GCA to host activities to mark 10th anniversary in Guyana

By Natasha Waldron Anthony

The Guyana Cultural Association of New York (GCA) has streamlined its plans for this year’s Folk Festival celebrations, to be held during the Labour Day weekend here in the United States. President of the Association, Dr. Vibert Cambridge, recently returned from Guyana, where he had met with Culture Minister Dr Frank Anthony and updated him on the plans for the 2011 Folk Festival observances, which also coincide with the GCA’s 10th Anniversary observances this year.

Cambridge told Guyana Times International that, this year, the association is planning to host more events, spread throughout the year, following suggestions from other Guyanese associations and organizations during a recently-held meeting in New York.

“My meeting with the minister of culture and the director of culture was to also speak about the ongoing relation[ship] that the Guyana Cultural Association of New York will have with Guyana in 2011, which is our 10th anniversary,” he said, adding that this year the association will not only host events in the U.S., but also will launch several activities in Guyana, including an awards ceremony to honour Guyanese who are living there. Cambridge says the nomination process for that event will start soon. This year, too, GCA will host a photographic exhibition which will feature the association’s work over the 10 year existence of its relationship with Guyana. There is also the possibility of a folk festival celebration in Guyana similar to what is unveiled here in the U.S. All these events in Guyana, the GCA is hoping that these various events would all be hosted between September and October, after the Labour Day celebrations in New York.

Meanwhile, the theme for this year’s celebrations, both the GCA’s 10th anniversary and Folk Festival, is “Aal Bady Waan Bady.” And starting on May 28, the association, in collaboration with Ian Randle Publishers and Urban Vintage in New York, will host the launching of Guyanese Cynthia Nelson’s “Tastes like Home” publication, which is a conversation about food and how it connects and forms part of the Caribbean identity.

Additionally, Cambridge said, the organization would also be launching a new series of activities that will be ongoing throughout the year; these will include what they call the “writers group”. He added that there is a generation of new Guyanese writers emerging in the United States who are drawing upon the experiences of Guyanese in North America. They have been writing, and this “writers group” is to facilitate the transfer of techniques and the sharing of knowledge, so the writers will be able to have their books published.