The tapes can be ordered directly from: L. Cousins, Director, Ancestral Promotions, 593 Vanderbilt Ave., Brooklyn, NY 11238: – $21.99(postpaid)--(Fall/Winter Sale Price)--(add $1.00 for each additional tape ordered). For further information, e-mail Akan@aol.com or call 718-398-8941. If you’ve never experienced Junkanoo, these videos will give you a pleasingly powerful cultural dosage of The Bahamas finest ancestral offerings.
Well, I missed it last year, but here it is again in all its cultural glory. And here, thank God, am I–-Brooklyn’s #1 Junkanoo lover. My Junkanoo performer friend–-a "Valley Boy for Life"-- and I walk around the Fish Fry (formally known as Arawak Cay) taking in all of the colorful exhibits of Bahamian crafts and sampling varied tasty foods, from conch fritters to one of my favorite desserts, guava duff. Not only is Nassau "in da house", but they have representatives from varied other Bahamas Family Islands with their cuisine and crafts. For those desiring to prepare this tasty cuisine in their own kitchens, professional chefs are on hand giving culinary demonstrations, including preparing local dishes in the ole time rock ovens.
I love this place! There are treats on hand for persons of all ages and life stages. In addition to the Junior Junkanoo session that kicked off in the early afternoon, a Kiddy Corner and day care service are available for parents who'd like to be footloose and fancy free for a spell. I always make my home away from home at the Junkanoo Beach Hotel or somewhere on the West Bay Street strip so that I can be in walking distance of the cultural action, but for folks domiciled further away, they’ve provided shuttle buses from the varied island hotels.
Music, in fact, is wafting across on the sea air and embracing our ears right now. We walk closer to the stage and rock lightly with the crowd which is enjoying the varied acts that prance and dance, sing and swing their way across the open-air stage. It’s commendable that they’ve introduced a song competition, giving talented aspiring musicians an opportunity to be showcased.
Hey, isn’t that one of the Bahamas’ top Junkanoo queens, Arlene Nash Ferguson? It sure is. She’s one of the movers and shakers in this annual Junkanoo in June event, and has transported many of the exhibits from her Educulture Museum to set up an enthralling exhibit here on the Junkanoo in June grounds. I wave at her and her husband, Junkanoo costume designer, Silbert Ferguson. Smiling in that way that often lights up Bay Street as she rushes with the One Family Junkanoo Group, Arlene introduces me to an affable tour guide and invites me to take a look around the Junkanoo Museum. She and Sil have to rush off for a Junkanoo performance they’re coordinating over on Paradise Island.
I’m in great hands, and the young lady tour guide, gives me an enthralling background on the exhibits that range from the sponge costumes worn by early 20th century Junkanooers to the elaborate, detailed costumes of contemporary times. I’m entranced and take my time to view each item, stopping now and then to watch another Junkanoo performer demonstrate pasting of a fringed costume.
Uh-oh! In the distance, the sounds of cowbells, ancestral drums, and dancing feet. As Junkanoo lovers in The Bahamas shout, “Dey comin’!” I quickly thank the lovely tour guide and hurry out to experience the ultimate cultural soul delight–Junkanoo!! The crowd is smiling and supremely swaying to the riveting rhythms. The goombays and tom-toms drum, the showtime and freestyle dancers dance, the cowbellers bell, and the horns rhythmically blast as they circle the full-range of the Fish Fry. Oh man, I’m in pure Junkanoo heaven! I don’t see Stevie who accompanied me to the cultural action; but that’s all right, I’ll find the brother later. I’m a busy woman now. This is what brought me all the way from Brooklyn to The Bahamas–the joys of Junkanoo. I tell you, these people are ser-i-ous with this ancestral culture.
The Junkanooers circle the roadway twice, enchanting and enthralling all along the route. This is the 7:30 p.m. action. The junior Junkanooers introduced the Junkanoo rushouts at 5:00 p.m., and there is going to be another major Rush (performance) at 10:30 p.m. That last one is said to be so powerful that the nearby Atlantic Sea will start to sizzle. Steve and I decide to hang around enjoying the exhibits and food for awhile more until 10:30 rolls around, but a drench-to-the bones downpour starts and shows no signs of stopping. As my friend poetically states, “The rain came running.”
The crowd joins the race in scattering for shelter. They're truly a bunch of disappointed culturalists because it seems the 10:30 rushout will have to wait until next week. That’s particularly “sadsome” for me, as another Bahamian friend would state, since I have a flight back to New York on Monday and won’t be around for the next three weeks of Junkanoo in June.
Oh well, gratitude is definitely in order. I enjoyed the major Labour Day performances earlier in the day plus a generous sampling of Junkanoo in June that I’d missed last year. I’ve got some of the action on videotape and Boxing Day and New Year’s Day Junkanoo videos going back nearly ten years. When I start to miss Junkanoo, it’ll be as close as the vcr in my Brooklyn home until I can be Bahamas-bound again. And when it’s Junkanoo time again, they can definitely say of me as they say of the powerful ancestral Junkanoo on its mighty cultural way: “Dey comin’!”
The fellow in the photo on the left, bedecked in all of the natural sponges, is one of the traditional Junkanoo exhibits from the Educulture Museum which was on display there at Junkanoo in June.
Click on the following link for a little video hors d'oeuvre of a Junkanoo performance at Junkanoo in June 2004. As you can see, they rocked da place big time! (If you can't automatically view the action, you'll need the Windows media player (free) or a Quicktime player. You can get a version of the latter gratis at:
If you still have problems viewing the videos here, then mosey over to the following video site where you should be able to faciley access them, live and in living Junkanoo colour.
Junkanoo videos: Independence Day/Junkanoo in June Rushouts
How pleasing it was to hear on the ZNS Junkanoo Talks radio show one morning of the pending journey to Spain of young Junkanoo princess, Sadira Levarity (above), for a month-long intensive as part of her preparation to become a Spanish language instructor. Most encouraging to hear was that friends and family were hosting a cookout to help with the travel expenses and that listeners were urged for several weeks to go out and partake of the delicious Bahamian fare to help this enterprising youth. This reminded me of the self-help organizations in Southern Black history, as well as that of the Bahamas and other diaspora locations. (One of the first great Black opera singers, Marian Anderson, was assisted in her education by bake sales hosted by proud church members.)
Sadira has, in turn, made her community proud by completing her courses with flying colors. She has enhanced her skills as a future educator by broadening her experience through travel and through having lived, studied, and networked with like-minded students and educators from varied cultures. She is back in Nassau now, joyful to be home and equally joyful for the warm, memorable, and career-enhancing experience. Congratulations, Sadira. We look forward to your contributions both in the classroom and in the Junkanoo line. (And speaking of the Junkanoo line, Sadira is performing in the One Family Independence day video snippet below. She is among the choreographed dancers dressed in the blue and black pirates costumes.)
Nassau nice, so nice again for Independence 2004
Junkanoo Spirit moving, fireworks, beach picnics,
concerts at the Fish Fry and so much more.
Everywhere you look the brilliant colours
of the Bahamian flag--blue, yellow, and black.
Independence 2004 was so culturally powerful
that, the good Lord willin', for Independence 2005
this Junkanoo-adoring woman will be right back!
Now to share a bit of that cultural power with you
Here's a taste of Independence Day 2004 JUNKANOO
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The banner of One Love Soldiers, a new Junkanoo group making a memorable cultural impact. Colours and The Fancy Dancers turn out colourful and fancy to celebrate their country's independence.
The work on this site is also dedicated to the memory of the late
Br. Sammy Thompson , leader of the history-making Music Makers, the first group to introduce a brass section to Bay Street. Music Maker brothers and sisters, although we seldom understand it, sometimes the greatest "healing" is a release to the magnificence of Heaven. Condolences and continued/expanded success, to Br. Gary Russell and all of you as trend-setting Junkanoos.
Man, I just love it--the grassroots People's Rush! (Valley Girl (aka Ms. Edith Scott), and Ole Papa Lou, too, you know this one's definitely for you, honeychile. Junkanoo blessings.)
Junkanoo people rush. The Valley, The Valley!
Independence Day Rush--(for Windows Media Viewers)
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