Paradise Beach; What's Good for the Goose

Woolly Hewitt on right, in t-shirt he painted. 

An aqua-blue electric fan called "Tornado" now resides in my room. Ever got the red one. They have 6 speed settings and they each blow the same speed of real hard. We can sleep now - mosquito and sweat free :-) Following the success of this purchase from a Swan St. shop, Nick and I decided to enjoy a Banks (4/$10) beer dockside to the Careenage in Bridgetown, Nick recognized a local artist: Woolly "World Famous Artist" Hewitt. He makes paintings of personalities and people important to him from yarn and paint on board. He showed us photos of an exhibit just finished in Manhattan NYC which he said was very successful. Charisma. His work is rather wonderful.

Our group will attend an Evening of Folk performance at Colleymore Hall this evening; an annual event held to commemorate the 1937 Riots (aka Disturbances). This uprising spanned many Caribbean Islands after years of post-abolition disenfranchisement and colonial oppression. The most significant of many results was that Blacks won the franchise (the right to vote) which then led to the strengthening of the movement for independence. The Barbados Labour Party was formed, led by Grantley Adams (named one of ten National Heroes of Barbados in 1998, his monument stands in front of the government building on Bay Street). Independence was achieved in 1966. Erroll Walton Barrow was the independent nation's first prime minister. Also named a National Hero in 1998, Barrow's monument stands at the southern end of Independence Square "an area that was one of his favourite political platforms."(1)   FOLLOW-UP: The play was called, "What's Good for the Goose, is Good for the Gander," and it was really well done. See note below.

Our lecturer, Dr. Pedro Welch, among many other activities, serves on the state Task Force for Reparations, which recently submitted its report and recommendations to the government. His lecture reinforced much of what we've learned from Moitt and Goodridge, but was centered on the case for reparations as a framework for understanding the history of slavery and post-abolition Afro-Barbadian life.

Dr. Pedro Welch and Dr. Bernard Moitt

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Books I bought today (July 30) from the Barbados Museum Gift Shop: 

($25 Bjn) Forde, G. Addington. The 1937 Disturbances of Barbados: A Summary of the Report of the Dean Commission of Enquiry (Bridgetown?: Folklore Publications, 1999) Second edition, 2009.

($100 Bjn) Thompson, Alvin O. Visualizing Slavery Images and Texts. (Bridgetown?: Thompson Business Services, Inc.) 2015.

Notes
(1) http://www.barbadospocketguide.com/our-island-barbados/monuments/errol-barrow-statue.html