Arts & Culture
(VIDEO) Interviews at The Journey of Freetown Exhibit, Grand Bahama
By The Bahamas Weekly News Team
Aug 14, 2012 - 9:07:23 AM

Freeport, Grand Bahama Island, Bahamas - (This article is a re-posting of a feature in November 2009 in memory of the late Hon Charles Maynard) The Bahamas Weekly News Team had the opportunity to attend the opening night gala;  "A Question of Faith: The Journey of Freetown," an historical perspective told through fibre art and an exhibition held  November 12th at the Gloria Banks Galleria at the Rand Nature Centre.The exhibit is open to the public and on display for a month. 

In this video you will hear interviews the Minister of State for Culture the Hon. Charles Maynard; the wife of Bahamas Deputy Prime Minister, Robin Symonette, a member of the Stepping Stone Quilters Guild; Edison Dames, Assistant Director of Culture and Percy 'Vola' Francis - Sr, Crafts Instructor, Jr. Junkanoo Coordinator and band leader of The Shell Saxons Superstars.

You will note from these video interviews that the exhibition served as an inspiration for those interviewed and further, as a catalyst that opened up a debate on Bahamian culture and the impact of foreign influence and technology upon it. The debate continues on in a subsequent video.

Curators for the exhibition are Chantal E.Y. Bethel, and Laurie N. Tuchel. Artistic advisor/curator, Antonius Roberts. Historical research, Darius Williams.

Participating artists in the exhibition are Lauren Austin, Chantal Bethel, Del Foxton, and Antonius Roberts. The Freetown participants in the quiltworks are: Rev Rufus Cooper, Romain Laing, Ahamal Lightbourn, Elizabeth Roberts, and Linda Roberts.

The exhibition gives the descendants of that old eastern settlement a quilt with enough warmth to cover their expansive histories as we journey from New Freetown, to Infantview Cemetery to Water Cay and on to Sweeting's Cay; where we spoke with healthy 104 years old resident, Firstina Baillou.

A project of the Grand Bahama Heritage Foundation, the exhibition is the result of a seven-month artistic process, historical documentation and cinematic recording of the history of the old Freetown by the inhabitants of new Freetown. Once located by the coast, all that is left of old Freetown is a cemetery called Infantview for its first inhabitant – a baby – and the ruins of an old house. The settlement was one of the first known communities of freed slaves on the island.

Related articles:

(PHOTOS) "A Question of Faith: The Journey of Freetown," opens at Gloria Banks Galleria

(VIDEO) Behind The Scenes - The Historic Journey of Freetown, Grand Bahama

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