Community Conversations

By in News on February 21, 2012

Following the successful and exciting symposium on the life and works of Frantz Fanon at The College of The Bahamas Fanon Symposium 2011 this past December, College of the Bahamas professors Craig Smith and Keithley Woolward are ready to establish the framework for year-round critical conversations open to the public.

Their Critical Caribbean Symposium Series (CCSS) for the spring, which kicked off last month and will continue into March, will continue with a series of three conversations that further certain topics touched upon in their Fanon Symposium.

On February 24 between 6-8 p.m. at Popopstudios, the CCSS will hold “Education for Liberation” which will examine the need for educational reform in the country in order to liberate and advance its people.

The list of panelists – representatives from the afterschool education program The Indaba Project; Reverend Livingston Malcolm, the superintendent minister of the Methodist church in Nassau; human rights activist Erin Greene; UWI Representative Michael Stevenson; and scholar Niambi Campbell whose work examines education in fostering a sense of community – is a reflection of just how far these conversations can go.

“The idea is education and liberation and some people would argue the modes of education we have now aren’t liberatory at all; they actually serve to maintain the status quo. So what we wanted was different voices who offered different perspectives outside of the traditional institutions of learning – what other ways can we think of learning and education that is liberatory?” said Craig Smith.

The final conversation on March 30 from 7-9 p.m. at The Hub will also present a varied panel from the creative community to address “Revolutionary Cultural Engagements and Practices”.

With a panel made up of such distinguished guests as Bahamian filmmaker and director Kareem Mortimer, marketing and branding specialist Royann Dean, National Art Gallery of The Bahamas Chief Curator and COB Assistant Professor John Cox, abstract artist Tony Lunn and Smith himself, the conversation will definitely redefine culture by the end of the night.

“This looks at how we think about culture and how we can think about culture in revolutionary ways,” explains Smith. “When we think about culture in The Bahamas, we think peas and rice and Junkanoo. There’s nothing wrong with that but I think we are a diverse people and our culture is made up of all sorts of different things, so we’ll think about ways we can engage in culture and expand it.”

For more information on the upcoming panels for the Critical Caribbean Symposium Series, call 302-4381 or visit www.cob.edu.bs.

Read full article by Sonia Farmer, The Nassau Guardian

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