Culture
The streets have ears and police cameras roam free Art is the outlaw, the vandal from beyond Hadrian’s wall We marvel at the anonymous and ephemeral works They carry the message of a culture, unlike the sterile ads A penny for our thoughts, a fistful of dollars for our soul Art by talented mural artist […]
Strolling down Chepstow like victorious amazons Two black dancers in their minimalist or abstract costumes Feathers and flags can fly they fear no one The moment of truth meets the remembrance The history and the culture that no one will ever erase Hugh Ardoin The Notting Hill 2018 Carnival Gallery Hits: 20
Cutting through the crowd as the gawkers step aside The big ladie’s living rainbow scatters its colors Being black is not being ordinary, it is a culture I cannot resist the pun about the Easy Rider song Hugh Ardoin The Notting Hill 2011 Carnival Gallery Hits: 14
The last and shortest civilization likes to give names Change the timeless names to fit their own purposes Ignorance is a blessing but arrogance only yields fatal wounds Renaming the primeval Gods to control the adoration of their crowds Defacing the statues of the Queens and Kings Writing new sacred books from the copies of […]
Proud member of the Calabash Carnival Club Promoting the Caribbean Culture Together with Trinidad and Tobago Grenada is closely associated with the history of Notting Hill Carnival The spirit comes from the culture The culture came on the slave-ships from Africa And in spite of all the efforts of the white slavers They never broke […]
The streets are swarmed with a human colony All whites come to flock around the Queen Bee Over the years he Masquerade became a Carnival And before we even notice it will change into a festival A festival is a private event where sponsors charge an entry fee Some tend to forget for specious reasons, […]
The show must go and spread to the sidelines What happens on the sidelines remains on the sidelines However this is where the mingling and the drinking take place Most whites keep to their bottles and behind the invisible yet tangible line This is the magical chemistry concocted by Claudia Jones Cumberbatch Today, under the […]
Beyond the floats, the long legged feathered girls and the sea of strass The revelers are what makes the Notting Hill Carnival so unique A mask and a feather is the flame of the true beginning, and the spirit is the universal costume The Carnival is at risk to become a festival with a box […]
Under the Grenada banner and with their own manners The citizens from the Island of Spice are parading Their forefathers came to the island as slaves, Under the yoke of the French and later the British They now march in Notting Hill to claim their scattered roots The offspring of survivors who lost their identity […]
The evening sky and the roaming clouds resemble the Sistine ceiling But no putti or other winged species of puffy angels Some locals play péetanque as a reminder of the best of French colonization Other places would play cricket or some game that was supposed to foster a cultural link that never really existed A slice […]