and paying tribute to this Caribbean son, Trump has ignorantly or hypocritically chosen to ignore the fact that Hamilton was also an undocumented immigrant.

And although Trump has chosen to encourage all Americans to join in celebrating the history, culture and achievements of Caribbean Americans with appropriate ceremonies and activities, tens of thousands of Caribbean immigrants are living in fear of being arrested and deported back to countries they barely know.

For the anti-immigrant bigot in the White House to pay tribute to the culture Caribbean Americans have shared with our nation and the many contributions they have made to our society is not only ironic, it is downright nauseating, and even Hamiltons bones must be turning over from this despicable display of hypocrisy.

The writer is CMO at Hard Beat Communications, Inc. which owns the brands NewsAmericasNow, CaribPRWire and InvestCaribbeanNow.

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The irony of Trump and his National Caribbean American Heritage Month proclamation - Amsterdam News

GIS:-The agreement supports sustainable development goals on oceans.

Eight intergovernmental organizations involved in the management of marine resources in theCaribbean and the North BrazilShelf Large Marine Ecosystems (CLME+) region are expected tosign a landmark agreementfor strengthened coordination and cooperation.

The goal of thisMemorandum of Understanding(MOU) will be toenhance regional collaborationfor theimproved management of the resources of the Caribbean Seathat form the basis for fishing, tourism and maritime transportation.

Theeight organizationsthat are expected to sign the agreement are the Caribbean Community (CARICOM); the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM); the Central American Commission for Environment and Development (CCAD); the Central American Fisheries and Aquaculture Organization (OSPESCA); the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on behalf of the Western Central Atlantic Fishery Commission(FAO-WECAFC); the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization(UNESCO-IOC); the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission; and the UN Environment represented by its Caribbean Regional Coordinating Unit and Secretariat to the Cartagena Convention(UN Environment Program CAR/RCU).

Through the agreement, these organizations with technical expertise in areas such asoceans governance,marine spatial planning,pollution prevention,fisheries management,habitat protection, andoceans research, will now be better placed to provide coordinated support to the region including helping countries to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 14 on Oceans: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

There is an expectation that the MOU can become signed by heads of the participating organizations on the occasion of the celebrations surrounding World Ocean Day on June 8. Importantly, the agreement formalizes the establishment of a Regional Coordinating Mechanism. This Mechanism will constitute the core of a new, wide-ranging global partnership (the CLME+ Partnership) that will assist regional governments to reducemarine pollution; reducedegradation of marine habitatssuch as: coral reefs, mangroves and sea grass; reduceoverfishing, and adapt toclimate change.

The activities of the Coordination Mechanism will be supported through theUNDP/GEF CLME+ Project(2015-2020). This five-year project seeks to catalyze the implementation of a 10-year, politically endorsedStrategic Action Programm(SAP) for the Sustainable Management of the Shared Living Marine Resources of the Caribbean and North Brazil Shelf Large Marine Ecosystems.

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Caribbean agencies to sign landmark agreement - St. Lucia Times Online News (press release)

Several elected officials kicked off National Caribbean American Heritage Month with a celebration of nine people of Caribbean heritage at the Our Caribbean Heritage Celebration last weekend at the Celeste Bartos Forum, New York Public Library in Manhattan, hosted by City Council Member Andy King.

Among this years honorees were City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito; United Nations Ambassador to Dominica the Hon. Bannis-Roberts; Gabriel J. Christian, Esq.; Henry A. Garrido, DC 37 executive director; Ambassador Curtis Ward, former ambassador of Jamaica to the United Nations; the Hon. Dr. Irving W. Andr, Superior Court of Justice, Dominica; Crispin Gregoire, United Nations Development Programs chief of the Caribbean Strategic Monitoring and Support Unit of the Regional Bureau of Latin America and the Caribbean; and Dr. Clayton Shillingford, former president of the Dominica Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Supporters of Our Caribbean Heritage Celebration include Congress members Gregory Meeks and Eliot Engel; borough presidents Ruben Diaz Jr, Bronx and Eric Adams, Brooklyn; state senators Jamaal Bailey and Kevin Parker; State Assembly members Latrice Walker, Rodneyse Bichotte, Victor Pichardo, Diana Richardson and N. Nick Perry; and City Council members Bill Perkins, Fernando Cabrera, Rory Lancman, Rosie Mendez, Mark Levine, Rafael Espinal, Laurie Cumbo, Corey Johnson, Vanessa Gibson and Jumaane Williams.

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National Caribbean Heritage Month kicks off - Amsterdam News

BY TRONE DOWD Editor

The Queens Tribune honored seven Caribbean Americans for their community work during the papers inaugural Caribbean Heritage Month celebration on June 2 at Douglaston Manor.

(Left to right): Deodat Urprasad, Linda Watson Lord, Clive White, U.S. Rep. Yvette Clark, Adrian Peters, Roy Hastick, State Sen. Roxanne Persaud, Patricia Chin, Younna Bailey-Magalhaes, Carlo Thertus and Barbara Atherly. Photos by Bruce Adler

We are a great city of diversity, Queens Tribune publisher Mike Nussbaum told attendees. Were proud of that. We take pride in our cultural roots. Its a significant part of who we are and each of the immigrants who have come to this borough here has a story.

The ceremony drew a number of special guests, including city Public Advocate Letitia James, U.S. Rep. Yvette Clark (D-Brooklyn), city Small Business Services Commissioner Gregg Bishop and consulate generals of Jamaica, Guyana and Barbados.

Bishop recalled the journey that his grandmother took when she immigrated to New York City from a politically ailing Grenada, pushing his mother at a young age to do all that she could. He said that his mother attended college, while ensuring that her children had the same values that her mother taught her. He said that he was proud of the role that he has in helping small business and entrepreneurs, many of whom come to the city from abroad to start anew.

Clark talked about the historic importance of Caribbean Americans, both in the past and the present, and said that the city should protect immigrants, especially in the current political climate.

James told the crowd that it is important to recognize the contributions of Caribbean Americans and that their hard work and commitment to family is part of what makes New York City great.

The events honorees all had a chance to speak upon receiving their awards, reflecting on their lives as successful Caribbean Americans and how far they have come in their respective fields.

Jamaica native Patricia Chin, founder of the world-renowned VP Records, accepted her award on behalf of both her Caribbean heritage and status as a woman in a male-dominated field.

I am blessed that I could have continued what my mom and dad told meto help others, Chin said. This country is a beautiful country. If you work hard and play by the rules, you can be a success. Just make sure that you never forget where you come from.

Clive White, a banker with Bank of America Merrill Lynch and second-generation Caribbean American of Barbadian and Dominican descent, said that he was thankful for the opportunities afforded to his parentswhich, in turn, laid the groundwork for his success.

They helped nourish my passion to help the community, he said, adding that he was pleased for the opportunity he has to help cultivate small businesses and further his passion for assisting the little man.

Deputy Inspector Deodat Urprasad, the commanding officer of the 102nd Precinct, dedicated his award to honor his family in an emotional speech.

Its a humbling experience to be here, said Urprasad, who moved to the United States with his parents in 1973. I am happy to share the moment with my family and friends.

Urprasad also gave a shout-out to his brothers in blue, thanking them for the support theyve given him over the years. I have some great men and women in the 102nd Precinct, he said. He attributed a 41 percent deduction in crime since he took the position in 2015 to their work.

Carlo Thertus, a Haiti-born artist whose work is frequently of a political nature, displayed some of the artwork from children who attend Creative Space for Kids, an art school Thertus founded in Long Island in 1996. He told the Queens Tribune that he wanted to show off his students workrather than his ownduring the event.

Adrian Peters, a branch manager for New York Community Bank who originally hails from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said that he was grateful to be recognized for his work.

I am grateful for my parents, he said. I realized the value of what they taught me growing up. It starts with my mom. She taught me how to cook and bake some of my favorites, like callaloo. She taught kindness. I remember weekends with people who did odd jobs. They had lunch with us and were served first. I was told, It will come back to you.

Peters also remembered that his father taught him the importance of service above self, whether through an organizationsuch as a churchor community programs.

State Sen. Roxanne Persaud (D-Brooklyn), who hails from Guyana, was recognized for her extensive involvement in her communitywhich culminated in her running for office three years ago. Persaud said that Caribbean Americans should be proud of their heritage and encouraged them to become involved in their communities. She closed out her acceptance speech with a plea to end gun violence in the five boroughs.

Dr. Roy Hastick, a Grenada native who worked in a number of city agencies and operated a newspaper before founding the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry, thanked his wife upon accepting his award, noting that it is good to have a strong woman beside you, behind you and, sometimes, driving you.

Hastick said that he was thrilled to see fellow Caribbean Americans being recognized for work in their respective fields as he pointed out City Council candidate Richard David in the audienceespecially in government, where he was pleased that they can help move a document to the top of the pile.

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Queens Tribune Celebrates Caribbean Heritage Month - Queens Tribune

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Even if you've never danced, feasted and gawked your way through the spectacular celebrations of Caribbean carnival, you likely have some sense of the elaborately feathered headdresses and sequined bikinis, the exuberant soca bands, and the endless parades and merrymaking involved.

"En Mas': Carnival and Performance Art of the Caribbean," which opened two weeks ago at the DuSable Museum of African American History, includes just about none of this.

Instead, brown cardboard cutouts, flower-patterned coffins and shields bearing photographs of London townhouses fill the small series of rooms along with a mysterious white geodesic sphere and a black-suited alien posed halfway up a metal ladder. A sousaphone plays mournfully in its lowest register, while a man whistles robin calls, and two people chat conspiratorially.

Co-curated by Krista Thompson, a professor at Northwestern University, and Claire Tancons, the exhibition, which debuted in New Orleans and has traveled to the Bahamas and the Cayman Islands, eschews an anthropological approach (though extensive wall labels inform about the finer points of masquerade, Junkanoo and other traditions). What's on view instead is the critical and creative take of nine contemporary artists commissioned to make projects during the official 2014 carnival season in cities including Port-of-Spain and Nassau, and diasporic ones like Brooklyn and New Orleans.

Instead of flamboyant costumes, Bahamian artist John Beadle created towering wearable structures of cardboard shapes, patterned with the designs of concrete screen walls and iron fences. Though ironically no less decorative and sprawling than typical regalia, the drab materials and functional forms of "Inside-Out, Outside-In" are their opposite, referring slyly to the actual supports that form the undergirding of the most extravagant parade wear.

In contrast to the classist extravaganza of carnival in Kingston, with its pricey tickets and imported costumes, Ebony G. Patterson organized "Invisible Presence: Bling Memories," a defiantly handmade and working-class memorial to the victims of urban and police violence. Not surprisingly, parade organizers just barely permitted Patterson's group of 80 volunteers carrying 50 coffin-shaped sculptures covered in loud prints, tassels and plastic flowers to participate in the official road march.

Meanwhile, in London, a unit of foot soldiers marauded through the main hall of the Tate Modern, herding and harassing befuddled, iPhone-wielding visitors. Choreographed by Hew Locke, they wore masks printed with jerk chicken, peas and rice popular carnival street food, but grotesque as facial decoration and brandished town house-patterned riot shields and batons, drumming out a catchy beat while enacting a performance that spoke to the tensions on display across town at the Notting Hill Carnival, where the real police were at work protecting a now-posh neighborhood from revelers who decades ago, when the festival was founded, would have been right at home.

A bold alliance of popular and avant-garde culture, "En Mas" presents a number of curatorial challenges, some intentional and some not. The DuSable, venerable institution that it is, is also underfunded, cramped and unused to displaying multi-media contemporary art. And while it makes perfect sense for a museum of African-American history to host a show about Caribbean culture, it seems a missed opportunity on the part of mainstream art institutions to have embraced a non-Eurocentric history of performance art.

More thoughtful, though, are the ways in which some artists have approached the problem of re-presenting in a museum live art that was made for the streets. The tried-and-true solution of sharp video documentation and striking artifacts has been put to good use, but it has also been gotten beyond. Viewers of Charles Campbell's "Actor Boy: Fractal Engagement," don't just see photographs of what they missed an uptowner's excursion to downtown Kingston involving a contortionist, a fire-eater and sci-fi masks but something new besides: an animation by Oneika Russell that fancifully interprets the tour and a strange sparkly dome by Campbell that serves as a monument to a postcolonial utopia of the future.

Though carnival is all about public spectacle, living life to excess in the streets, two of the most magically immersive artworks in "En Mas" are decidedly intimate. Christophe Chassol composed a full-length film essay out of noises and images recorded during carnival in Martinique. "Big Sun" neither sounds nor looks as expected: Men play dominoes and blow conch shells in a provisions shop, the surf crashes on a beach, birds twitter, rain falls, a flautist plays in a concrete cemetery, creole is spoken. Overtop it all is Chassol's own startling instrumentation, jazzily harmonizing the fragments that make up the whole.

For "C Room," Nicolas Dumit Estevez filled the back room of a folkloric museum in Santiago de los Treinta Caballeros, Dominican Republic, with props ranging from potatoes and shopping bags to sparkly wigs and colorful umbrellas, and then invited friends and friends of friends to transform themselves into the weird and wonderful. I want to have been there, too, with a string of plastic pitchers for a necklace and a pink bra for a hat. That's my kind of festival.

"En Mas': Carnival and Performance Art of the Caribbean" runs through August 13 at the DuSable Museum of African American History, 740 E. 56th Pl., 773-947-0600, http://www.dusablemuseum.org.

Lori Waxman is a freelance critic.

ctc-arts@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @chitribent

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'En Mas' at DuSable takes a different look at Caribbean carnival - Chicago Tribune