In both cases the photo was used to advertise a public lecture by the photo’s subject, writer Thomas Glave—a lecture, I should add, that I’m glad to see taking place, as it presents a rare opportunity for a rational discussion about homosexuality in the Caribbean. The event also features my friend Colin Robinson. But all that’s beside the point, at least for the purposes of this blog post (listen to the podcast I recorded with Thomas and Nicholas Laughlin here). The point is that the image belongs to me, though there was nothing in either publication to indicate that this was the case. In Newsday’s case, the published version of the image even bears a Newsday watermark.

On learning of the Newsday instance, which, coming on the heels of UWI Today, was the straw that broke the camel’s back, I made like a 21st century person and went public about the incident on Twitter and Facebook. Within a few hours I’d received an e-mail from Vaneisa Baksh, the editor of UWI Today, apologising for the error. She said she had come across the photo (uncredited, of course) on a web site advertising a reading by Thomas, and thought it was a promotional image. (I suspect it may be this site, whose owners will be hearing from me very soon). UWI Today is now in possession of an invoice from me, which Vaneisa has promised to shepherd personally through the labyrinth of the UWI finance department, and I’m deeply grateful for her gracious handling of the matter.

I’m still awaiting a response from Newsday, whom I also sent a note and an invoice, though to be fair to them, it was sent only today.

As a number of my Facebook friends have expressed an interest in the details of the matter, I’ve decided to make public the text of the letters I sent to both publications.

The letter to UWI Today:

Dear Vaneisa -

Many thanks for your messages and for understanding my position. I was alerted to UWI Today's use of the photo when the edition was first published, and have been meaning to send you a note (plus invoice!) since then. But then came Newsday's more egregious use of the image, to which UWI Today's initial use became an unfortunate footnote.

The sad reality is that all it takes is a single uncredited use of an image and it's downhill from there, and I do acknowledge that UWI Today was not the original violator. I think the more important point is that photos don't take themselves: any published photo should be attributed either to its owner or to the person who granted permission for its use, unless it happens to be in the public domain. I deliberately release my images under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.0 Generic licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.0/deed.en), which allows anyone to use them for non-commercial purposes as long as I am properly credited. This eliminates the need for people who wish to use my photos for purposes covered by the licence to contact me (though most do so anyway), and is also in keeping with my conviction that rigid copyright regimes stifle creativity and innovation and that sharing creates goodwill.

I acknowledge that I should have contacted you simultaneously with my posting of the status message on Twitter/Facebook, and I do apologise for not having done so. I do think it is useful to be public and transparent in situations such as this and I have already posted a response stating that you have been in touch, and will post another stating that the situation has been amicably resolved.

Many thanks again for your gracious handling of this situation. I hope Newsday follows suit! The invoice is attached.

Best,
Georgia

And to Newsday:

Dear Ms Sheppard and Ms. Lum Wai -

Georgia Popplewell

So perhaps I’m a little biased when it comes to 3canal. After all, they’ve been CFR’s official house band since 2005, and the bond is especially strong around where Carnival is concerned.

Caribbean Free Radio’s very first podcast was recorded in 3canal’s offices amidst the madness of Carnival Friday 2005, and last year 3canal and I teamed up to record the cut+clear carnival podcast, a six-part series examining various themes relating to the evolution of Trinidad and Tobago’s national festival.

We’d planned a reprise this year, but my work schedule and Haiti post-earthquake visit got in the way. So, as a substitute of sorts, 3canal passed me a recording they did for a local radio station previewing their 2010 Carnival show and releases. You can listen to it using the player below:

If you haven’t yet seen the 3canal Jam-It Show, I’d suggest you do so, and soon, as it runs only till Saturday (February 13). Since their move from the Little Carib Theatre to Queen’s Hall a few years ago, 3canal’s shows have been uniformly spectacular, especially in terms of the visual and musical production; but the 3canal Jam-It Show brings the theatrical aspects that made the Little Carib shows so delightful and special back to centre stage, making for a terrific—and terrifically funny—production.

Diehard PNM supporters should make an extra-special effort to attend!

Grand Rue in Port-au-Prince, Haiti is one of the city’s most disadvantaged neighbourhoods, but also home to a vibrant community of artists who create works of art out of the discarded materials they find in their environment. The area was host to the first Ghetto Biennale in December 2009.

This video highlights the impact of the January 12 earthquake on the artists’ surroundings and their way of life.

To offer direct support to the artists of Grand Rue, please donate to the Foundry Haiti Fund.

I refer, of course, to the opening of the shop at Alice Yard, the artists’ space at 80 Roberts Street, Woodbrook. Why the Alice Yard people don’t stick with what they do best (which, judging from recent goings-on, involves chopping onions with a cutlass and throwing shovelfuls of dirt on people) and leave retailing to real businesspeople, is beyond me. If I end up going there on Saturday and leaving with my arms full of “artists’ limited editions and multiples, design objects, and some original artworks,” regardless of how “reasonably priced and. . . affordable to beginning collectors”, I’m going to be really annoyed.

You’ll find more details on the upsetting event at the Alice Yard blog. Which should tell you everything—what successful retailer in Trinidad has a blog?

Had I not left Trinidad yesterday to attend the We Media Miami conference, I would have been prancing in the streets dressed as a cow, as these beautiful images by Nikipedia demonstrate. Ah well.

Episode #6 arrives a day late courtesy of the carnival week frenzy, which is not to say the show is without substance. Au contraire: in the final episode in the cut+clear carnival 2009 series, the members of 3canal and I visit with photographer, carnival connoisseur and Belmont native Jeffrey Chock at his home on Clifford Street for a chat about the carnival of yesteryear, the philosophical underpinnings of the changes taking place in today’s version of the festival, and—naturally—the experience of photographing one of the world’s most visually spectacular events.

This week’s 3canal track: “Paradise” remixed by Keshav Chandradath Singh

LINKS

On episode #2 of the cut+clear carnival podcast 3canal and I chat with Curtis “C*POP” Popplewell and Walt Lovelace, the men behind the Beach House Carnival fête and some of the country’s most original music video work.

Tune in to hear Curtis and Walt hold forth on why they prefer not to be referred to as fête promoters and the state of music video production in the country.

This week’s 3canal track: “Joy+Fire”, from the album of the same name.

LINKS

I’ll be heading down to cut+clear productions shortly to record episode #2 of the cut+clear carnival podcast w/ 3canal. Today’s special guests: C*POP and Walt Lovelace. The show will be released tomorrow.

And above, photos from last night’s launch of 3canal’s carnival presentations at Queen’s Hall. That includes their 2009 release, JOY+FIRE, which, for a limited time, can be downloaded for FREE at http://www.trinidadtunes.com.

For the 2009 carnival season I’ve teamed up with 3canal to produce a series of down and dirty (dutty?) podcasts called cut+clear carnival. We’re keeping it deliberately simple and free-flowing: the plan is for us to meet on Mondays, riff for 15 or so minutes on things carnival-related, preferably with a guest, then have the show edited and uploaded by Tuesday.

In this pilot episode Roger Roberts and Wendell Manwarren of 3canal shoot the breeze with MPC wizard Keshav Chandradath Singh of the cut+clear crew and Canboulay.

See you at the launch of 3canal’s 2009 release, Joy+Fire, on Sunday 19 January at 6pm at the Queen’s Hall Courtyard, Port of Spain, Trinidad!

3canal’s web site
3canal at Trinidadtunes.com
3canal on iTunes
3canal on Facebook
3canal on Twitter

In this long overdue show, which was recorded way back in June, I interview Lisa Allen-Agostini, co-editor, with Jeanne Mason, of Trinidad Noir, the latest in the Noir series published by Akashic Books.

Lisa Allen-Agostini, writer and co-editor of Trinidad Noir

I learned a few days ago that Trinidadian photographer Jeffrey Chock has fallen seriously ill on a trip to Canada, and is in urgent need of surgery. The estimated cost of that surgery, from what I have heard, is around TT$300,000 (US$48,000). The information I have about Jeffrey’s medical condition is third-hand, so I hesitate to repeat it here (very un-Trinidadian of me, I know!), but I’ll update this post with the details when I’m sure what I have is accurate. What I do know is that Jeffrey’s surgery needs to be paid for, which is why I’ve created the donation widget below.

Jeffrey Chock and I are not close friends, but I’ve known him for years and have the deepest admiration for his work (which I once photographed him doing). As dancer Dave Williams said to me recently, “The man understands dance. I doh let anybody else photograph my shows!” And I know you’d hear local maspeople, thespians and pannists express similar sentiments.

I also know that, were I ever to be in a similar position, I’d be tremendously grateful to anyone who would do the same for me.

I originally created this donation widget for use on the “Friends of Jeffrey Chock” Facebook group, but as ChipIn campaigns must be connected to a PayPal account, and as the PayPal account to which this one is connected is mine, I decided to reduce the target figure to US$12,000 and make it a personal campaign as well. (I’ve already made a small donation, and I’ll even throw in more funds if you do!) There may also be other fundraising efforts in progress, in which case I promise to hand over the funds I raise to whoever ends up being the central collector.

So I would be extremely grateful if you would help Jeffrey pay for his surgery by donating via the widget below, and/or embedding it or linking to it on your own website, Facebook page etc. Thank you!

UPDATE:
For those wishing to purchase Jeffrey’s book Trinidad Carnival, there are a few copies available at Paper Based bookstore at the Hotel Normandie, St. Ann’s.

Apologies to Chris Abani and Yusef Komunyakaa for omitting mention of their fine readings on Friday night. At the time of the recording we were still recovering from Derek Walcott‘s unforgettable premiere reading of “The Mongoose”, a “tribute” to V S Naipaul that begins with the choice lines, “I have been bitten/I must avoid infection/Or else I’ll be dead as Naipaul’s fiction,” and goes either downhill or uphill from there, depending on your point of view. Being good bacchanal-loving Caribbeans, we naturally devote a section of our review to discussion of that episode.

Thomas Glave at Calabash 2008

Following our review is a far more coherent interview with Jamaican writer Thomas Glave, who talks about his latest work, Our Caribbean: A Gathering of Lesbian and Gay Writing from the Antilles. Thomas was also kind enough to send me a copy of the statement with which he prefaced his reading at Calabash on opening night:

"I want to say a special thanks to the Calabash organisers – Colin Channer, Kwame Dawes, and Justine Henzell – for inviting me back to Calabash, this being my second reading at the festival, and for their unceasing generosity to, and support of, writers from around the world. And so, mindful of that generosity and kindness, my conscience will not permit me to begin reading from this book in particular before I say that as a gay man of Jamaican background I am appalled and outraged by the Prime Minister’s having said only three days ago on BBC-TV that homosexuals will not have any place in his Cabinet and, implicitly, by extension, in Jamaica. I guess this means that there will never be any room in Mr Golding’s Cabinet for me and for the many, many other men and women in Jamaica who are homosexual. And so I now feel moved to say directly to Mr Golding that it is exactly this kind of bigotry and narrow-mindedness that Jamaica does not need any more of, and that you, Mr Golding, should be ashamed of yourself for providing such an example of how not to lead Jamaica into the future. And so, Mr Golding, think about how much you are not helping Jamaica the next time you decide to stand up and say that only some Jamaicans – heterosexuals, in this case – have the right to live in their country as full citizens with full human rights, while others – homosexuals – do not. That is not democracy. That is not humane leadership. That is simply the stupidity and cruelty of bigotry."

The ban on photography also deprives the festival of the kind of free publicity the likes of me gave them last year. I just hope the official festival photographer gives the festival dogs their due.

See last year’s photos here.

On CFR #7 (released on March 27, 2005!), I played “Acid”, a track by the Martinquan jazz group Matébis featuring Césaire on “vocals”. Or, more accurately, Césaire intoning, in his impeccably enunciated French, against a musical background, the first few verses of his epic “Notebook of a Return to My Native Land”, beginning with the famously ambiguous opening line “au bout du petit matin” (“at the end of dawn”)–a line widely used in the titles of Césaire documentaries (including the one by Sarah Maldoror) and in press tributes this week.

For those who wish to listen to the podcast, my intro to the track begins around 4:00. At the end of it I offer a short outro then segue into a moment of nostalgia for my Martinique days and some musings on multilingualism. Others may click on the player below to hear “Acid” by itself:

I’ve already highlighted Global Voices’ lovely compilation of tributes to Césaire from bloggers throughout the world, but Antilles has been keeping tabs (one, two, three) on the tributes pouring forth from the world’s presses. France24 posts a report and video to coincide with today’s burial ceremonies in Fort-de-France, Martinique, and Radio France d’Outre Mer (RFO) dusts off an interesting 2001 documentary (in French) showing Césaire in his role as “homme politique” along with interviews with friends, colleagues and ordinary citizens whose lives he touched in various ways.

And now would be as good a time as any to take a look at Euzhan Palcy‘s three-part documentary on Césaire’s life and work, which is available from California Newsreel.

(clockwise from left) “Robber Talk” (detail), Ashraph, “Jumbies” (detail),”Band of Indians”, “Band of de Year?”

Ashraph, my friend of more years than either of us likes to remember, opened his latest exhibition yesterday evening at the National Museum in Port of Spain. The striking works riff off ideas about the past, present and future of Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival traditions and art forms in the oblique and frequently surprising manner typical of Ashraph’s work.

The show runs until February 10, so if you happen to be in Port of Spain these next few weeks, don’t short-change yourself by missing it. For a preview, see my Flickr photoset.

Click on the image above or one of these: Quicktime | Flash

Here I go again attempting to make something out of material gathered with no particular purpose in mind. Under other circumstances I’d have used a tripod and locked the shot, but the 9 still images which make up this presentation were taken hand-held. The presentation itself was created in minutes, completely in iPhoto.

The location is Norfolk Street in Belmont, a district of Port of Spain, Trinidad, where I was last night taking photos and video of the La Fantasie art project. I selected the building mainly because it was directly across the street and because of the glow from the two fluorescent light fixtures which highlighted the texture of the metal door, but it also happens to be the constituency office of the People’s National Movement, the ruling political party of Trinidad & Tobago.

See a larger version of the video at Caribbean Free Video, where I’ve begun archiving all the stuff that moves.

This also happens to be my submission for Semanal – Week 4!

1. Messing with history is a bad idea. While the people who came up with this idea might not be aware of this, the thing that ultimately gives out Carnival its uniqueness and value and meaning are its historical roots, which also has to do with the time of year it’s celebrated. Without that we’d be indistinguishable from any other of the other latter-day Carnivals. (Also see Reason #4 below).

2. Whose decision is this to make, anyway? While the “stakeholders” who attended the meeting might represent some of the key players in the festival (ie Pan Trinbago, the National Carnival Bands Association, National Carnival Development Committee), and while the idea is allegedly to be debated, they couldn’t possibly believe they could ever be in a position to make a decision like this. Who owns Carnival? Whose festival is this to move? Who has a bigger stake in Carnival than the people of Trinidad & Tobago? That debate had better be thorough, genuine and completely transparent.

3. The newer aspects of Carnival that this proposal would benefit are of dubious benefit to the nation. I do feel sorry for the steelband movement. The leadership of Pan Trinbago (the organising body for T&T steelband movement) seems to be behind the idea, but they should know that they’re far less likely to benefit from the moving of Carnival than the people behind the numerous Carnival fetes, all-inclusive and otherwise, the leaders of the 6,000-person, $4,000-costume Carnival bands and the producers and performers of cookie-cutter soca music. Carnival in its present incarnation has given us a disposable music form, cheap, overpriced costumes, segregated Carnival bands, encourages misplaced financial priorities and very likely lowers the overall productivity of the nation during the first quarter of every year. And it will continue to do that whether it remains on the two days before Ash Wednesday or is moved to “a fixed date in April”? Short Carnival seasons like this year’s are probably very, very good for this country, as they give us the opportunity to spend a greater portion of the year focused on developing, thinking about and exercising our creativity in other areas (eg creating an education system that actually educates, reducing crime etc).

4. We already own the Carnival niche, it would be extremely foolish to throw it away. With a couple of exceptions, like between 1942 and 1945 (because of World War Two) and 1972, when it was postponed to May because of a polio epidemic, Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival has always taken place on the two days before Ash Wednesday. A pre-lenten Carnival in T&T is an entrenched idea that Carnival visitors keep on their calendars. (I’ll also point Pan Trinbago president Patrick Arnold, quoted in the Trinidad Express article as saying that “the shifting date often created problems for fixtures and other organisational headaches”, to the numerous web sites that list the date of Ash Wednesday for the next million years. He could also ask any religious minister). Now what’s to stop some other country from organising a competing festival on the proposed “fixed date in April”? Moving Carnival would be comparable to an airline giving up a valuable berth at Heathrow airport and a lucrative flight route. And that makes no sense at all.

5. Other places manage their pre-lenten Carnivals just fine. Are we so much dumber than people in New Orleans, Brazil, Venice etc that we can’t figure out a way to make this work?

*For a definition of “dotish”, see The Trini Dictionary.

Technorati Tags: trinidad, carnival, caribbean

Returned from Toronto at 6am this morning and I’m feeling about as well as one should after having spent a sleepless night on an aircraft, so a more detailed report on the 2nd annual Caribbean Tales Film Festival will have to wait.

In the meantime, feel free to check out the photos.

Technorati Tags: caribbean tales film festival, film, toronto, canada, caribbean, trinidad