Issue 121 (May/June 2013)

EMBARK: Events around the Caribbean in May and June • Commemorate the 175th anniversary of Indian Arrival in Guyana, celebrate our connection to nature at the Hindu festival of Ganga Dhaaraa in Trinidad, and enjoy the eclectic line-up at the St Kitts Music Festival • Desiree Seebaran meets Etana, a Jamaican singer with a message • Bahamian designer Phylicia Ellis does twelve-and-under chic • This month’s reading picks — from an artist’s memoirs to the latest fiction • Recent albums and singles to get you in your groove • The Caribbean makes some of the world’s best rum. Where should a neophyte connoisseur start? Franka Philip gets expert advice  |  IMMERSE: Their infectious melodies, smart lyrics, and playful stage presence make No-Maddz Jamaica’s band of the moment. Kellie Magnus and Tanya Batson-Savage find out where the quartet’s “Bongo music” came from, and where it’s going • For Guyanese-Canadian artist Sandra Brewster, the phone book, with its long lists of names, sums up the way individual lives can disappear into an anonymous mass. Nicholas Laughlin examines Brewster’s Smiths series, which playfully asks what’s in a name • For over three hundred years, the Salem Witch Trials have lingered in American historical memory. But, as Debbie Jacob finds, few people know the woman who set it all off may have been an Arawak from Guyana • Guyanese writer Oonya Kempadoo on the long gestation of her third novel, and her passion for social development work — as told to Desiree Seebaran • An excerpt from Oonya Kempadoo’s new novel, All Decent Animals • Garry Steckles shares his personal list of the ten greatest calypso and soca singers of all time  |  ARRIVE: St Lucia’s rugged Atlantic coast is less travelled by visitors, writes Katherine Atkinson, but its dramatic scenery is worth the effort to get there • Photographer Mauricio Plaza shares images of the Dancing Devils of Yare, a Venezuelan Corpus Christi tradition since the sixteenth century • Bombay, August. The rains are late. Vahni Capildeo explores the heat-struck city on the Indian Ocean  |  ENGAGE: The Jacmel Ciné Institute offers free training to budding Haitian filmmakers — with even more ambitious plans afoot, as Lisa Allen-Agostini discovers • When a deadly fungus threatened to wipe out the Mountain Chicken, researchers came up with a daring rescue plan. Nazma Muller learns more • Kingston Beta has become a major player in Jamaica’s technology sector, reports Georgia Popplewell • Nine decades ago, Marcus Garvey was convicted of mail fraud. His supporters have alleged a conspiracy ever since, James Ferguson recalls • Meet the friendly pigs of the Exumas