“I’d rather read and study all night, make my contribution to these beautiful Virgin Islands,” Steve Turnbull sang at the launch of VI Culture and Heritage Week on Monday at the Central Administration Building Breezeway. “Don’t you hear what my mother says: Sitting on the block, I’ll waste my life away.”
Mr. Turnbull and other VI performers, artists and historians will be the centre of attention throughout the week’s activities, which include a food fair, school visits, harvest celebrations and cultural displays, Culture Director Luce Hodge-Smith said.
“This year’s theme — ‘Embracing Virgin Islands Culture and Heritage Through the Arts, Literacy and Language’ — gives us an opportunity to showcase new and aspiring artists as well as artists we seldom see or hear about,” she said.
VI poet
Earlier that day, H. Lavity Stoutt Community College lecturer and poet Dr. Richard Georges addressed students at Elmore Stoutt High School about the importance of language and slang to culture, Ms. Hodge-Smith told the gathering.
“[The week] also gives us the opportunity to use our very own stories and other literatures written by local authors to teach and strengthen literacy,” she added. “It gives us the opportunity to increase the awareness of our language.”
The week’s activities will also help preserve the territory’s heritage while acknowledging that culture isn’t static, said Education and Culture Minister Myron Walwyn.
“We must embrace the new that is found in bands like VIBE and the Razor Bladez just like we did with the bands of yesteryear like Caribbean Ecstasy,” Mr. Walwyn said. “Our heritage, on the other hand, is a constant reminder of who we are as a people. Our sayings, our cuisine, our way of life, art, music and sense of self come from a deep experience born from the struggles of our ancestors in Africa during slavery and post slavery decades.”
Therefore, he said, residents should work to keep culture alive.
“Cultural heritage implies a shared bond of belonging to a community,” he said, adding, “It connects us to the past, bonds us to the present, and secures the future for generations to come.”
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