In many ways, 2023 was the brightest year since COVID in Guyana’s cultural affairs
The month of January has its origins and owes its name to literature. It arises from oral literature – to be specific, Classical literature and the Roman mythology. There were ten months in the Roman calendar before January was added on to replace March as the first month of the year, and it was named after the Roman god Janus – whose name means “doorway. Archway or arcade”. Janus was the god of beginnings, gateways and of the rising sun. he had two faces – one looking forward and the other looking behind; so he could see both the future (the new year ahead) and the year that has passed. The word January is from Middle English and was in use by the year 1,000 AD.
January is therefore, traditionally, a year of reflection when the year that has just ended is reviewed and assessed, sometimes measuring that against projections. The tradition developed in the theatre of year-end revues, which are usually satirical, looking with a humorous but critical eye. Yet there is also plain serious documentation of what took place and what was wrong or commendable about it. At this time also, many organisations in different disciplines begin to consider who were the best performers and who are to be given awards for the year. That is what we will now do in these pages, in a review of what transpired in Guyana in the field of culture in 2023.
In many ways, 2023 was the brightest year since COVID in Guyana’s cultural affairs. Yet there remain a few issues hanging over, yet unresolved, and which remain stumbling blocks for development in the new year. That theme repeats itself in literature, in film, in music, in the theatre, in dance and drama, as in cultural industries and the popular culture.
Literature and drama rocketed to the zenith of the galaxy in that year. It was the best news for literature since 2015. Following the celebrated announcement in 2022, the Guyana Prize for Literature was restored by the government after a hiatus of six years when it was abolished. All the proceedings to bring about that restoration took place in 2023 when the awards were actually handed out and a number of accompanying events and observations put in place.
It put a crown on the recognition of new waves in Guyanese literature that had become somewhat submerged and silent. Among these were trends and thematic preoccupations that became evident in the winning works involving both established and new writers. These involved the poetry winner Berkeley Semple, the prose winner Kenneth Puddicombe, first book winner Ely Niland and a runner-up in poetry, Ian McDonald, all among the established, and a runner-up prize-winner in fiction Makeda Braithwaite, who was an outstanding representative of new young writers in Guyana. This Guyanese literature of the twenty first century included creative revisits to a Guyana of generations of the recent past, customs and cosmos, which did not exclude nostalgia and imaginative excursions into the folk and the supernatural.
Apart from a celebration of that literature, the restored Guyana Prize was lavishly lauded for two new prize categories – a Prize for Non-Fiction and a Youth Award for teenagers between 14 and 18. A non-fiction prize was long ago mooted but not put in place. Now that area of Guyanese writing is opened up, revealing endless possibilities in creative non-fiction, histories and biographies. The Youth Award will hopefully pay attention to the foundation – the beginnings and development that ought to ensure continuous rebirths and secure the tradition of creative writing.
There are a few other new developments and introductions for which the Minister of Culture Charles Ramson was highly praised. These included a number of features which expanded and invigorated the Guyana Prize
Literary Festival which began in a small way in 2014. The Festival was given a new permanent place in the nation’s cultural calendar – it was placed within the annual Mashramani and Republic celebrations. Further, it included the dramatic stage performance of one of the plays that have won the Guyana Prize. These plays have been languishing without stage productions for decades, and now they will be a live feature in the annual festival.
Other new windows opened in the restored festival in 2023 was the inclusion of the National Poetry Slam. This annual event now settles down in a permanent annual calendar place as a part of this festival, giving further recognition of the Spoken Word as a part of Guyanese literature and celebrated along with the best of it. A youthful element was also ignited with the inclusion of items for children, story telling and workshops. A new audience was seen in 2023 which involved a youthful crowd.
Where the Spoken Word is concerned, not only did the National Slam find a more settled place, but a new competition was created for young writers/composers/performers. Merundoi created a competition for persons below the age of 25 who were asked to produce pieces on the subject of climate change, with part sponsorship from UNICEF.
Film also took a step forward in 2023 with the renewal of the Timehri Film Festival led by Romola Lucas, and other smaller film festivals held during the year. Lucas’ involvement also widened and several new short films were made and published. At the top of the list was the short film Eating Papaw on the Seashore by Rae Wiltshire directed by Nickose Layne. This composition won wide and high profiled international recognition and perhaps reached further than any other Guyanese film had ever done in these directions. It was shown at international festivals in Britain and in Europe.
International recognition further widened with the activities of rising film critic Andrew Kendall who served as a judge in international film festivals in Canada and other countries. A number of other personalities such as Akbar Singh, assumed larger profiles in the blooming short film industry in Guyana. Training in film and film making which has been much lacking in Guyana, also took a stride forward with programmes mounted by the National School of Theatre Arts and Drama (NSTAD). The NSTAD counted at least seven persons who completed a Technical Certificate programme at their Convocation Ceremony in 2023.
In music it was largely the popular forms that made progress, apart from the steel pan which continued to be a major focus of the National School of Music and saw another year of success in the Mashramani competitions coordinated by the Music School Administrator Andrew Tyndall.
A number of new developments were attempted, conceived by Minister Ramson and directed by Tyndall. These included another year of development for the intended annual Cricket Carnival that closed the Caribbean Limited Overs Twenty20 competitions in festival style. This proved popular and engulfed Georgetown in resounding revelry during and at the end of the cricket. It might well develop into a significant tourism product, but is clearly in need of further thought and logistics. Some amount of confusion reigned on the streets when carnival processions competed with normal traffic, and the population was a bit confused because there was a carnival but no public holiday, creating an obvious conflict.
Mashramani itself was deepened and enriched, as earlier outlined, including the insightful placement of the Literary Festival. But as the Mashramani agenda grows, crowding and competing events will surely need to be ironed out and re-arranged. In 2023 there was an explosion of events, theatrical and otherwise, to celebrate Emancipation, including a gala event at State House hosted by the President, and a public streetside extravaganza involving the performance of music, dance and drama.
However, while those items flourished, artists, performers and theatre producers still went to bed on January 31, 2023 with lingering headaches over a few things, at the forefront of which was the problem of funding and financing. Sponsorship for art, for creative work and for theatre remained an issue, with financing still scarce. The costs of production have risen and seem to have driven many producers away.
Only a very few seem to have managed to acquire private sponsorship from the private sector for any artistic production. Among the fortunate few are Gem MadhooNascimento and the team of Lyndon Jones and Maria Benschop, who produce theatre at two different ends of the spectrum. Madhoo is into more mainstream drama, while Jones and Benschop promote popular comedy.
But the private sector is still to be wooed into giving large-scale support to drama. In 2023 the company of Massy financed events to mark Mental Health, and included in these was a play Shadows of Tomorrow by Randolph Critchlow. But such support remained hard to get through the year.
It must be pointed out that the private sector has a tendency to sponsor events that can bring them immediate spin-off benefits such as an increase in sales and clientele. That is why it is easier to get the corporate community interested when the event attracts large multitudes of people. The Ministry of Culture has managed to garner considerable sums of money from the private sector to
support the carnival and other sporting events. Perhaps this happened because the events were hugely popular. It is not known to what extent it was the power of the charms of the Minister, or his persuasive skills that won this sponsorship, but one wonders why he does not transfer this success over to the arts. Can he also succeed in convincing the corporate directorate to pour similar amounts of funds into artistic production?
There are solutions, however, that fall more directly under the Minister’s control. This is much needed reductions in the fees and taxes that theatre producers have to pay, especially when the rent the National Cultural Centre. That work was still unfinished in 2023. One may add to this, the fact that other things were discontinued by the previous government between 2015 and 2020, such as the National Drama Festival, the Caribbean Press, the Guyana Prize for Literature Caribbean Award, and a fund of $100 million set aside for the arts. These are still to be restored.
Perhaps the Ministry of Culture has in mind that they have taken care of the funding problem. They have established a grant of one million dollars for which any person can apply to carry out any project in the cultural industries. A number of applicants were successful during 2023 in the receipt of grants of one million dollars each, and that went a very long way in addressing the issue. But it has far from solved the problem.
Still to be addressed in this review are the fine arts and direct factors in the performing arts in 2023.