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Last Updated: Feb 6, 2017 - 2:32:04 PM |
 Dear Editor,
Please allow me to present this brief statement on behalf of Grand Bahama’s musicians, artists and entertainers. During the summer 2006 an effort to revitalize the entertainment industry and in turn improve the GB tourism product while deepening the culture of Grand Bahama was made by myself, Nat Cambridge and the then president of the Grand Bahama Entertainers, Musicians, and Artists Association (GBEMAA), Joseph Fox.
It began with the now well remembered “Jazz On The Beach” at Tony Macaroni's Conch Experience on Taino Beach, where myself and Mr. Patrick Boston began as a duo presenting light jazz and easy listening favorites from 4pm until. Musicians from all over GB were sought out by phone, internet mail and personal visits by myself to come out to join in on the Sunday “jam” sessions. One of these men was Joe Fox, percussionist extraordinaire. Mr. Fox had recently returned to GB from abroad and had vast experience in music and the music industry, having played with such names as Pebo Bryson, Teddy Pendergrass and Count Basie. We joined forces.
In the coming months the simple Jazz session became a Sunday sensation and names such as Dudley Caprone’, Steve Colebrook, Renee "The Natural Empress”, Marina Sarles-Gotlieb, Veronica Bishop, Johnny Kemp Jr. members of what is now “the Poets INC”, Chris Wells (author of All Things Bahamian) and many other Grand Bahama entertainers frequented the sessions. One Raquel Oliver got her first big break there singing Whitney Houston’s “I will always love you”. Through conversations with these performing artists, entertainers and musicians, a need for a representative body for musicians in GB was expressed. Joe and I teamed up and formulated the idea for the GBEMAA.
GBEMAA, who’s motto was “3P’s: Pride Performance and Professionalism”, was founded on the concept that, unlike a union, we were not going to try to force the vendors to hire our talent, but instead, we were going to present to them a product that was of a high standard in quality, that we would, through our good will toward the vendors, find ways to:
1. Enhance their product
2. Encourage recidivism, local and foreign
3. Increase their revenue, hence paying our own salaries
4. Negotiate in good faith with them to the benefit of ALL parties
Our first meeting was on July 25th, 2006 at the Jokers Wild night Club on Midshipman. In attendance were more than 150 performing artists, entertainers and musicians from all over the island of Grand Bahama and the Biminis. A nomination and election process was executed and the outcome was as follows:
President, Joe Fox; Vice President - Mr. Nat Cambridge; Secretary - Methise Rigby; Treasurer - Mr. Wentworth Donaldson; Assistant Treasurer Mr. Jarvin Roberts; Trustees - Nelda Fox, Dudley Caproni, Navan Jandablood, Kenneth Kemp, Andre Cartwright, Wilfred Solomon, Kriston Culmer, Timothy Williams and Chris Wells.
We were off and running.
During 2006-9 the GBEMAA made significant efforts to “bring back live entertainment” on GB. We were assisted by the GB tourism promotion board in with a promotional grant that took entertainment to the corners of the island, The Ministry of tourism also did what they could to help through Goombay Summer and hirings members of the association for their smaller events. The GB business community embraced the GBEMAA and did its best to hire acts for their venues, stretching its limited budgets to accommodate the members of the association, who presented live native shows, song and dance shoes, live bands, as well as solo acts and non traditional performances. But this was not enough to fully revitalize the industry. We needed intervention at the top level. We needed investment in our talents and abilities to a level which could not be ordinarily achieved through the private sector. We need the government.
Cries went out to the Youth and Culture Ministry, to the Tourism Ministry and the Office of the PM to assist us with funding and initiatives to re-grow this important facet of Bahamian culture, the Bahamian cultural experience and the Bahamian tourism product. The cries, in my opinion, fell on deaf ears. With the private sector hit hard by the recession and efforts being focused in the capital coupled with the infighting in the GBPA and the fight between the government and “The Port”, hardship fell once again on the industry and on the artists and they returned one by one to obscurity. Back to being security officers, and store sales clerks, and construction helpers, and landscape maintenance men, and unemployed persons, and welfare recipients, and alas, beggars.
Talks of an entertainment encouragement act came and it was passed and it went. Still we are out in the cold. Politicians came to the island to deal with issues that emerged in disasters and in unemployment, but we were never considered, never seen, an after thought. Ask any musician in GB about their prospects for work and they say “The one man band is king” even though few and far in between. Ask any stop-over visitor to the island what is missing and they say “live entertainment”, ask the developers of the Williams Town Dock why they cancelled the plans to build the facility and they say that “Visitors complained of nothing to do and especially no live entertainment” as stated in The Freeport News.
We, in the entertainment industry in GB would like some answers and action. We request that you, our political leaders, our candidates, our parties respond to the following assertions and answer these questions
Please explain to us why the government has neglected to consult with us on what need to be done to improve our:
1. culture
2. tourism product
3. economy
4. educational system
Through the arts and entertainment?
Please explain to us why it seems that the government is ignoring this “constituency” of the electorate.
Please tell us why we are not a part of the national political debate.
Please justify the systematic dismantling of the entertainment industry on our island.
Please inform us of your intent for the development of the plan of action to revitalize the entertainment industry and thus enhancing our tourism product and cultural depth.
Please, Please, PLEASE!! assist us, cause us to be able, once again, to apply our craft with dignity and pride, to hold our heads up and say we are proud to be Bahamians because our people and OUR government have expressed pride and confidence in us, our talents and our abilities!
Finally I would like to encourage all entertainers, Musicians and performing artists, and their families, to put these questions and assertions to your candidates in the next general elections. I certainly will continue to. Herein I have shown you what we the musicians and entertainers and performing artists can do if we pull together, but I have tried to also show that we have limitations and Need intervention of a Higher order to assist and encourage us. We don’t want, by any stretch of the imagination, a free ride. We want equal opportunity, fairness, insight, input and Encouragement.
We need the leaders that “we the people” voted into parliament to consider us, what we have to offer, how it will help to transform the national and local economy and deepen the culture and cultural awareness. We need our leaders and act to bring real change to our industry, community and country through the Entertainment, Music and performing arts industry. WE Need HELP!
Related article: Grand Bahama Showcases its Local Talent
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