Issue 124 (November/December 2013)

EMBARK Datebook Events around the Caribbean in November and December Word of Mouth Discover Trinidad’s Divali Nagar, Miami’s international art fair, and Jamaica’s annual pantomime The Look Jamaican designer Kesi Gibson draws on many influences to create her Kyu Mélange handbags Bookshelf This month’s reading picks Playlist Recent tunes to get your feet tapping Cookup The taste of home In the Dominican Republic, Christmas is a time for feasting. But how do you recreate the taste of home when you’re far away? Clara Gonzalez gets creative IMMERSE Closeup From island to end zone
Caribbean athletes are known for cricket and track and field, but what about football? Not soccer — American football. Debbie Jacob talks to four young players with roots in Haiti, Barbados, and Jamaica — proud of their island roots, and changing the face of the NFL with their indelible Caribbean spirit. Meet Pierre Garçon, Ramon Harewood, Patrick Chung, and Trevardo Williams Snapshot Making her claim In her debut book Chick, poet Hannah Lowe — born in the UK to an Afro-Jamaican father and white British mother — comes to terms with family history. She talks to Melissa Richards about finding her voice and identity in her poems 52 backstory the popop spirit Founded by artist John Cox in 1999, Nassau’s Popopstudios International Centre for the Visual Arts has become an international art contender while staying true to its family spirit. Sonia Farmer finds out how 58 Own Words
“you have to give them a good time every night”
Trinidadian DJ Christopher Leacock, a.k.a. the Jillionaire, on recording off the radio, starting his first sound system, and the twist of fate that led him to the international DJ project Major Lazer — as told to Tracy Assing
61 Riddem and Rhyme
Christmas skanking
Garry Steckles isn’t a fan of traditional Yuletide music, “classics” like “White Christmas”. Luckily, Caribbean musicians have created their own genre of seasonal tunes, with a real reggae or calypso vibe
ARRIVE
Escapes
Green days by the river
Marajó Island, in the mouth of the mighty Amazon River, is more than three times the size of Jamaica, and little known outside Brazil. Nicholas Laughlin discovers it’s not exactly the middle of nowhere, but Marajó is as good a place as any to be temporarily cut off from the rest of the world
Round trip
Float away
In the Caribbean region, our lives our shaped by proximity to water — whether the expanse of the sea that surrounds our islands, or the mighty rivers that drain the South American mainland. Water can be a boundary, a highway, and also a playground — as in these five adventures afloat
Offtrack
Fifty shades of blue
Just a hundred miles north of Caracas, the archipelago of Los Roques is the kind of island paradise that should only exist in the imaginations of guidebook writers. Except its white sand cays and azure waters are the real deal. Laura Montanari finds Los Roques is not too good to be true
ENGAGE
Green
What lies beneath
Dominica, the Antilles’ youngest island, is shaped by awesome volcanic forces beneath its surface — the key to an ambitious and sometimes controversial new geothermal energy project, as Nazma Muller reports
On this day
Palace of dreams
Two hundred years ago, Haiti’s self-proclaimed king Henri Christophe completed his grand palace of Sans Souci. It was a sumptuous symbol of power, James Ferguson explains — but not for long
Parting shot
End the year with a bang at Paramaribo’s Owru Yari celebrations

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