Robert Harman performs spontaneous and impromptu improvisations with talented youth while raising awareness for rainforest protection and regeneration.
Camera: Jean-Tiamo
www.robbyharman.com
http://www.mgoodwin1.com/WordPress/
Rainforest Festival 2011 defies challenges, shines light on Guiana Shield
| Author DevSur
PARAMARIBO--The third staging of the Rainforest Art Festival opens on Friday October 7th with a repeated, artistic call for conservation of the riches of the Guyana Shield. Facing slashed sponsoring budgets, organizer Artlab.sr had to be very inventive, says its board member Marisa Pieplenbosch. So sheer ingenuity prevailed; Pieplenbosch says the Rainforest Festival 2011 promises Suriname a series of spectacular events, strung into a festival that is even better than its predecessors.
The festival that brings together creative art performance including dance, song, theater and art, was initiated in 2005 to promote awareness of rain forest protection. This year's edition is themed "the Guiana Shield", a 2.5 million km2 area of South America that spans from Colombia in the west to the Brazilian state of Amapá in the east, including the Venezuelan states of Delta Amacuro, Bolívar and Amazonas, all of Guyana, French Guiana, and Suriname and continuing into the Brazilian States of Pará, Roraima and Amazonas. All events that are part of the three-week staging of the festival will be in light of the Guiana Shield. "We're part of the Guiana shield, so it is fitting that in an event about our rainforest we take a pause at the Shield," Pieplenbosch explains.
The opening event Friday at Bakafoto Restaurant at Fort Zeelandia is supposed to set it off. "A beautiful event in the breeze of the Suriname River bank, with snacks and drinks from the winner of the Amazon Flavors culinary competition, with an animated viewing of footage from previous festivals," the invitation reads.
From then on it will be a continuous string of seminars, fashion shows, a Grand Café, a fair and a movie night, peaking from October 20 to 23. All events will feature primarily Guiana Shield products; the fashion show which will feature inventive clothing will be held from the walls of the historic, fascinating Fort Zeelandia; at the Grand Café and at the fair food, products like cassava will sing the highest tune.
Foundation Samarja will give presentations about recycling; a booklet to help increase awareness amongst students about the Guiana Shield and nature will be launched. "What I am most excited about is the art exhibition. Works from the collection of the Bank of Suriname, that have a link with the Guiana Shield will be on display, which is a rare treat. These are works only a chosen few get to see and the bank is making them available to the festival. That says a whole lot about the growth of the Festival," Pieplenbosch says.
Danz Arte, a group from Curacao is traveling over to perform, as will the Kas & Co and Tamango dance groups from French Guiana. Guyana's Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development (IIC) is also dispatching a delegation to the event to give presentations.
Pieplenbosch admits that this year the festival about preservation of the Guiana Shield had its own preservation issues. During previous festivals donors faced less economic issues. "The Dutch Embassy was among the biggest sponsors, but they had to cut our budget," she says. Many private and public organizations helped out monetarily and in kind. "It's beautiful because to organize a festival that requires that people think outside the box and about preservation, we had to organize outside the box," the organizer relates.
One of the seminars for instance, is hosted inside Starz discothèque. "That baffled quite a few people, but we had to be inventive with the budget that we have," Pieplenbosch says, relating how Bakafoto Restaurant and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) both came up with their own inventive strategies to support the festival. "Once we were able to convince people that it was possible, they got intrigued by the idea. The opening of the festival Friday is going to be something people are going to remember ... Guiana means Land of Many Waters, so we'll have a surprise at the opening that will include the water of the Suriname River," she promises with a wink.
Pieplenbosch is excited about the event. "The fact that we're able to continue even with a skeleton budget, shows how much the Rainforest Art Festival has grown. It has claimed its place in Suriname and in the region as well; because people are aware of the importance of preserving our nature," she says. "The message is reaching its target."
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