le flâneur antillais | carimagination
This blog is a fictional “interview” Machel Montano. I extracted lyrics from some of his most popular soca songs and woven them into a made- up conversation to illustrate the importance of building consent culture in Carnival. Interviewer: Mr. Montano, this carnival, thiefin’ a wine is an offense under the Summary Offenses Act. Public awareness […]
Continue ReadingFirst, I am not conflating the theft of a mango with the physical violation of a woman. For reasoning sake, I am offering an example relevant to “our culture” (a term which has been circulating more frequently these days). “Our culture” is fluid, not fixed. Culture is always changing. Sadly, when this phrase is operationalised, […]
Continue ReadingWhat happenin’: In 2016, Trinidad and Tobago was embroiled in a battle for women’s and girls’ rights. ‘No Slut Shaming’ and gender-based violence discussions with political pressure by young women’s and feminist groups challenged the then Mayor of Port-of-Spain, Tim Kee, on his public statements after carnival. The carnival was not over when debates around […]
Continue ReadingNeisha Wattley, a market vendor, sells foods and vegetables with her husband, Chris Rambhal. Before Christmas this year, she lived in a windowless “shack” near a riverbank that neither had running pipe water nor electricity. In 2014, Wattley was in the media and public eye, on a matter related to the home. But, this issue […]
Continue Reading
Dear Caribbean Men,Maybe #AllProtectiveCoveringForLegsMatter but in the Caribbean and throughout the world, women’s lives do not matter in a patriarchy. On Monday, a policewoman was raped and almost killed by a taxi driver in Trinidad and Tobago. The President-elect of the United States of America, Donald Trump gives advice to other men on women to […]
Continue Reading