BARBADOS CROP OVER READ-In!

I have been covering the Barbados Crop Over Festival in one medium or another for about 20 years now. I think my first article about it was in PRIDE newspaper in 1993 when Serenader won the annual Crop Over Calypso Monarch title with songs named "Breakdown" and "Steel In Dey". This year he is in the Finals again having not won the crown since then, and some years not competing at all. Most of my coverage has been for the Caribbean Connection with Jai Ojah Maharaj on CHIN 100.7 FM radio of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and for CHRY 105.5 FM, also broadcasting from Toronto. During this time I have seen a lot of improvement in the events of the Festival. An event that has improved greatly during the last six years or so is the READ-IN.

This year it was presented at the Foursquare Rum Distillery and Heritage Park, St. Philip on Sunday July 21st. A packed audience enjoyed a captivating performance of "Three Sides to Every Story" by Amanda Cumberbatch, Alison Sealy-Smith, Varia Williams, Carlos Barrow, Kenneth 'Jack' Lewis, Tony Thompson, and the dancers of the Dance Desk Summer Internship Programme. It was very ably produced by Ayesha Gibson-Gill, cultural officer in the Literary Arts Dept. of the B'dos National Cultural Foundation.

The storytellers beautifully held our attention with poems, and extracts from works by Adisa Jelani Andwele (ANTIQUITY), Glenville Lovell (FIRE IN THE CANES), Kamau Brathwaite (NAMSETOURA PAPERS), Dr. Karen Lord (REDEMPTION IN INDIGO), Linda Deane (OMOLARU IS BOWLING), Robert E. Sandiford (AND SOMETIMES THEY FLY), Esther Phillips (THE STONE GATHERER), Mark McWatt (A WORLD OF POETRY for CXC), and Shakirah Bourne (NAIL IN THE COFFIN).

It was a remarkable evening of storytelling where the dancers did not distract and the beautifully costumed host, Carlos Barrow, did not overpower but artfully took us on a wonderful cultural journey. His introduction captured the essence of the approximately 90 minutes of theatre: "So whether I weave the stories as Kwaku Ananse of across the seas, or as Bru'h nancy of Caribbean childhood or perhaps as Kamau's spider Namsetoura of Cow Pastor in Barbados weaving together present, past, and futures,all is one and one is all;there are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and in between there.... the truth."
- alex waithe