Issue 120 (March/April 2013)

EMBARK: Events around the Caribbean in March and April • Enjoy seaside jams at the Tobago Jazz Festival, tour Nassau art galleries with Transforming Spaces, celebrate two decades at Holders Season in Barbados, and feel the speed at Rally Trinidad 2013 • Deborah Anzinger introduces Jamaican artist Leasho Johnson • Model-turned-designer Ayana Dixon turns heads with her ASD swimwear • This month’s reading picks — from photography to fiction • Recent music releases to get your fingers tapping The Seder, the ritual dinner for the Jewish holiday of Passover, is a celebration of freedom and memory. Franka Philip learns more  |  IMMERSE: Based in Toronto but drawing on the musical traditions of Trinidad, Kobo Town fuses old-time calypso with up-to-the-moment poetic lyrics. Donna Yawching meets founder and songwriter Drew Gonsalves, and discovers he’s a calypsonian at heart • With her debut book Sic Transit Wagon, Trinidadian writer Barbara Jenkins shows it’s never too late to start a literary career. Shivanee Ramlochan investigates Jenkins’s turn to fiction after a life as teacher, wife, and mother • A flourishing crop of literary festivals around the Caribbean are a book-lover’s delight. Caribbean Beat’s guide to the year’s literary highlights, from Cuba in the north to Suriname in the south • Darren Sammy, captain of the West Indies cricket team and first St Lucian to play international cricket, on the importance of teamwork and why he’s always smiling — as told to Nasser Khan • Garry Steckles shares his very personal list of the ten greatest reggae singers of all time — with apologies to readers who disagree  |  ARRIVE: Photographer Evan Chung captures the colours of Phagwah, the Hindu spring festival, as celebrated by Caribbean immigrants in Queens • Chelsea Tuach, the youngest ever champion surfer from Barbados, shares her favourite spots for riding the waves, meeting her friends, and watching a movie — as told to B.C. Pires • Simon Walsh explores Dominica’s Waitukubali National Trail -— a fourteen-day hike from tip to tip of the hilly “Nature Island”  |  ENGAGE: A small reforestation project in the Trinidadian village of Fondes Amandes has become an exemplar for grassroots conservation. What drives the initiative, Skye Hernandez finds, is a sense of community pride • Ten per cent of Haitians have bank accounts, but eighty per cent have mobile phones. Enter a new banking system that allows users to do basic transactions with their phones. Janine Mendes-Franco investigates • Fifty years ago, a Haitian football team managed to win the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup without actually playing the final. James Ferguson remembers the odd tale • Guyana’s Easter Rodeo is the social event of the year in the Rupununi