Fashion, film, dance and body art are some of the Guyanese expressions that will be presented to the rest of the Caribbean at Carifesta XII in Haiti later this month.
In addition, the Department of Culture in the Ministry of Education revealed yesterday that 27 pieces of art, including paintings, sculptures and drawings, selected for the festival are available for viewing at Castellani House until Monday, when they will be packed away for transportation to Haiti.
At a press briefing held in the conference room of the Department on Main Street, Minister within the Ministry of Education with responsibilities of Culture, Youth and Sport Nicolette Henry noted that Guyana has participated in all of the Carifesta events that have been held since the festival of arts was first hosted here in 1972. “…And we have been one of the front runners in participating in all the disciplines and we will continue to do this as far as possible at Carifesta XII,” she added.
The Guyana contingent heading to Haiti is 80 strong and its members have been preparing vigorously to display Guyana’s rich culture through performing arts under the locally coined theme ‘Rights and Rhythms of Guyana’, with the main focus being that of Guyanese folklore, legends and myths. A sneak preview of what will be presented in Haiti will be exhibited on August 16th at the Theatre Guild from 8PM, free of cost.
Dr. Sita Shah Roath explained that as part of the production, the delegation will host a ‘Guyana Night’ at the Grand Market.
Former Miss India Guyana Roshini Boodhoo, who is one of the choreographers and costume designers for the contingent, described the dances as “a 60 minutes synopsis of skillful uses of colours, lights, costumes, backdrops and choreography” to display Guyana.
She stated that unlike previous years where the Carifesta Committee had handpicked dancers, auditions were held to open the process to more talented Guyanese. “We decided for dance, that our theme would be “legends and rhythms of Guyana, a
