Poetry: Kingston Symphony [YOU KNOW TOWN?]

You know Town?
Where every
street is an
instrument
where the
Caribbean
is
counterpoint
where one-time
juke joiunts
now serve jerk
from old drum pans
You know Town?
where Ghetto Gaudi proudly
lines up
alongside
Art Deco
where mansions cling preposterously
to marly hillsides
Town
where
handcarts
pose a danger to
Range Rovers
in the market square

You know Town?
where
pedestrians play
hopscotch
with
vending Autocrats
and
suicide
with ruthless
Automobile
Dissidents

where
outlaws are
Heroes
where inescapable
dub
beats
are carried on cannabis
clouds
from burly mountain ridge
to blanket
the
Creative City
elegant
Aggressive
GrittyUncouth
wistful

Town
where taxi drivers
clutch
fistfuls of
Vital fares

Town
the sum
of all
fears
Nigh on 150
years
and still
Becoming

Politicians preach
its 2nd Coming
But are they really
just
trying
to stave off the
Apocalypse

In the Coke vacuum
long-held
enmities
unleashed

You know town?
its really many little
cities
21st Century
fiefdoms
old time battle and border lines
merely
blurred
partisan words
of
hatred slurred
by intoxicating
Luchre
spent
in myriad bars
drawing wretched and
wealthy alike
in retreat from the ochre
glow of another setting
Sun
And even
now
along the Pelican-fleeced
pier
are gathered
Lovers
and would-be philosophers
seeking meaning
amid the murky
industrial
sludge
silently asserting its
right to be
like
Negro Aroused

Art: Brit museum commission's 1st Caribbean stand

Zak Ové’s Moko Jumbie sculptures now stand in the Africa Galleries, Anny Shaw reports for the Art Newspaper.

The responsibility of being the first Caribbean artist to be commissioned by the British Museum (BM) is weighing heavily on Zak Ové. “Imagine representing the whole of the Caribbean in one moment?” he asks. “I have to get this right, otherwise I’ll never hear the end of it.”

Ové was speaking at the unveiling of his Moko Jumbie sculptures in the BM’s Africa Galleries on 30 March. The towering figures were installed in the museum’s Great Court in 2015 and have now become part of the permanent collection, displayed opposite a cabinet of masks made by, among others, the Yoruba and Igbo people of Nigeria, the Songye, Pende and Lega of the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Bamileke of Cameroon.

“It’s a homecoming. [My sculptures] are the children returning to their parents,” says Ové, who was born in London to an Irish mother and Trinidadian father.

Moko Jumbies, a term derived from a combination of African and Creole languages, are stilt-walkers who represent West African deities or spirits. With the shipping of slaves, the ritual was brought to the Americas where it was disguised in masquerade and incorporated into carnival celebrations.

The layered identities of the Moko Jumbie also appealed to Ové, who says he grew up “feeling like I was neither one thing nor the other”. Ové says his sculptures, which are made from found, cast and recycled materials, refer to the multitude of heritages found in Trinidad–among them Irish, Syrian and Chinese.

“It’s about bringing new world materials into dialogue with old world stories, and keeping that ancestry alive,” the artist says. “It’s also important to continue the conversation about the hundreds of millions of people living in the African diaspora. What does it mean to be an African abroad?”

Before becoming an artist, Ové made videos for musicians including Chaka Demus & Pliers, Lee Scratch Perry and PM Dawn. It was a natural fit for Ové, whose father Horace was the first black British film-maker to direct a feature-length film, Pressure, in 1975.

Like his father, Ové is blazing a trail, but one that feels long overdue. “You have to ask: why has it taken so long [to commission a Caribbean artist],” he says. “If it wasn’t for slavery and the sugar trade, we wouldn’t have some of the art institutions we have in London today.”

Sports: Caribbean Cubs

Less than four years after gaining independence from the United Kingdom, the Central American nation of Belize notched a smaller, yet somehow lasting, triumph in 1985. That winter, the Chicago Cubs sent their star outfielder Gary Matthews, Sr., to visit the country, which is often claimed to be the most Cubs-friendly land outside the Windy City. Matthews's visit was the culmination of a love affair that had begun in 1981, the year when Cubs games began being broadcast in the country.

And now, that the team is in the World Series, Cubs fever has come to the Caribbean in a big way. 

Why the Cubs—and why Belize? Like a lot of stories from this part of the world, it began with pirates. In this case, however, the outlaws were local TV impresarios, not swashbuckling Johnny Depp look-alikes. In the early ‘80s, there were no television stations in Belize, the only country in Central America whose official language is English. (Anyone with a set would use it to watch VHS tapes.) In 1981, however, Belize City business couple Arthur and Marie Hoare began transmitting the famous Chicago television channel WGN-TV via satellite, bringing programming to Belize. Channel 9, the Hoares' bootlegged Belize affiliate of WGN, brought Cubs and Bulls games into living rooms and bars throughout the country, sparking an interest in Chicago sports that has continued—with varying levels of enthusiasm—to this day.

"As [WGN's] signal was relayed into Belize City by the Hoares, 'world and country' were glued to their television sets to see the mighty Cubs win or lose (mostly lose)," remembered politician Michael Finnegan in a 2013 article in the Belizean paper Amandala.

 The country's tiny size may have kept American television executives at bay. In a 1989 Washington Post dispatch from Wrigley - South, reporter William Branigin explained that "U.S. broadcasters consider the Belize market so small that trying to stop the operations would not be worth the trouble."

 Most of the fans watching the Cubs in Belize today are Gen-Xers who grew up watching the team, says Jerry Martinez, a 36-year-old banker from Santa Elena, a city in the western part of the country. If the Cubs can lock up the World Series, Martinez thinks the romance may be rekindled. There are still diehard fans in the country, he says, but "people here usually ride with winners," especially younger Belizeans. 

However the season turns out, Martinez is determined to make his son a Cubs fan. "I grew up a Cubs fan and will die a Cubs fan," he says. "We're the lovable losers that introduced Belize to baseball."

Culture: NYC's Carib Culture Center is "home in Harlem"

New York has a triumphant new space dedicated to global black culture. Last night, the 40-year-old Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) reopened in a disused firehouse near the borderland between East and West Harlem, a few blocks from Marcus Garvey Park. It adds one more space to the city’s tiny roster of cultural institutions dedicated to communities of color, and joins the neighborhood’s Studio Museum and El Museo del Barrio by putting down roots in a region with a long and rich history of African-American and Latino cultures.

It’s a small and intimate space, but one that represents an enormous achievement and far-reaching implications—and it’s a project that has been some nine years in the making. “We are here, in El Barrio, can you hear me Harlem?” Nyoka Acevedo, a board member, called out to a packed crowd just hours after the institution’s ribbon-cutting, which was attended by New York City’s Commissioner of Cultural Affairs, Tom Finkelpearl, the First Lady of New York City, Chirlane McCray, and numerous other officials who have helped to secure a permanent home for the institution, and to amass $9.3 million (a combination of tax-payer money and individual donations) for its renovation. “Here we stand, in our home, in Harlem, in this landmark building, one of the few institutions of color to have a landmark building in the city.”

The significance of the moment was not lost on anyone in the room. The arrival of CCCADI in Harlem marks the end of the institution’s odyssey through three different spaces, beginning in a building in the East 80s in 1976, before moving to 58th and 9th, and now East Harlem. “The process has been a difficult one,” the institution’s firebrand founder and former El Museo director Dr. Marta Moreno-Vega, who is Afro-Puerto Rican, said over the phone a week before the opening. Difficult, she explained, “because having people invest in an idea that addresses the articulation of a vision that is anti-racism, anti-discrimination, and pro-African and African Diaspora cultures, is one that even for our own is not always embraced. The whole notion that you’re building an institution to a vision of liberation is one that is hard to grasp, and we were fortunate to get people who understood and invested in different ways, and now we’re here.”

Since its founding, the institution has been as much a locus for activism, and a meeting ground for people of African descent from around the globe, as it has been a platform for art. Lowery Stokes Sims, a former museum director and longtime advocate for artists of color, who has co-curated the CCCADI’s inaugural show “Home, Memory, and Future,” recalls the institution’s early days, when Dr. Moreno-Vega had just conceived the space. “I met a very global group of people there,” says Sims, “and we’re talking in the ’70s and ’80s before globalization became a widespread notion. It was Southern black people, Caribbean black people, African black people, Latin American black people, who came together for commonalities.

Music: No Longer "speaking Germain", Shuga Steps Out

-The Jamaica Observer
 
Singer Shuga has cut ties with longtime manager Donovan Germain and Penthouse Records.

“He was a great manager, he is my father and my foundation, but it is time to move out and move forward,” Shuga said, adding that she was “going through with the legalities now” to formalise the split.
The St James-born artiste joined the Penthouse camp shortly after winning the Digicel Rising Stars competition in 2009.
Penthouse is a major force in contemporary dancehall. The label is responsible for the mainstream success of artistes such as Wayne Wonder and Buju Banton.


“I wish her all the best in her career, it was great working with her over these years. I hope she can continue to mature and blossom as an artiste,” said Germain.
Shuga released her new song, Caribbean People, last week. It is produced by Warieka Productions.

where WORDS WaNdEr: Cannibal

Picture this: You're a member of one of the indigenous tribes of the West Indies. Every day you wake up under the warm Caribbean sun, do a hard day's work and then chill out on the beach and watch the sun set. The weather is always beautiful, and life is good. Then, one day, some crazy Italian dude hops off a boat with his muskets and shit and accuses you all of cannibalism.

Well, now you know what it's like to be a member of the Carib people. Much like the Vandals, the Caribs got stuck with an unfortunate label that bares little relation to reality.

from the Spanish - "canibalis'

Finance: IFC sees "Green"; Jamaican accountant gets top regional post

Judith Green, Jamaican accountant based in Kingston, has been appointed the World Bank Group's head of operations for the International Finance Corporation's (IFC) program for investments and advisory services in the English-speaking Caribbean, including Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

In addition, Green — a certified chartered accountant — will also manage IFC’s relationships with regional governments, donors and private sector stakeholders.

“Judith brings tremendous professional experience and a deep knowledge of the Caribbean market,” said Luc Grillet, IFC’s senior manager for Central America and the Caribbean. “Through her leadership, we look forward to continuing our strong track record in the region, serving our clients and providing opportunities where they are needed most.” [. . .]

Green, who will be based in Jamaica, joined IFC in 2011 as a senior investment officer tasked with identifying business opportunities and actively managing portfolio projects in Jamaica. I look forward to working with our long-term partners and forging new relationships, both with the private and public sectors, that support this region’s tremendous potential,” Green said

Sport:Biles owes Belize, the full uplifting story

Following Al Trautwig's stupid ("senior"?) moment in commentary, it was nice to come across the following, on multiple gymnastics champion Simone Biles, showing yet again, the huge footprint of the Caribbean (even by proxy) on Us and global sports.

 A report by Jeré Longman for The New York Times.

One o’clock arrived. Relatives gathered at a hotel bar to watch Olympic gymnastics on television. So did the first lady of Belize and 11 contestants in the coming Miss Belize pageant, wearing their sashes and carrying tiny flags. But where was Simone Biles?

The women’s individual all-around competition had begun 4,000 miles away on Thursday afternoon at the Rio Games. Biles, 19, was the heavy American favorite, but there was also anticipation in an unlikely place, the tiny Central American country of Belize, where she holds dual citizenship.

Phone calls were made. Television channels were changed. Beauty contestants were perplexed. Still no live gymnastics.

 Finally, after 30 minutes, the live feed began on Caribbean television. Biles had already performed her vault routine, but the delayed start did not mute the ecstatic cheering that greeted her second gold medal at the Rio Games.

There are big stories unfolding in Belize, including a Supreme Court ruling that affirmed gay rights and the cleanup from Hurricane Earl, which churned through last week. But interest in Biles also has resonated here, in the country’s economic capital, as evidenced everywhere from the prime minister’s residence to the shade of a local plum tree, painted purple and gold, where tour guides talk politics and play dominoes.

“We are taking all the gold medals she is going to win,” Kim Simplis Barrow, 44, the first lady of Belize, said with a smile.

Biles’s connection to Belize is as complex and ultimately elevating as the flips, jumps and windmill spins that have made her the best gymnast of her generation, perhaps ever.She was born in 1997 in Columbus, Ohio, to a mother who struggled with addiction to drugs and alcohol, and to a father who was not part of her life. In 2002, Biles’s birth mother lost custody of her four children, who were placed in foster care and faced the possibility of being scattered by adoption.

 Instead, Simone, then 6, and her younger sister Adria, then 4, were adopted in 2003 by their maternal grandfather, Ron Biles, and his second wife, Nellie Cayetano Biles, who is from a prominent Belizean family of teachers and nurses and government officials. (Nellie is not Simone’s biological grandmother; Simone’s other two biological siblings were adopted by Ron’s older sister.)

Before, Ron and Nellie were known to Simone and Adria as Grandpa and Grandma. Now they are Mom and Dad.

Nellie’s mother, Evarista Cayetano, was a teacher and an owner of a grocery store. Her father, Silas Cayetano, also began his career as a teacher, then became an official in Belize’s fishing and agricultural cooperatives, and, later, a senator.

The original family home, at 118 Neal Penn Road, was made of wood. The family lived upstairs and the store was downstairs. It was a gathering place, where Silas Cayetano held court on weekends, settling neighborhood disputes, telling jokes, spinning stories.“It was community central, especially on Saturdays, when the chickens were fresh,” said Opal Enriquez, a cousin of Simone’s and the director of the Miss Belize pageant.

The Cayetano home had opened its doors to the nine Enriquez children, whose family came to Belize City from the southern town of Punta Gorda. Silas Cayetano had skipped high school, worked at a seminary and passed his teacher’s exam at age 19, relatives said. He encouraged his nieces and nephews, as he had his own four children, telling them that education was the most reliable way to escape poverty.

“Our uncle set the bar high,” Enriquez said. “Failure was never an option. He embedded in our brains that we were destined for greatness. Simone listened. We weren’t afraid to dream.”

When Ron and Nellie Biles adopted Simone and Adria, they had two sons of their own who were about to graduate from high school and leave for college. The couple wanted to travel. It would not be easy raising two young girls. But the girls needed parents, and adopting them was a “no brainer,” said Nellie, 61.

"When you grow up, I firmly believe that you see what goes on in the family, what your father and mother do,” she said. “And you tend to mimic what you see. It’s innate. It wasn’t even a question.”

 The extended Biles family is watching Simone compete at the Olympics across two continents and four time zones. Ron and Nellie and a dozen other relatives are in Rio. Others are in Spring, Tex., north of Houston, where the Bileses live and own a gymnastics center. Still more are scattered in Belize, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago.

"We’re trying to put Belize on the map as much as we can,” Nellie, a retired nurse, said. “Simone is competing for the U.S., and we’re not taking any credit away from that. But the fact that she has dual citizenship, I don’t see why we cannot celebrate her second country also.”

 And Belize seems happy to celebrate Biles. Formerly known as British Honduras, it gained its independence only in 1981. Belize has never produced an Olympic champion since it began competing in the Summer Games in 1968. A small contingent of three athletes was sent to Rio to compete with modest ambitions in track and field and judo.

During the 2000 Sydney Olympics, Belize did have a big moment, celebrating and claiming three gold medals won in sprinting by the American Marion Jones, whose mother was born here.

After winning the 200 meters, Jones held up a Belizean flag. Its coat of arms features two woodcutters, one with light brown skin carrying an ax, the other darker skinned and holding an oar, who symbolize the country’s ethnic diversity, history of slavery and its mahogany industry.

 Jones’s gesture brought international attention to Belize and widely endeared her to its citizens. The country later named her a sports ambassador.

Though Jones’s victories were nullified and her career disgraced by doping and a check-fraud scheme, which brought a prison sentence of six months, she remains popular and appreciated here. Belize’s national stadium, long being refurbished, is called the Marion Jones Sports Complex.

Belize’s relationship with Simone Biles is less entrenched so far, but also less complicated.

She is a bubbly teenager who has traveled here regularly to visit and to go fishing and snorkeling on vacation. Last summer, she attended the wedding of her brother here, posed for a newspaper photographer, and was spotted doing back flips off a pier. Upon arriving in Rio, she traded Olympic pins with a Belizean athlete.

“Simone said, when she gets married, it’s going to be in Belize,” Nellie Biles said.Ron Biles paused as he sat on a sofa at a hotel near Rio’s Olympic Park on Monday, his 67th birthday.

“It’s going to be a while longer,” he said as a group of relatives broke into laughter. “Another 16 years.”

As the Olympics approached, Simone was acknowledged by Belize’s ministry of youth and sports, interviewed on the popular Love FM radio, featured in the country’s largest-selling newspaper and followed widely on social media.

“People are very excited, because she has Belizean parentage, she’s a great athlete and she acknowledges her Belizean roots,” Adele Ramos, the assistant editor of Amandala, Belize’s largest-circulating newspaper, said of Biles. “She is the next best thing for us after Marion Jones.”

Yet some feel conflicted, not about Biles, but about the way Belize, in their view, does not fully support its homegrown athletes.

Karen Vernon, the theater director of Belize’s Institute of Creative Arts and the mother of two of the country’s top cyclists, said she was happy for Biles but did not “like the fact that Belize is waiting for her to win to claim her.”

 “We need to support our own athletes and artists,” Vernon said. “We have talent here.”

The Cayetano family was not athletic, Nellie Biles said the other day with a laugh, though her father did claim ornately to have been a gymnast and the source of Simone’s versatile skills.

“Everybody knows that Nellie’s father was a comedian,” said Florita Avila, 59, a cousin of Simone’s.

 As a girl, Nellie Biles said she played tennis and did the hop, skip and jump.

Ron, her husband, shook his head.

 “You played hopscotch,” he said.

His wife did not play sports but watched them on television, Ron added, before correcting himself and saying, “You didn’t have a television.”

It is a true story, Nellie said. In 1973, at 18, she left Belize to attend nursing school at the University of the Incarnate Word in San Antonio. Until then, she said, she had never seen a television in person, used a phone or flown on a plane.

“It was, needless to say, culture shock,” she said.

In 1976, she met Ron, who was stationed at Randolph Air Force Base outside San Antonio. (He is retired from the military and from his career as an air traffic controller.) In 1977, they married, and they have the playful banter of a couple who has been together for 40 years.

Was it love at first sight?

“No, oh no,” Nellie Biles said. “It was his good luck.”

Ron replied, “She’s still here, isn’t she?”

 When the adoption of Simone and Adria, now 17, became official in November 2003, the Bileses returned home from meeting with a family judge outside Houston. Nellie told the girls that they could continue to call her and Ron Grandma and Grandpa, or they could call them Mom and Dad.

Simone has said that she went upstairs, practiced in the mirror, then came down and said “Mom.” Nellie remembers Simone running back upstairs, probably giggling because it seemed funny. It was Mom from then on.

“I think these girls did more for us than we did for them,” Nellie Biles said. “Simone centralized us as a family. We come together and do things and go places because of Simone.”

While on a day-care field trip, Simone became interested in gymnastics. Her relatives in Belize remember her from those days as “little Simone,” a tiny girl in perpetual motion, a “spring chicken” and “a firecracker.”

And they say she came to possess the same discipline, insistence, confidence and expectation as Nellie, the eldest sibling in her own family, who with three partners came to own 14 nursing homes in Texas before selling them last year and turning her attention to operating a gymnastics center.

“She is Nellie’s child all over,” said Felix Enriquez, 47, Opal’s brother, who is scheduled to become the second in command in Belize’s ministry of defense. “A fair but stern personality. Always demanding that things be done in a proper way. A very big thinker. She doesn’t think small.”

Ron and Nellie Biles have lived in their current home in Spring, Tex., for six years. Ron, a native of Cleveland, said he had never been in the pool until he jumped in when the Cavaliers won the N.B.A. title in June, the city’s first major championship since 1964.

Would he jump in the Atlantic in Rio if Simone won gold in the women’s individual all around?

“I’ll probably just cry,” he said.

Nellie said she would watch nervously in the arena, grabbing someone to hold onto. Here, at the hotel bar, there was little tension, only clapping and cheering except for during Simone’s wobble on the balance beam.

“I was panicking at that one,” Felix Enriquez said.

Not to worry. Biles had a huge lead, which she secured on the floor exercise with elegance, strength and the stunning ability to land like a dart.

“Oh my God!” Simplis Barrow, Belize’s first lady, said, putting her hands to her face, pumping her fists, and photo bombing a family picture. “Woooh.”

“She has inspired us all,” Simplis Barrow said. “No matter where you come from, you can succeed. It is all right there in that small package.”

lisaparavisini | August 12, 2016 at 11:11 am | Categor

wheRe WorDs WandeR

The phrase comes from the game of cricket. The wicket, as us Caribbean people well know (even the non-cricket fans) , refers to the rectangular area in the centre of the cricket field between the stumps. A bowler bowls the ball from one end of the wicket, bouncing the ball upon it, before the batsman hits the ball at other end. The wicket is usually covered in a much shorter grass than the rest of the field, making it more susceptible to variations in weather which cause the ball to bounce differently.

If the wicket is wet when the ball is bowled it will not bounce as high as usual, appearing, from the point of view of the batsman, to stick to the ground making it very difficult to hit the ball well no matter the shot played. 

Hence a "sticky wicket" refers to a situation where there is no option you can take which is necessarily a good one. Such wickets are far less common in cricket now since matches tend to have stopped being played on uncovered wickets, especially in the professional sport.

Arts: RIP Louis Marriott

Actor, broadcaster, director, writer, and historian Louis Marriott passed away on Monday at age 81.

Marriott had been ailing for some time and was recently hospitalised for the second time in weeks with pneumonia. He died following complications.

In paying tribute, Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport Olivia 'Babsy' Grange described Marriott as a multitalented and creative man who had contributed much to Jamaica's culture.

"Louis was one of the last great bands of local theatre practitioners, including the late Trevor Rhone, Charles Hyatt and Lloyd Reckord, to have left us in recent times. It was heartbreaking to receive news of his passing on Emancipation Day," Grange said.

Opposition Leader Portia Simpson Miller said Marriott worked as press secretary to former Prime Minister Michael Manley in the 1970s and as director of publications and advertising with the Agency for Public Information, the forerunner to the Jamaica Information Service.

"Louis Marriott will be remembered as a Jamaican patriot and a consummate creative professional who served his country selflessly through his dedication to his creative passions, including the arts and theatre, in particular," Simpson Miller said.

PROMINENT PLAYWRIGHT

Born May 22, 1935, Marriott was one of Jamaica's most prominent playwrights and historians. He wrote and produced several radio and television plays and documentary broadcast programmes and films, as well as wrote and directed several plays, among them Pack of Jokers, Playboy and Bedward. Many of his radio programmes have been broadcast throughout the English-speaking world.

Marriott also lectured in Britain on Commonwealth and Caribbean affairs, and served as press secretary to the late Prime Minister Michael Manley, as well as in several other key roles.

He was also the executive officer of the Michael Manley Foundation, and member of the Performing Right Society, Jamaica Federation of Musicians, and founding member of the Jamaica Association of Dramatic Artists.

Marriott leaves behind widow Erica; daughters Lavinia and Karen; family and friends.

Tributes from around the world continue to pour in for Marriott.

Arts: Caribbean soul, with verse

Anthony Joseph – Caribbean Roots, review: ‘Provokes and questions through words and music’ by lisaparavisini A review by Simon Broughton for The Evening Standard. British- Trinidadian Anthony Joseph has created a sort of Caribbean Allstars orchestra to accompany his spoken poetry on Caribbean Roots. It’s the saxes of Shabaka Hutchings and Jason Yarde and steel pans of Andy Narell that really ring out as the music absorbs influences from Trinidad, Jamaica, Haiti and the French Antilles. Slinger is a tribute to the great Calypsonian Mighty Sparrow, while Our History is about being tied to the land and revolution. The title track says “set yourself in the soil, put your head in the sky of these Caribbean Roots”. Joseph’s poetry is thoughtful and avoids slogans. He just provokes and questions through words and music.

Culture: Kingston makes the "Bloomberg List"

Bloomberg Philanthropies today announced the 20 Latin American andCaribbean cities selected as finalists in its 2016 Mayors Challenge, a competition that encourages cities to generate bold ideas that solve urban challenges and improve city life ? and have potential to spread.  The finalists, hailing from 10 countries, will move forward to compete for a $5 million USDgrand prize and four $1 million awards, as well as extensive implementation support. The ideas reflect creative new approaches to some of the most pressing issues facing cities in the region, including mobility, youth unemployment, waste management, obesity, and social and economic inclusion for immigrants and people with disabilities.

"We received so many great ideas for this Mayors Challenge, and narrowing it down to just 20 finalists was a big challenge in itself. These ideas really capture the diversity of the region and the creativity and commitment of its leaders and citizens in making cities work better. Each of them has the potential to improve the lives of local residents -- and if they work, to spread far and wide. We look forward to working with all of the finalists on their proposals and to seeing the winning cities bring them to life," said Michael R. Bloomberg, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and three-term Mayor of New York City.

The 2016 Mayors Challenge is Bloomberg Philanthropies' first in Latin America and theCaribbean following successful competitions in the United States and Europe. After receiving submissions from 290 eligible cities in April, Bloomberg Philanthropies conducted an intensive review of the ideas with the support of Bloomberg's extensive global network and a selection committee of 13 innovation and policy experts from across Latin America and the Caribbean. Ultimately, the top 20 best and most innovative ideas were selected to move forward in the competition.

The 20 finalist ideas were evaluated against four key criteria - their idea's vision, potential for impact, implementation plan, and potential to spread to other cities. Finalists will next attend Bloomberg Ideas Camp in Bogotá, Colombia - a two-day convening in July where leading innovation experts and peer cities will help finalists take their proposals from good to great. Prize winners will be announced by the end of 2016.

The finalists' ideas (outlined below) illustrate fresh thinking to address common urban challenges experienced by cities across regions:

1. Asunción, Paraguay. Data: Closing the city's socio-economic data gap by conducting citizen-led research to gather demographic information that can inform and measure the impact of policymaking for the first time.
2. Barueri, Brazil. Social Inclusion for People with Disabilities/Workforce Development:Increasing access to the workforce for people with disabilities by creating a physical and virtual network to improve job training, analyze workplace conditions, and provide technical assistance to employers and job candidates.
3. Bogotá, Colombia. Education: Twice daily, the city will leverage all transportation channels, public facilities, volunteers and the city's cultural history to enhance and shorten the severe school commute times for children.
4. Cap-Haïtien , Haiti. Waste Solutions/ Environment: Reducing deforestation and mangrove destruction by creating community biodigesters, which are closed containers that break down organic waste and turn it into renewable energy.
5. Caracas, Venezuela. Social Inclusion for People with Disabilities/Mobility:Enrolling volunteers to drive people with motor disabilities to and from public transport points and providing assistance during their commutes,  opening access to education, culture, healthcare, employment and productive citizenship for a vulnerable segment of the population.
6. Corumbá, Brazil. Environment/ Economic Development: Combatting further environmental degradation caused by improper disposal of ore ? a mining byproduct ? by repurposing the waste into productive materials for construction.
7. Curitiba, Brazil. Social Inclusion for People with Disabilities/Mobility: Drawing on its history of transit innovation, improving the mobility of disabled people by integrating more inclusive transport services and introducing better designed routes.
8. Estación Central, Chile. Social Inclusion for Immigrants / Entrepreneurship:Promoting social inclusion by matching immigrants with new business ideas to technical assistance, office space, and local entrepreneurs looking to partner to launch a new startup.
9. Godoy Cruz, Argentina. Waste Solutions: Preventing illegal waste disposal in canals ? an essential feature of the city's irrigation system ? by placing sensors to monitor and identify the exact location where infractions occur.
10. Guadalajara, México. Transparency / Government Efficiency: Tackling corruption by streamlining the legal requirements for construction projects through a new geo-referenced app that publicly maps business names, plans, licenses and payments, speeding processing times and increasing transparency.
11. Kingston, Jamaica. Youth Unemployment / Workforce Development: Tackling entrenched youth unemployment through a mobile digital platform that encourages young people to explore, create, and access career opportunities in a variety of industries, especially Jamaica's cultural and music industry, based on their strengths and interests.
12. Medellín, Colombia. Public Safety / Financial Empowerment: Reducing demand for illegal loans that finance organized crime by creating neighborhood lending collectives that offer low-interest commercial loans and connections to employment.
13. Milagro, Ecuador. Environmental Sustainability: Encouraging emergency preparedness for children through the creation of a network chaired and formed by students that promotes better preparation for adverse weather and natural disasters.
14. Pudahuel, Chile. Education: Pairing older residents wishing to volunteer with the children of working families in need of after-school child care, limiting social isolation for seniors and providing a vital service for families.
15. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Public Health: Improving children's healthcare standards and outcomes by removing silos and integrating data across agencies to improve the health and wellbeing of children ages zero to six.
16. Santiago (Commune), Chile. Public Health: Through citywide challenges, encourage neighborhood groups to work together to reduce childhood obesity; communities earn points they can use to fund local recreational and civic infrastructure.
17. São Paulo, Brazil. Economic Development: Creating an online exchange that connects growing local demand for locally produced farm products from restaurants, markets, and schools to struggling local farmers on the outskirts of the city, addressing a market failure.
18. Tlalnepantla de Baz, México. Social Cohesion: Publishing and promoting a municipal catalog of good deeds, an effort to address widespread civic apathy by engaging citizens in acts like helping the elderly and improving the local environment.
19. Tuxtla Gutiérrez, México. Anti-Corruption: Fighting corruption and improving efficiency by streamlining service delivery for public facing transactions and allowing users to monitor the activity of civil servants through a new mobile app.
20. Valdivia, Chile. Entrepreneurship: Directing promising academic research toward practical problems and helping the local economy by testing bright ideas from local universities in real-world markets with a new mobile lab.

Live Music: Get Festive! Choosing the region's best music festivals

Take your pick from jazz and blues to techno, reggae and soul and you’ll find a music festival in the Caribbean that will keep your toes tapping and your hips swaying.  Check out our musical calendar and snag a front row seat at the Caribbean’s longest running jazz festival in St. Lucia, get groovy to soul sounds on the beach in Aruba, blues on the beach in Nevis and rock all night to a reggae beat in Jamaica.

What started as a single show to celebrate the January 15 birthday of reggae homegrown hero Patrick ‘Tony Rebel’ Barrett has morphed into a mainstay on the Jamaican music calendar. For two days — January 15 and 16 — Rebel Salute honors roots and reggae at the Plantation Cove in St. Ann. With a nod to the Rastafarian lifestyle, the no meat and no alcohol policy makes the festival family-friendly with food vendors dishing up vegetarian options to music fans of all ages. On the bill this year are old-school reggae singer Johnny Clarke and boy band Inner Circle. Sponsored by the Jamaica Reggae Industry Association, fans honor Bob Marley’s February 6 birthday with a month-long series of celebrations and concerts at Reggae Village at Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre on Hope Road in Kingston: the heart and soul of reggae and the city where Marley was born.

Brand new on the music scene, SXMusic is the island's first electronic music festival from March 9 – 13. Named for the three-letter airport code (SXM) of the Princess Juliana International Airport, performances take place at a host of venues on both sides of the island like Kontiki Beach, Loterie Farm, Port De Plaisance Country Club and Le Dreams Beach Bar. The five-day fest impresses with an international lineup like Welsh DJ Jamie Jones and Cuban-born electronic spinner Maceo Plex to Dubfire, Iranian-American Grammy winning techno disc jockey and record producer. To be seen, the hip and happening head to after-parties on the beach, in lavish villas and on super yachts that keep the vibe all night long.

 big festival on the small island with miles of pink sandy beaches, 'Eleuthera…All that Jazz' is music for a good cause with profits from ticket sales donated  to the Haynes Library. From March 30 — April 3, the festival is a beacon for global artists like jazz singer Gabrielle Stravelli adored for her unique take on American greats like Duke Ellington and Dolly Parton, American pianist and composer Art Hirahara whose latest recording Libations & Meditations is taking the jazz world by storm and New York’s King Solomon Hicks packing his jazzy guitar sounds to the good time festival. Venues include the Rainbow Inn in Governor’s Harbour, St Patrick’s Church and on the final evening, musical jam session at the Fish Fry in Anchor Bay is a free show from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

With St Kitts in view across the channel, The Nevis Blues Festival is center stage on the coconut-lined beach at Oualie Bay from April 14 — 16.  The best soul, funk and yes, the blues heat up the festival that was so popular last year, it’s making a comeback in 2016. Gates open at 7 p.m. with no more than 1200 music fans let in each night. On the bill, British bluesman Ian Siegel, American guitarist Kirk Fletcher acclaimed for his cool riffs, Belfast-born singer Simon McBride and the bluesy Rhythm Chiefs from the Netherlands. With roots in Nevis, Denise Gordon has performed her brand of gospel for the Queen and making music with long hollow pipes; Sugar Hill String Band is fun for the whole family. Single tickets are priced at USD$45 while a VIP ticket at USD$150 ups the ante with reserved seating for dining and plenty of fine wine sipping.

hat started more than a quarter century ago as an intimate jam session on the beach is now the longest running independent music festival in the Eastern Caribbean and the hottest ticket on the island. From April 21 — 24, Moonsplash is beach reggae greatness at the Dune Preserve Beach Bar that is cobbled together from battered coconut trees and old shipwrecks. On the sand at Rendezvous Bay, the beach blowout at the beach bar is hosted by reggae hero Bankie Banx and is a showcase for international reggae artists, a proving ground for new talent and a musical reunion of many of reggae’s finest. Tickets sell out early as the 2016 lineup is announced closer to show time.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the longest running jazz festival in the Caribbean. Spanning nine days from April 29 — May 8, St. Lucia Jazz attracts thousands to shows performed by more than 50 acoustic, fusion and new age jazz artists from the Caribbean, Latin America, Europe and the U.S. With the dramatic Piton peaks in view from virtually everywhere on the island, stages are set up at 15 venues from picturesque Pigeon Island, Derek Walcott Square (named for the island's Nobel Prize winning poet), Fond D’Or Heritage Park and even the down-home fishing village called Gros Islet. Be sure to check out side shows like Sulphur Springs Jazz at the world’s only drive-in-volcano and Jazz Rhythms at Rodney Bay Mall.

A host of festivals keeps Curacao rocking all year long, with the International Blue Seas Festivalleading the pack from May 6 — 7.  With stages in the laid-back neighborhood near Willemstadcalled the Pietermaai District with its centuries-old mansions and funky bars and restaurants, performers taking the stage include Rock and Roll Hall of Fame great Leon Russell and California-based Lukas Nelson and Promise of the Real and their infectious cowboy hippie surf sounds. Book your tickets early for the Curacao North Sea Jazz Festival September 1 — 3 at the World Trade Center near Piscadera Bay in Willemstad. This year marks the seventh year for this popular festival, with crowd-pleasing performers like the Dominican ‘King of Merengue’ Juan Luis Guerraand the Zouk band Kassav from Guadeloupe belting out their get-up-on-your-feet brand of carnival music.

Arts: the NG goes Digital and Chevaughn Sings at Last Sunday

The National Gallery of Jamaica’s Last Sundays programme for April 24, 2016, will feature the opening of the Digital exhibition and a musical performance by Chevaugn.

Digital, as the title suggests, is an exhibition of digital art, including video, animation, short films, GIFs, digital illustrations, photography, and social and interactive media, and was curated by Veerle Poupeye, O’Neil Lawrence and Monique Barnett-Davidson. The exhibition is based on a call for submissions, which was, for the first time in the National Gallery’s history, extended to the wider Caribbean and its diaspora. Of the 73 submissions received, 39 were selected for the exhibition, which features artists who are based in or from Jamaica, Barbados, Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Belize, Suriname, Bermuda, Martinique, Guadeloupe, St Martin, the USA, Canada, France, England, Germany and China. The selected artists are: Ewan Atkinson; Sonia Barrett; Jacqueline Bishop; Kimani Beckford; Beverley Bennett; Ruben Cabenda; Larry Chang; Robin Clare; James Cooper; Di-Andre Caprice Davis; Pablo Delano; Cecile Emeke; Luk Gama; Gregory Stennatt; David Gumbs; Versia Harris; Horacio Hospedales; Katherine Kennedy; Prudence Lovell; Kelley-Ann Lindo; Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow; Olivia McGilchrist; Shane McHugh; Patricia Mohammed; Richard Nattoo; the New Media and Process Class, Edna Manley College; Sharon Norwood; Jik-Reuben Pringle; Gabriel Ramos; Richard Mark Rawlins; Sheena Rose; Danielle Russell; Oneika Russell; Nile Saulter; Henri Tauliaut; Phillip Thomas; Dione Walker; Rodell Warner, Arnaldo James and Darron Clarke; and Ronald Williams. Most of the works in Digital engage actively with the political implications of images and image-making and the exhibition invites reflection about the rapidly changing dynamics of technology, culture, society and visuality since the “digital revolution,” globally and in the Caribbean context.

Chevaughn is a singer/songwriter, who is acclaimed for a velvet smooth tenor infused with rich gospel inflected tones. His unique voice can be heard on Holiday, the chart-topping breakout song of 2009 with Ding Dong, and he was the lead singer of the eclectic roots group C Sharp. January 2014 saw the singer separate from the group to focus on his journey as a solo artist and he launched his debut EP Hopeless Romantic(2014). He has created quite a stir amongst fans across the globe, especially in The Bahamas where fans have taken a particular liking to his song Know Your Friends. His most current songs include So Many Rivers, You Lose and So Let It Be and he is in the process of recording an album with the inimitable Digital B Records and Frankie Music, whilst personally producing a very special project #FromScratch.

The National Gallery of Jamaica’s doors will be open from 11 am to 4 pm on Sunday, April 24 and the exhibition opening and the performance by Chevaugn will start at 1:30 pm. As is customary, admission will be free but contributions to the National Gallery’s donations box are always appreciated. The National Gallery gift and coffee shops will be open for business and proceeds from these ventures help to fund programmes such asLast Sundays and exhibitions such as Digital.