Nostalgic artists dub Carifesta 72 the best yet
At 91, Doris Harper-Wills is still basking in the afterglow of Carifesta 72, the first ever such festival to be held in the Caribbean. Fifty years later, by her recollection and that of others who played a part in that inaugural kaleidoscope of artistry, there has never been another such festival.
Accomplished musician Marilyn Dewar, who was part of a mass choir, remembers the excitement of visiting the houses in Festival City, which were built primarily as lodgings for the visiting delegations from the 25 countries which participated in the August 1972 extravaganza. She can still have a hearty laugh at the Cubans who thought it best to strip the beds of their linen and the windows of their curtains and use that to adorn themselves for a trip to the city. The linens and curtains were made of some pretty tie-dye material, so it was understandable.
But the real reason for that first festival living on in Dewar’s memory is the fact that one night after practice, her husband David Dewar, also an accomplished musician, proposed to her.
Dudley Charles, who was one of the artists in charge of setting up the art gallery at the Bishops’ High School, believes there has not been a Carifesta that was as good as 1972’s.
“Because it was the first, it was the most powerful and profound Carifesta. No other country could ever repeat that,” Charles said in a recent interview from his United States home. “And also because we had a champion for the arts. He was a cultural person who was the enforcer in the name of [the then prime minister Forbes Burnham].”
August 25, 50 years ago was the grand opening of Carifesta with input from Caribbean artists, writers, painters, sculptors, dancers and dramatists. The opening of the festival was held at the National Park as the National Cultural Centre, which was being constructed for the occasion, had not been completed. Events were still hosted there, including “The Legend of Kaieteur”, an oratorio composed by the late Philip Pilgrim, under a temporary roof consisting of tarpaulin and scaffolding.
The Carifesta logo was designed by artist David Lanyi and it was of a dark hand grasping the sun depicting the skills and aspiration of a tropical people with talent.
Speaking at the virtual forum where he received the 2022 Guyana Cultural Association Lifetime Achievement Award, Lanyi recalled that the “crowd went wild” when the animated logo was revealed at intervals behind the stage as Burnham spoke. He said it took about 20 minutes for the entire logo to be revealed.
Director
Harper-Wills, who was at a restaurant in England having lunch when she was originally contacted for this interview and therefore could not accommodate it at the time, was a pageant director and choreographer at the festival.
“As an artist I enjoyed meeting other artists, especially the Brazilian Viva Bahia group,” she later recalled.
Today she still receives praise from former students, whom she said are quite famous and include Menes de Griot, Gail Nunes, and dance director Verna Walcott, all of whom live in the US, Margaret Kellman in Guyana and many others.
Harper-Wills, who now lives in England, had left Guyana when her husband was posted as ambassador to Zambia. She recalled that she attended Carifesta X as a special guest and was given much publicity. She is a performance poet, writer, dancer, dramatist, and choreographer who was born in 1931 in the village of Agricola. Over the years she has dramatised her songs and stories for international festivals in Guyana, New York (Lincoln Center and Billie Holiday Theater), London (Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden), events at the Commonwealth Institute, and British Natural History and Science Museums, as well as for BBC Radio and various television programmes.
Gwenette Kellman did not play a part in the actual art of the festival. A ‘housekeeper’, the former teacher still recalls how electrifying the excitement of the event was and she took pleasure in preparing breakfasts for the visitors. She was among a number of women who were purposely trained at the Carnegie School of Home Economics.
“I just saw the advertisement and I applied,” she shared.
She recalled that they were assigned to different houses where they prepared breakfasts for the teams and after the delegates left for their various activities, they tidied up and exited the houses until the following morning. She recalled catering for an “amazing and dramatic dancer”
from Martinique who was the only participant from his country. At 78, her memories of that time live on.
The choir
Marilyn Dewar was one of 200 choir members who performed for “The Legend of Kaieteur”. They were drawn from the Woodside Choir, the Police Male Voice Choir and various churches. They rehearsed both separately and together over the weeks of preparation, at times going late into the night. As a young woman, Dewar recalled, she was very excited to be part of such an event.
It was following one of the rehearsals that David proposed to Marilyn. Laughing at the memory, she recalled