Carivision Community Theatre Holds Caribbean Christmas Event
January 05, 2015
On Sunday, December 14, members of Carivision Community Theatre held "A Caribbean Christmas: Memory in Performance Drama, Dance and Music Celebrating Caribbean Stories of the Season."
Carivision Community Theatre is a nonprofit organization dedicated to Caribbean and Caribbean-American arts. Its members originate from Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Vincent, Trinidad & Tobago and the U.S.A. Carivision welcomes all those interested in the arts and culture of the Caribbean.
On December 14, Carivision Community Theatre performed to a full audience at Ulrich Recital Hall. The performance brought together literature, performance, and music. A Howard University professor, Jean Purchas-Tulloch, read a poem by a celebrated Jamaican poet, Louise Bennett, entitled "300 Chrismus." The poem uses Christmas as a metaphor to speak about Jamaica's 1955 "celebration" of 300 years of colonialism. The poem "Christmas in Martinique," by Aime Cesaire was also read. Louise Clement played accordion and Taevaughn Reyes played a steel pan tribute to Christmas. A Carivision play, A Caribbean Christmas, scripted by Merle Collins with input from members of the Carivision Community Theatre, was also performed. The play explored the memories of Christmas in the Caribbean and the impact of these on the identity of Caribbean American youth (those born in the U.S. of Caribbean parents). In the lobby, ginger beer, sorrel, black cake, and coconut tart, were available for purchase.
Collins believes that events such as these help establish Caribbean literature at Maryland as important to a "reading" of the experiences of Caribbean communities, in the Caribbean and here in the USA.
"[The event] offered an opportunity for coming together of university and community. One of my Caribbean literature students, who attended the event, told me that it helped her to better understand some of the themes relevant to the study of Caribbean literature," said Collins.