The event Brooklyn Caribbean Youth Fest (BCYF) will adlib and become Brooklyn Caribbean Heritage Festival (BCHF). Introduction of this event in 2005, allowed me to carve out a space between the familiar and not so familiar components within Caribbean folk art and traditions. I make this transition due to an overwhelming response from the local performing arts community. This interest is helping my team and I increase awareness and sustain Caribbean art forms.
The early days of another Caribbean event kept me focused on the primary goals and overall purpose of the festival. Extremely fundamental to the thrust are, the event deeply embrace grass-root traditions telling Caribbean stories well, it invites and welcomes expressions and jargons that are passed down via oral tradition and it is a compilation of the Caribbean's ethnic diversity.
I am very excited and pleased that as BCYF the event cultivated public interest. Upwards of 5,000+ New Yorkers attend the festival and have been entertained by professional and emerging artists. Getting non-mainstream events infront of audience particularly youth and family as one unit, is my main focus. As such the mission is simple... showcase and preserve Caribbean culture.
2010 transition and feature is a milestone that brings Broadway efficiency. As we embark upon the first thematic program, spotlighting Kumina as an example of Caribbean drumming culture and ritual art, my cup runneth over. I envision Bangarang: Drum Beats of the Caribbean, a powerful center piece that will present historical and social context, immersion, growth and maintenance of Caribbean Americans cultural legacy.
