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CONTENTS MESSAGES ARTISTIC VISION BACKGROUND ELEMENTS OF THE FESTIVAL MAIN VENUES ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE ACCOMMODATION ACCREDITATION CULINARY ARTS DANCE DRAMA FASHION FILM LITERARY ARTS MUSIC PHILATELIC ARTS SECURITY SYMPOSIA TRANSPORTATION VISUAL ARTS YOUTH VILLAGE FORMS APPENDICES PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE The Caribbean Festival of Arts (CARIFESTA) was born in Guyana many years ago. As the festival comes home, we welcome the opportunity to host and to embrace the artists, great creators and minds of the region as we did thirty six years ago. We are sparing no effort in preparing for this festival. Several hundred persons have been working over a long period of time on committees and working groups in order to ensure that all your expectations are met once you and your contingents arrive in our country. This underscores not only the importance we attach to this festival but to the ideal of Caribbean unity, growth and prosperity. Art transcends all barriers of time, space and person. Artists look beyond the externalities of the common and obvious, toward something greater in all humans, toward something larger than all humans. CARIFESTA therefore offers us the opportunity of transcending those things which can blind, limit and divide us as people, as nations and as a region. This festival offers us the opportunity to assess where we are, where we want to go and to fashion that direction in no uncertain terms. CARIFESTA X offers our region a chance to see what we are and what we produce, and to showcase that creativity to ourselves and the world. At this very important juncture in global economic history we must own what we originate and support those who create. We are working hard to ensure a safe, secure and nurturing environment is maintained in Guyana for the festivities. We therefore, with full confidence, extend a warm invitation and encourage you to come to Guyana for Carifesta X. It promises to be a positively enriching experience for us all. H.E. Bharrat Jagdeo President From The Minister of Culture , Youth & Sport Dr Frank Anthony CARIFESTA is the foremost mega event in the region. At no other time are the governments and peoples of the region so integrally and synergistically engaged in a single endeavor; because Carifesta is so inclusive and so diverse and also quite complex. The festival spans ten days. During those ten days over sixteen different types of events will be performed in many cases simultaneously across Guyana. It is a tall order but we are prepared to fulfill our mandate. The Ministry of Culture has been working around the clock generally without publicity and fanfare to prepare venues, mobilize staff, constitute committees, engage key and critical groups, invite and liaise with participating countries and other individuals and groups who wish to participate. I believe that this preparatory work will stand us in good stead as we now embark upon the greatest show of our lives. I personally believe that Carifesta holds so much possibility for Guyana and the Caribbean. It is a chance for us to directly interface, firstly, with the region of which we are a part and, secondly, with the world. Guyana has been an intellectual and cultural powerhouse, home to the likes of Martin Carter, Edgar Mittleholzer, David Dabydeen, Pauline Melville, Wilson Harris, Philip Moore, Stanley Greaves, Dave Martins, Eddie Grant, Hugh Sam and so many other luminaries who have made us understand the world in a different way. Apart from the good will and inspirational offshoot that the festival will bring, we also want to ensure that capacity and empowerment in the areas of culture, cultural products and artistry are enhanced not only in Guyana but also in the region. I am excited about this event. I am looking forward to this event and I am confident that we, as a nation, will be able to do ourselves and the region proud. As Minister of Culture I wish to assure you that our doors, mailboxes and phones are open to you, as is our country. We hope to see you in August. “One Caribbean, One Purpose, Our Culture, Our Life!” Frank Anthony CEO’S MESSAGE Nigel Dharamlall The evolution of society has always been the subject of human imagination and fantasy. This has driven many to explore and express the full and unlimited potential of their being. The many wonders, inventions, thoughts and expressions of this world have been born out of the creative minds of regular beings like you and I. We owe our rich lives of today to the people who have ensured that, irrespective of our background, society is molded by our varying interpretations of culture expressed through a fusion of art, dance, literature and festivities. To bring this experience to you, to enliven it in you, the Carifesta Secretariat has developed a TEAM which has been working assiduously to ensure that Carifesta X 2008 in Guyana is a richly hosted and rewarding experience for all delegates, participants, supporters and visitors. Expect nothing less from us. CONTACT SHEET CARIFESTA X SECRETARIAT CARIFESTA Secretariat Colonel LV ROSS MSM 91 Middle Street, South Cummingsburg, Logistics Director Georgetown, Guyana, Carifesta Secretariat South America 91 Middle Street, South Cummingsburg, Tele : (592)-225-9840, 225-9845, 225-9626 Georgetown, Guyana, Fax : (592) -225-4947/226-0501 South America Email : [email protected] Tele: (592)-225-9840, 225-9845, 225-9626 Website: www.carifesta.net Fax: (592)225-4947, 226-0501 Email: [email protected] Mr. Nigel Dharamlall Website: www.carifesta.net Chief Executive Officer 91 Middle Street, South Cummingsburg, Georgetown, Guyana, Allison Dundas South America Liaison Officer Tele : (592)-225-9840, 225-9845, 225-9626 Carifesta Secretariat Fax : (592) -225-4947/226-0501 91 Middle Street, South Cummingsburg, Email : [email protected] Georgetown, Guyana, Website: www.carifesta.net South America Tele : (592)-226-2052, 225-9840, 225-9845, 225- Dr. Paloma Mohamed Martin 9626 Artistic Director Fax : (592) -225-4947/226-0501 Carifesta Secretariat Email : [email protected] 91 Middle Street, South Cummingsburg, Website: www.carifesta.net Georgetown, Guyana, South America Maj (Rtd) CS Vaughn MSM Tele : (592)-225-9840, 225-9845, 225-9626 Administrative Officer Fax : (592) -225-4947/226-0501 Carifesta Secretariat Email : [email protected] 91 Middle Street, South Cummingsburg, Website: www.carifesta.net Georgetown, Guyana, South America Tele : (592)-225-9840, 225-9845, 225-9626 Fax : (592) -225-4947/226-0501 Email : [email protected] Website: www.carifesta.net CARIBBEAN FESTIVAL OF ARTS 2008 BACKGROUND CARIFESTA was first started in Guyana in 1972. The intention was to promote the Arts in the Caribbean Region. From its inception the festival sought to inspire Caribbean cultural practitioners to innovate new art forms, while providing an outlet for those that already existed. It has always served as an educational tool and helps to shape Caribbean values. To date there have been nine CARIFESTAs: Guyana (1972), Jamaica (1976), Cuba (1979), Barbados (1981), Trinidad & Tobago (1992, 1995, & 2006) St Kitts & Nevis (2000) and Suriname (2003). CARIFESTA X was scheduled for The Bahamas in 2008, but in late 2007 The Bahamas indicated that they would be unable to host the event. President Bharrat Jagdeo then agreed to host the event in Guyana. It will be held from the 22nd to the 31 st August under the theme One Caribbean, One Purpose- Our Culture, Our Life. CARIFESTA OBJECTIVES The objectives of CARIFESTA are varied. They are: a. To promote and celebrate the Caribbean art forms. b. To maximize peoples’ participation in the arts, especially the young people of the Region. c. To deepen the awareness and knowledge of the diverse aspirations within the Caribbean community. d. To advance our culture within the Region, the Diaspora and wider world. e. To use the arts to foster Caribbean unity and excellence. f. To promote the development of cultural industries. CARIFESTA X in Guyana is expected to realize all of these objectives. CARIFESTA X: BROAD BRUSH STROKES ON CONCEPTUAL DIRECTION Artistic Director Paloma Mohamed Martin (PhD) The conception of CARIFESTA marked a magnificent moment in Caribbean history. The prominence demanded for the arts by artists thereafter conceded and supported by governments and people of the region is still remarkable. The first Carifesta happened in Guyana. I can still see that magnificent golden hand emerging from the pyramid having grabbed the sun and hoisted it for the entire world to see. I was a small child then but I will never forget the sights, the sounds, the excitement. It was an aspiration, an inspiration, a celebration, a libation and a creation of all that was and that could be in this nacient region. This year, 2008, CARIFESTA returns to its place of origin -Guyana. We welcome this opportunity to embrace our Caribbean family, to partake of the rich cultural fare that will be offered and to share the pride and exhilaration of our country and region with the world. CARIFESTA is the premier Arts festival of the Caribbean and is quickly emerging as a top class festival worldwide. This year’s theme “ One Caribbean, One Purpose, Our Culture, Our Life ” indicates the best intentions of the governments and peoples of the region. The festival conceptually therefore must organically turn on two lynchpins: ONE and OURS. This suggests a focus on art elements which are similar in their origins yet variable in their application and rendition - simultaneously one and ours in that regard. Yet, there is another dimension which we must also insist upon illuminating: that out of a cacophonous diversity we are really creating one . One culture, one region, one people, one progressive direction. We face the same local and global issues which find us challenged to maintain what we created as ours and to hold our region and nations together.