NASSAU'S FAMOUS STRAW MARKET REOPENS!

 

Nassau's famous Straw Market in downtown Bay Street has reopened!

 

Read Tribune article HERE

UNDER THE TAMARIND TREE FOR NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!

In celebration of National Poetry Month, The Commonwealth Writers of The Bahamas are presenting “Under The Tamarind Tree” next to the Nassau Public Library downtown every Saturday during April!

Vera Chase, President of The Commonwealth Writers of The Bahamas, says: “The Commonwealth Writers of The Bahamas invite you to join us at our second week of events in down town Nassau. We are celebrating the Poetry Month of April. You don't have to be a writer or published author to join us. You can share your stories as well, at an open Mic, we will listen. If you have a book to publish, Photo Shoot, DVD or Film Idea, now is the time to inquire. Visiting on a cruise ship? Walk across the main street, Bay Street onto Parliament Street to the end. There you will find us ‘Under The Tamarind Tree’. ‘Pompey’ is our story.”

WELCOMING NEW YEAR IN NASSAU BAHAMAS!

PART OF A DISCARDED JUNKANOO FLOAT
IN DOWNTOWN NASSAU NEW YEAR 2018

Last night we brought the New Year in by watching Baha Mar’s spectacular fireworks display from our window. Then after lunch today Erskine and I headed over to Atlantis on Paradise Island. The streets were still being cleaned up after “Junkanoo” that started early this morning. A few discarded remnants of Junkanoo floats and costumes lay on the pavements.

“Junkanoo” is a vibrant pulsating street festival and competition that usually takes place in The Bahamas in the early hours of Boxing Day (December 26th) and New Year’s Day. The roots of Junkanoo can be traced back to West Africa. It is said that the name originated from that of “John Canoe”, an African tribal chief.

Groups of participants spend months prior to Junkanoo in the “shacks” making elaborate costumes and floats out of crepe paper, cardboard, beads, sequins and other innovative materials. Tourists and residents alike huddle on bleachers or hang over balconies on Bay Street in downtown Nassau to watch the floats and performers pass by. Spectators revel in the sound of rhythmic cow bells, whistles, goat skin or steel drums and horns; the kaleidoscopic costumes; and the enthralling dancing called “rushing”. Other islands of The Bahamas also have their own Junkanoo rushes.

We parked in the pay parking opposite the Riu Paradise Hotel and walked through Atlantis to Marina Village for a coffee in Starbucks. The weather was sunny and the temperature about 78 degrees. A perfect New Year’s Day!

Wishing you all a very Happy, Healthy and Peaceful New Year!

"SHARKS IN THE RUNWAY" BY CAPTAIN PAUL J. HARDING

Diver, pilot and owner/operator of Safari Seaplanes, Captain Paul J. Harding’s book "Sharks in the Runway: A Seaplane Pilot's Fifty-Year Journey Through Bahamian Times!" looks like a fascinating read!

This reminds me of the time I worked for a construction engineer on downtown Bay Street, Nassau. Once a week I had to walk over to the British Colonial Hotel, pull up my trousers and wade out in the clear blue water to a seaplane that landed just offshore. The pilot flew in once a week to pick up the payroll for staff on Lee Stocking Island. It was my job to make sure I delivered the money to him on time!

BICYCLING THEN AND NOW IN NASSAU!

Seeing this bicyclist near Junkanoo Beach the other day, weaving his bike in and out of traffic, reminded me of the story Erskine told me about when he owned a bicycle in Nassau in the late fifties.

He said his bicycle was licensed according to law at that time and had a horn (you had to either put a horn or a bell on your bike then). He locked the bike up on the sidewalk of down town Bay Street with a chain attached to a post, like everyone else with bikes did and went into the Savoy Theatre to watch a movie.

When he came out of the theatre a policeman booked him for “parking a bike on a sidewalk”. The officer was from Barbados (“They never used to play!” says Erskine, meaning the policemen from Barbados were very strict!). Several other bicyclists were booked at the same time.

A summons for Erskine to appear in court was later dropped to Cole Thompson’s Pharmacy, where he worked at that time. Erskine says he was fined a few pounds sterling!

I don’t think the bicycle laws are enforced in Nassau very much these days! Of course, I'm sure members of local bicycle clubs make sure they have their bikes in good order and all rules of the road adhered to.

BAHAMIAN MUSIC IS “BLOWING IN THE WIND”

The Invaders playing in the old Lisbon Club on Bay Street 1965.
Left to right: the late Lorin Cartwright, 
Peter Catalano and my husband Erskine Knowles

I heard a recording yesterday on the Charles Carter radio show of the late great Brook Benton’s song “The Ties that Bind” by Bahamian legendary entertainer Marvin Henfield. Henfield’s rendering brimmed with the sensual Bahamian beat that I fell in love with when I first came to The Bahamas. I’d never heard that type of music before I arrived in Nassau. I thought I’d died and gone to heaven!

Where is all that lovely Bahamian music now? Gone like Peter, Paul and Mary’s song “Where have all the flowers gone?” It should never have been allowed to practically disappear. It’s unique. Tourists loved it. Bahamians loved it. Expats loved it. Now we are subjected all the time to gangster rap, watered down reggae, hiphop…. I couldn’t even find a Bahamian CD downtown the other day as a present to send abroad.

Thankfully, radio hosts like Sir Charles Carter and Steve McKinney keep Bahamian music alive to some extent on their shows. But it should be everywhere for everyone to enjoy. Cuba and Mexico have retained their national musical identity for example (and of course countries like Scotland where I come from – oh how my heart stirs to the bagpipes!). Why couldn’t we have done the same here?

Once we met some tourists when we were out for a walk. They wanted to know where they could listen to some Bahamian music. We really had to stop and think. We suggested Junkanoo Beach and probably Atlantis.

We should have an income producing Bahamian Cultural Museum downtown, featuring our traditional Bahamian musicians (past and present), like Liverpool has for The Beatles. When we visited that Merseyside tourist attraction some years ago, we were able to go from section to section with various Beatles’ music playing and memorabilia for all to see. Live performances by traditional Bahamian musicians could take place in the Bahamian Cultural Museum from time to time.

The Bahamian Cultural Museum could also feature Bahamian artists, authors, and everything cultural that is Bahamian, with workshops. I keep suggesting this, but no one ever carries my suggestion any further. It all just keeps like the Bob Dylan song “blowing in the wind”!