(Department of Creative Economy, St. Kitts:- The Department of Creative Economy (Cultural Heritage) produced its inaugural De CookUp “live” show featuring Kittitian author and poet Heather Archibald, on Thursday, May 30, 2024.
Miss Archibald has the accolade of being the first Kittitian to be shortlisted for the Commonwealth Foundation Prize. She achieved this for her short story “The Marriage Proposal” and was among 23 writers from 13 countries to be shortlisted from among a total of 7,359 short-story entries from 53 Commonwealth Countries.
During the show, host of De CookUp Alecia Daniel-Blake, Research and Communications Officer in the Department of Creative Economy outlined that Miss Archibald was chosen to be featured on the show as a practitioner of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH) domain of Oral Traditions and Expressions because of her poetry and short-story readings. It was outlined that in short, the other four ICH domains are Performing Arts, Social Practices and Rituals, Knowledge and Practices concerning nature and the universe and Traditional Craftsmanship.
De CookUp host invited Miss Archibald to assist her in the “cultural kitchen” to share “copious conversation” on her readings. Discussion proceeded with Miss Archibald explaining that one of her themes in the “Marriage Proposal” is immigration. She went on to highlight that several generations ago many parents left the Federation to seek employment, leaving their children in the care of relatives, friends and sometimes neighbours. This was the case of the antagonist of her story Adeline who found herself caring for two small children. As the plot progressed Adeline was eventually given a marriage proposal and she had to decide between getting married or looking after her wards.
Miss Archibald, an educator by profession explained that she had always been encouraged to enter the competition and she felt that this year was the appropriate time. She revealed that she was in the process of revising “The Marriage Proposal” for another competition when she decided to submit to the Commonwealth Foundation’s challenge.
The Author and Poet had also held a reading of her story at the Charles A. Halbert Public Library on Tuesday, May 28, the birthday of her late father G. Washington Archibald, esteemed Kittitian educator and social activist. She said he engendered the love of words and language into his children. It was noted that the reading was well attended and there was active participation during the discussion period.
Prior to her appearance on De CookUp, the Commonwealth Foundation made the announcement that the winner for the short-story competition for the Caribbean region was Portia Subran of Trinidad and Tobago. Although she did not win, Miss Archibald said that her journey since entering the competition had been very fulfilling.
Miss Archibald also delighted and favoured the viewers, De CookUp Connoisseurs, with an exclusive reading of a poem that had neither been published nor read before. She had not decided on a name as yet so she gave it a temporary name of The Circus Clock in Basseterre, St. Kitts. The poem was written from the perspective of Thomas Berkley after whom the Circus Clock is named the Thomas Berkley Memorial.
With respect to the ICH domain of Oral Traditions and Expressions Miss Archibald noted that there is a connection between the spoken word and the written word with the oral tradition leading the way.
“You know I think the oral tradition always comes first, right,” Miss Archibald emphasized. “People tell stories under moonlight nights, we would tell stories. Mama Gene would come and tell us mostly jumbie stories – scare the dickens out of us. We take it a step further when somebody says, you know what, I want other people to read the stories, people who are not here under the moonlight. … I guess you can have the oral without the written, but the written extends the reach.”
The Department of Creative Economy also took the opportunity to mention upcoming activities. These included the launch of the mini-documentary series Living Heritage that will air on the ICH Platforms and ZIZ Television on Thursday, June 06 at 10 am and rebroadcast at 8 pm, Sankofa Shorts that is a 15 to 30 second video competition for persons 8 to 35 years old and We Village Dat, that takes place in the Dieppe Bay Community on Tuesday, June 11 at 5 pm.
De CookUp can be viewed or commented on by going to the Department of Creative Economy (Cultural Heritage’s) Facebook@SKN ICH or YouTube@stkittsculture or Twitter@stkittsculture.