Tuesday, February 03, 2009
A Day of Absense
What if we woke up in the Bahamas one morning to find all our artists were gone? Over at her blog Nicolette Bethel is asking us to consider what that day might be like on February 11, "A Day of Absense," commemmorating her late father's birthday. She's making the call in an act of protest against decades of continuous governmental neglect of artists and cultural affairs in our country. I've pledged to join her in this action. It is not hard to imagine such a scenario here. In fact I wonder if like global warming, it is already happening around us right now, if only we'd open our eyes and see. If only we'd take action.
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4 comments:
Ah, Sistuh... I am already in absentia... how much more absent can we be? I support this, I do. It just makes me sad because it underscores for me why I could not survive at home. Add to these discussions please the added dimension that very possibly the majority of artists who have left the Bahamas are also queer: gay, lesbian, bi and transgender women and men who no longer wished to sacrifice our well being (sanity, ability to love, to worship, to be at home in the most fundamental ways...)in order to be accepted. Who is doing the ceremony? There should be mourning. There should be great sadness. After all, it is our own best dreams we are throwing away, giving up; unable to value the treasure in ourselves. How many more can the Bahamas lose before it understands it is not better, we are not better for the loss, the absence... Sending you blessings, all ways, always... Calypso
I thought I'd responded but my comment didn't make it. Thanks, Lynn, for this! Thanks for your support!
Oh Calypso, so many of us, all kinds, know about the rejection and exile of which you speak. As for artists (of all genders) , (at home and away), we need to begin by organizing and using our voting power to affect change at the parliamently level by by refusing to vote for any candidate who does not make serious funding for cultural affairs a part of their platform. On the Day of Absense we'll mourn the "death" of the Bahamian Artist by way of governmental financial abuse. Then we must begin (again) to conjure the resurrection!
in hope.
Hey Nicolette, Good Sister. I mean to write more on this, I think we could grow it into something big and powerful. I'm grateful for your relentless voice on this issue.
in hope.
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