top of page
DSC_9666.JPG

Big Conversations

Page-Tear-White-HOME.png
Page-Tear-White-HOME.png

Big Conversations will take place across various venues around the island, bringing dialogue into more accessible and interactive community spaces. These sessions are dynamic and engaging, designed to move beyond formal presentations and foster cross-sector dialogue among creatives, innovators, and cultural leaders.

 

They will focus on interactivity, real-time problem-solving, and practical strategies that address the challenges and opportunities within the cultural and creative industries.

Themes will include youth empowerment and leadership, creative financing and economic models, wellness and mental health in the arts, and cultural diplomacy as a tool for regional integration. By spreading these conversations across multiple locations and online, Big Conversations creates inclusive spaces for cultural exchange and strategic collaboration, where ideas meet action to shape the Caribbean’s creative future.

Page-Tear-White-HOME.png
Page-Tear-White-HOME.png
  • Big Talk. Big Conversations. NUFF ACTION | We Talk | Big Talk Jus’ Start

    Saturday 23 August, 2025 | 11:00am- 1:00pm

    Freedom Park | Golden Square

    Architecture of Innovation 

    Akeem reminds us that Culture isn’t a mirror. It’s a map. A code. A compass.

    We launch Big Conversations where the Caribbean writes its own script — confident, resilient and unafraid to build differently through an Architecture of Innovation. 

     

    Panel discussion:  The Idea of Caribbean Civilization

    The traumatic entry of Europe into the Caribbean in 1492 ; the impact that event had on the ancient native cultures of the Caribbean ; and the profound economic, cultural, demographic, and political processes that it set in train, are widely regarded as having given birth to the modern world.

    But in giving birth to the modern world, those processes also forged a very unique multi-ethnic, multi-cultural human collectivity in the Caribbean region that has come to be regarded as a Civilization in its own right -- a Caribbean Civilization.

     

    Panelists:

    St. Vincent and the Grenadines - Prime Minister 

    Dr. Ralph Gonsalves 

    Barbados - Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley

    St. Lucia - Ambassador Dr. June Soomer

    Barbados - Vice-chancellor of The UWI, Sir Hilary Beckles

     

    Moderator:  Her Excellency Mrs. Carla Barnett

     

    SERIES - Footprints in the Sand 

    Join artists and writers for this mini series, for a soul-stirring conversation at the water’s edge. Set against the rhythmic backdrop of waves and wind, this gathering on the beach explores the vital role of the arts and soundscapes in shaping sustainable futures. From tourism and education to climate justice, urban planning and social transformation, we will delve into how art bridges sectors, inspires action and transforms communities.

  • Climate Change and Creative Legacies

    Saturday 23 August, 2025 | 1:00pm- 3:00pm

    Copacabana Beach Club

    As sea levels rise and coastlines erode, climate change is not only altering our landscapes but also threatening the very fabric of cultural identity. This double session delves into the profound impact of environmental shifts on both tangible and intangible cultural heritage. From the loss of ancestral lands and sacred sites to the disruption of traditional practices and communal rituals, we explore how climate-induced changes lead to cultural erasure and the disappearance of creative legacies.

    Join us in examining the stories of communities grappling with these challenges, and discover how artists, cultural practitioners and heritage professionals are responding.

     

    Performance by Amanda McIntyre

    Speakers:  

    Alanna Brooks, BARBADOS

    Amanda Mc Intyre, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

    Dr. Suzanne Burke, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO



    Moderator: Dr. Keron Niles, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

  • Cultural Restoration, Climate Resilience & Indigenous Design

    Saturday 23 August, 2025 | 3:30pm- 5:30pm

    Copacabana Beach Club

    This Big Conversation explores how the arts bridge tourism and education to climate justice, urban planning and social transformation, how Indigenous ways of knowing-rooted in ancestral planting, cultural restoration, and climate resilience can redefine Caribbean sustainability through lived experience. From sacred seed saving and turtle rescue to mobile storytelling and ceremonial healing, Aleeyah Amanda Ali shares a decolonial framework of community transformation: one grounded in care, kinship, and cultural memory. From creative writing and artistic installation to sustainability frameworks and policy, we creatively explore how to bridge the gaps. 

     

    Joined by a Warao Elder or Cacica and a Kairi Seed Storykeeper, the session invites audiences into a multi-sensory space of artefacts, oral testimony, and creative expression. Here, innovation is not a new invention, but an old remembering. A ceremonial chant in Warao will open the gathering, honouring those who walked before.

    The workshop demonstrates how Indigenous creativity, ecological stewardship, and storywork can generate sustainable, community-rooted solutions across generations. This is a space of gentle fire, bold truth-telling and visionary design— guided by those who understand that cultural survival is climate survival.

     

    Panelists:

    Aleeyah Amanda Ali, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

    Clish Gittens, BARBADOS

    Joseph Smith-Abbott, BVI

    Honorable Premier, BVI

    Moderator: Karia Christopher, BVI

  • The Enigma of Cuba as Touchstone of Caribbean Civilization

    Sunday 24th, August | 1:00pm- 3:00pm

    Freedom Park | Golden Square

    Translation: Cuban DJ

    Cuba occupies a unique place in the Caribbean imagination— part myth, part mirror, part mystery. Often misunderstood, frequently romanticized, and strategically isolated, Cuba remains a touchstone of Caribbean civilization — politically, artistically and ideologically. This moment offers a rare and urgent opportunity for us, as a regional community, to reflect on what Cuba’s revolution, resilience and cultural production mean for the Caribbean’s ongoing struggle for sovereignty, dignity and self-definition.

     

    Panelists:

    Nancy Morejon (Poet) 

    Lissette Martínez Luzardo (Deputy Minister)

    Orlando Pino Amores (Executive Director of the Cuban delegation)

    Jorge Antonio Fernández Torres (Director of the National Museum of Fine Arts)

    Gloria Rolando (Afro-Cuban filmmaker)

     

    Moderator: Ambassador David Comissiong 

     

    SERIES - Spin it Like  Anansi 

    Storytelling: Theatre, Film, The Body

  • Caribbean Theatre on the World Stage

    Sunday 24 August, 2025 | 4:00pm-  5:30pm

    Church Village Green | Bridgetown

    From the local yard to international lights, Caribbean theatre has always had something strong to say. In this Big Conversation, some of the region’s most dynamic theatre minds link up to tell a story— how Caribbean culture moves from grassroots productions to world-renowned performances. We will explore the power of language, place, resistance and rhythm in telling our stories, building communities, and tekkin’ up space on global stages. Whether it’s calypso, drama, folk fusion or avant-garde vibes, this panel will dive into how we share our soul with the world.

    Panelists:
    Kevin Jack-Lewis, BARBADOS

    Frances Urias Peters (online), BARBADOS

    Rawle Gibbons, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

     

    Moderator: ​​ Nala Elis, BARBADOS

  • Cultural Method. Cultural Confidence

    Sunday 24 August, 2025 | 5:30pm- 7:00pm

    Church Village Green | Bridgetown

    What if policy had a Caribbean Tanty in the room? Someone with sharp eyes, a soft heart, and the kind of cultural sense that could hush a room and shift a mindset with one story. In this Big Conversation, creatives from across the Caribbean and diaspora come together to talk about how storytelling, branding and design—when rooted in culture—can shape the future in powerful ways. 

     

    From the films that carry our memories across oceans, to brands that honour ancestral wisdom and challenge what “luxury” even means, to policy and strategy shaped by the rhythm of our people, we will explore how culture isn’t just decoration —it’s direction.

    We will look at how Caribbean ways of knowing— story, folklore, vibes, and values—can transform how we think about influence, innovation and legacy. Whether you’re making a film, building a brand, or trying to fix a system, this session invites you to start from what we already know: our stories hold power. Culture is not an add-on— it is the blueprint.

    Panelists:

    Donisha Prendergast, JAMAICA

    Makeda Bawn, JAMAICA

    Debbie Estwick, BARBADOS

     

    Moderator: Kady Edwards-Campbell, JAMAICA/US

  • Hair-itage

    Monday 25 August, 2025 | 11:00am-  1:00pm

    CARIFESTA Village / Waterford, St. Michael

    From twisted crowns and inked skin, to feathered defiance and glittered resistance, the Caribbean body is never just dressed—it is coded, crafted and consecrated. This Big Conversation explores the intersections of hair, body adornment, masquerade and fashion as tools of self-expression, cultural continuity, and rebellion. Drawing from Caribbean natural hairstyling, henna traditions, tattoos and the performative art of mas, we journey through the embodied archive of Caribbean aesthetics.

     

    Performance by two (2) female drummers - St. Lucia, and fashion performers - Glory

     

    Panelists:

    Dr. Vibert Cambridge, GUYANA (online)

    Dr. Diana N’Diaye, BARBADOS/USA 

    Robert Anthony Young, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

    Drenia Frederick, ST. LUCIA

     

    Moderator: Tenille Clarke, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO 

  • Monday 25 August, 2025 | 2:00pm- 4:00pm

    Marcus Garvey Amphitheatre | St. Peter

    This conversation opens a spiritual window into the artistic soul of the Caribbean. Through invocation, testimony and shared ancestral memory, we ask:

    • How does the artist become a vessel for spirit?

    • What is the relationship between creation and communion?

    • How do we hold the sacred in contemporary Caribbean life—and how is that sacredness reimagined, re-membered or resisted through art?

    How does the dancing body evolve in the age of AI? How can spirit and movement translate across code, light, motion graphics—and still pulse with the soul of the Caribbean? This Big Conversation explores the interface of dance and technology: from AI-generated choreography to immersive lighting, from motion capture to digital stage design. At its heart is a commissioned Landship-inspired performance, where the rhythmic sway of a Barbadian heritage form meets futuristic visuals, light architecture, and AI-augmented motion. Let’s think of this as a lab, a creative Residency.

     

    Performances by two (2) female drummers - St. Lucia 

     

    Panelists:

    Sonja Dumas, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

    Dr. L’Antoinette Stines, JAMAICA

    Akuzuru, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

    Makeda Thomas, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO/USA

    Valencia James, BARBADOS/USA (online)

    Dr. John Hunte, BARBADOS

     

    Moderator: Sonja Dumas

  • Culture & Technology

    Monday 25 August, 2025 | 4:00pm-  6:00pm

    Marcus Garvey Amphitheatre | St. Peter

    In a world grappling with social inequities, climate urgency, and cultural erosion, how can we leverage cutting-edge tools like AI, blockchain, AR/MR, and data-driven innovation—not just to survive, but to thrive with identity, purpose and ownership? Set within the CARIFESTA 2025 vision of Architecture of Innovation, this electric dialogue dives into the creative startup space, humanitarian design and the future of cultural economies.

     

    Performance by spoken word artist Akeem Chandler-Prescod 

     

    Panelists:

    Marc Alain Boucicault, HAITI/USA

    Corinne Gray, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO/EUROPE

     

    Moderator: Shaina Silva, HAITI/US

  • Rastafari Livity

    Tuesday 26 August, 2025 | 12:00pm-  2:00pm

    Codrington College | St. John

    Across the Caribbean, Rastafarian communities have nurtured autonomous ways of life—grounded in livity, spiritual consciousness, and resistance to the systems they call “Babylon.” These enclaves, built on organic farming, artisanal crafts, herbal medicine, and communal economies, embody a living “blackprint” for sustainability rooted in cultural identity and collective well-being.

     

    This Big Conversation honours these traditions not as commodities to be extracted, but as knowledge systems to be respected and learned from. Through personal storytelling and lived testimony, panelists share how creativity, spiritual practice, and economic self-reliance intertwine. In parallel, we spotlight initiatives and ventures where these values have successfully translated into viable, community-based industries—aligning economic innovation with cultural preservation. In keeping with the CARIFESTA XV theme Architecture of Innovation, the session explores how such models can inspire cross-sector collaboration without exploitation—building pathways where cultural integrity and economic resilience reinforce each other. Together, we ask: how can we protect the sanctity of livity while fostering growth in creative industries? What partnerships, policies, and investments can help these communities thrive on their own terms?

     

    Panelists:

    Felicia Holder, BARBADOS

    Donisha Prendergast, JAMAICA

    Ras Simba, BARBADOS

     

    Moderator: Andrea Wells, BARBADOS

  • Securing Your Creative Work

    Tuesday 26 August, 2025 | 1:00pm-  2:00pm

    Queen's Park Esplanade College | Bridgetown 

    Fireside Chat with Legal Expert, Marlon Hill

     

    From contracts to company formation, immigration to intellectual property, creatives often navigate legal terrain with little support. This Fireside Chat brings legal expert Marlon Hill to unpack the essential frameworks behind every successful creative journey. How do we protect our ideas, our time, and our teams? How do we move from informal hustle to formal enterprise, across borders and generations? Join us as we demystify the legal and business tools that transform artistic passion into sustainable practice from company development to contracts, labour and employment, immigration and intellectual property.

  • Branding Beyond Borders

    Tuesday 26 August, 2025 | 2:00pm - 4:00pm

    Queens Park Esplanade | Waterford, St. Michael

    Performance by Tassa drummers 

     

    We’re calling in the palette of Shaina’s vision and bravado. The  visual and sonic weight of Micha’s narratives. The speculative ambition of Shaina’s tech dreams. And the quiet power in how  Ronelli crafts heritage legacy through fashion with a view to internationalization. We’ll move through vignettes of voice, visuals, and memory—each speaker not just "talking" but presenting their identity as a living brand, a moving archive, a world-building exercise.

     

    Panelists:

    Shaina Silva, HAITI/USA

    Dionne Baptiste Clarke, ST. KITTS/TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

    Micha Cooper-Edwards, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO/USA

    Ronelli Requena, BELIZE

     

    Moderator: Tenille Clarke, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

  • The Role of Caribbean Culture, Arts and Artists in an Age of Disorder and Neo-imperialist Resurgence

    Tuesday 26 August, 2025 | 4:30pm- 6:30pm

    Freedom Park | Golden Square

    Performance by Tassa drummers

     

    With multilateral institutions in collapse, international law sidelined, and neo-imperial powers reshaping global norms, how do Caribbean artists position themselves in this dangerous terrain? This conversation draws on the legacy of Kamau Brathwaite and Samuel Selvon to ask: can the arts still lead as a vanguard of national and regional consciousness? What core truths and new solidarities must we hold to resist the disorientation of the present? Artists, diplomats, and thinkers converge to consider the role of the creative in a world unraveling. This conversation navigates the tension between survival and imagination, exploring new frontiers of regionalism, diasporic power and the postcolonial future through the lens of poetry, performance and radical design.

     

    Together powerful voices across film, diplomacy, advocacy and justice converge to explore how negative stereotypes have shaped the Black experience globally, and how we can disrupt and dismantle them. This Big Conversation dives deep into narrative justice, reframing the portrayal of people of African descent in history, the present, and the cultural imagination of the future. It addresses an urgent social question through the lens of culture and creativity.

     

    This Big Conversation explores how working with raw, natural materials can become a portal to memory, mourning and connection. How can Mas-making through walking, processing, and crafting with earthbound materials become a ritual of grief and reconnection? What happens when we approach creation not just as performance or spectacle, but as conjuration- a way to speak with the ancestors, listen to the land, and feel what has been lost? This session is a tactile, intimate offering where participants bring materials they work with: beads, wire, stone, soil, fabric, and reflect on what they carry.

    Together, we ask: what does it mean to make Mas that mourns, remembers, and reclaims? What new rituals can emerge when we honour the spirit of the material itself?

     

    Panelists:

    Earl Lovelace, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

    Bernice  McFadden, BARBADOS

    Adejoké Babington-Ashaye, NIGERIA/BARBADOS

    Xiomara Small,  NIGERIA 

    Kachi Benson, NIGERIA (online)

    Ambassador David Comissiong, BARBADOS

    Lenford Salmon, JAMAICA 

     

    Moderator:  Lisa K. Soares, JAMAICA/BARBADOS

  • Tuning the Archive

    Wednesday 27 August, 2025 | 12:00pm -  2:00pm

    Queens Park Esplanade | St. Michael

    What happens when the archive breathes? When the past is not just recorded, but re-performed—across dance, theatre, literature, sound, and policy? This Big Conversation explores how Caribbean artists, cultural workers and policy-makers inherit, translate, and reshape genealogies of knowledge and creativity—building a living, synesthetic archive that binds history to innovation.

    Performance by spoken word artist Akeem Chandler-Prescod 

     

    Panelists:

    Marjuan Canady, Trinidad & Tobago/Usa

    Onika Henry, Trinidad & Tobago (Online)

    Nicolette Bethel, Bahamas (Online)

    Kai Crooks- Chissano, Trinidad & Tobago/South Africa 

    Dr. Carika Weldon, Bermuda 

    Dr. Katherine Smith, Bvi, Director Of Culture /K’marie Fahie 

     

    MODERATOR: Stacia Adams, BARBADOS

  • CARICOM’s Call for Reparations, Justice and Healing

    Wednesday 27 August, 2025 | 2:00pm -  4:00pm

    Queens Park Esplanade | St. Michael

    Join us as we navigate the path toward healing and equity, recognizing that the journey toward justice is both urgent and ongoing. Across the Caribbean, the legacies of slavery and colonialism continue to shape our societies, economies and identities. As we confront these enduring impacts, the call for reparatory justice grows ever more resonant. This dialogue invites participants to engage deeply with the Caribbean's pursuit of reparations—not as a quest for charity, but as a demand for acknowledgment, restitution and meaningful transformation. Grounded in the Caribbean Community's (CARICOM) 10-point plan, we will explore the moral, legal and economic dimensions of reparations, examining how they intersect with contemporary challenges and aspirations

     

    Performance by drummers 

     

    Panelists:

    Ambassador To CARICOM David Comissiong, BARBADOS

    Dr. June Soomer, ST. LUCIA

    Dr. Hilary Brown, CARICOM Secretariat

    Professor Sonjah Stanley-Niaah, JAMAICA

    Dave Guza, ZIMBABWE



     

    Moderator: Dr. Chenzira Davis Kahina,  USVI

  • The Total Decolonization and Unification of the Region

    Wednesday 27 August, 2025 | 4:00pm -  6:00pm

    Queens Park Esplanade | St. Michael

    Across the Caribbean, the map of sovereignty remains fractured. Over 20 non-independent territories— under the governance of France, the Netherlands, the United States and the United Kingdom— sit beside fully sovereign nations still tethered to colonial institutions, from the British Privy Council to the Crown itself. These contradictions raise critical questions about belonging, identity and the unfinished work of decolonization.

     

    Yet, amid these political complexities, culture has always been the unifying thread—fluid across borders, shaped by shared memory, migration, struggle, and spirit. What role can artists, writers, performers, and cultural institutions play in helping us imagine a more integrated Caribbean—one that centres lived experience, shared history, and cultural sovereignty even in the absence of political independence? This conversation invites artists, thinkers and audiences to explore how the arts can help us move from symbolic gestures toward real solidarity and redefinition to claim our space, stories and futures on our own terms.

     

    Panelists:

    Luce Hodge-Smith, BVI 

    Dr. Marta Morena Vega, PUERTO RICO

    James Tousaint, TRINIDAD 

    Dr. Rhoda Arindell,  St. Martin

    Dr Chenzira Davis Kahina,  USVI

     

    Moderator: Dr. Lisa K. Soares

  • Beyond the Grant

    Thursday 28 August, 2025 | 12:00pm -  2:00pm

    Hilton Hotel | Needham's Point 

    In a time of profound global transition, Caribbean and Global South creatives are not only telling new stories — they’re redesigning the infrastructure that sustains them. This Big Conversation asks:

    • How do we fund futures, not just projects?

    • What would it mean to create financing tools rooted in cultural equity, long-term vision and community wealth?

    We explore hybrid investment models, impact funds, blockchain possibilities, ethical philanthropy and artist-led ventures — toward building cultural economies that are regenerative, not extractive.

    Performance by spoken word artist Akeem Chandler-Prescod

    Panelists:

    Andre Le Roux, SOUTH AFRICA

    Eliana Prada, USA

    Daniel Best, BARBADOS

    Jawara Alleyne, CAYMAN ISLANDS/UK

     

    Moderator: Patrice Beersingh, CAYMAN/UK

  • Caribbean Wellness

    Thursday 28 August, 2025 | 2:00pm -  4:00pm

    National Botanical Gardens | St. Michael

    This Big Conversation explores how Caribbean cultural wellness traditions—rooted in culinary arts, herbal medicine, and community healing, are embedded in traditional knowledge systems. From grandmother's kitchen to village herbalists—how do we safeguard traditional knowledge? How does Indigenous and African-descended knowledge continue to guide wellness and establish a foundation for a more holistic approach to Caribbean social well being?

     

    Panelists:

    James Toussaint, TRINIDAD

    Tracy Assing, TRINIDAD 

    Dr. Peggy Brunache, HAITI/UK

    Althea Brown, GUYANA/US

    Selassie Atadika, GHANA

    Dr. Christopher Roger Williams, GRENADA 

     

    Moderator:  Ireka Jelani, BARBADOS

  • Wellness for Creatives

    Thursday 28 August, 2025 | 2:00pm -  4:00pm

    Hastings Esplanade | St. Michael

    A critical conversation amongst creatives living and working in the region of the southern Caribbean about social and structural barriers they have faced, the strategies they have employed to persevere, their successes and the changes they believe will improve the well-being of practitioners in the creative sector. They share their past and current interventions, exploring questions related to empowerment, livelihood, protection, risk, the now and the future.

     

    This dialogue spans the lived experiences and insights from Trinidad and Tobago, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Grenada and Barbados. Let’s unpack Wellness for Creatives.

     

    Panelists: 

    Israel Mapp BARBADOS

    Vonnie Roudette, ST. VINCENT & THE GRENADINES

    Malaika Brooks-Smith-Lowe, GRENADA

     

    Moderator: Arnaldo James, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

  • Boundaries, Burnout & Being a Creative

    Thursday 28 August, 2025 | 4:00pm -  6:00pm

    Hastings Esplanade | St. Michael

    What does it mean to care for the people who care for our culture? In the Caribbean and across the Global South, many artists operate without health insurance, pensions, paid leave, or mental health support. Creative labour is often invisible or undervalued — emotionally demanding yet structurally unsupported. This Big Conversation positions wellness as a public good and a foundation of cultural sustainability. It explores what infrastructure — legal, economic, spiritual, emotional — is necessary to dignify and protect artistic lives.

     

    Panelists:

    Justin Poleon, BARBADOS 

    Malene Joseph, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

    Dr. Hilary Brown, CARICOM Secretariat

    Dr. Martina Toby, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

    Lenford Salmon, JAMAICA

     

    Moderator: Tenille Clarke, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

  • Innovating Sustainable Urban Spaces for the Future

    Friday 29 August, 2025 | 12:00pm -  2:00pm

    Hastings Esplanade | St. Michael

    In an age of climate urgency, population shifts, and the digitization of life, how do we design cities that are culturally vibrant, sustainable, inclusive, and economically viable? What does it mean to build liveable, resilient cities powered by creativity? This Big Conversation brings together architects, artists, urbanists, planners, and policy visionaries to prototype futures where art, culture, and infrastructure co-create well-being.
     

    Panelists:

    Andrea Chung, JAMAICA

    Dr. Deborah Thomas-Austin, TRINIDAD & TOBAGO

    Deborah Hickling Gordon, JAMAICA

    Israel Mapp, BARBADOS

    Luce Hodge Smith, BVI

     

    Moderator:  Debbie Estwick, BARBADOS

  • Sound of a Nation

    Friday 29 August, 2025 | 2:00pm -  4:00pm

    Hastings Esplanade | St. Michael

    To ignite a movement focused on strategic aggregation, South-South Dialogue, collaborative Caribbean music production focused on positive cultural messaging, brand-building, strategic export and digital innovation that can position Caribbean music as a global cultural force— with Caribbean people in control of the narrative.

     

    Panelists:

    Bernard Sokpe, GHANA 

    Nicholas Branker, BARBADOS

    Richard Payne, ST. LUCIA 

    Jason Gilbert, CAYMAN ISLANDS

     

    Moderator: Brett Pyper, SOUTH AFRICA

  • A People’s Reasoning On Haiti

    Friday 29 August, 2025 | 5:00pm -  6:30pm

    Gun Hill | St. George 

    Translation: DJ Max

    Haiti was not only the first Black republic, forged in fire and resistance, but also a beacon of radical imagination. From its birth, Haiti charted a course for freedom, dignity, and Black sovereignty—rooted in African memory, spiritual knowledge, and an unyielding belief in human possibility. Haitian thinkers, artists, and leaders redefined universal human rights from the perspective of the oppressed, while diplomats and statesmen advanced anti-colonial and Black liberation struggles across the Americas, Africa, and beyond.

     

    Its painters, poets, musicians, and sculptors reimagined modernism through a Caribbean lens—affirming beauty amid struggle, divine ancestry amid challenge. Grounded in Vodou cosmology, peasant life, and revolutionary history, Haitian creativity offers the world not just art, but a living archive of resistance, memory, and vision. Rather than reducing Haiti to a narrative of crisis, this conversation invites us to see it as a foundational axis of Caribbean consciousness—an enduring source of inspiration, leadership, and cultural sovereignty. How can the region reframe its relationship with Haiti, recognizing its contributions as vital to shaping our shared present and future?

     

    Panelists:

    Monique Clesca, HAITI

    Professor Pedro Calzadilla, VENEZUELA

    Philipe Doddard, HAITI


    Moderator: Erol Josue, HAITI

CARIRESTA XV White Background
CARIRESTA XV White Background
CARIRESTA XV White Background

Big Conversations SCHEDULE

From policy to poetry, activism to archives - CARIFESTA XV’s Big Conversations series is where the region’s boldest voices and ideas collide. These thought-provoking sessions gather artists, innovators, cultural leaders, and changemakers to explore the present and future of Caribbean identity, creativity, and community.

All sessions are FREE and open to the public.

Click on each event to learn more.

Page-Tear-White-HOME.png
Page-Tear-White-HOME.png
CARIRESTA XV Pink Background

Participate in the CARIFESTA XV Experience

Explore CARIFESTA XV

full event schedule

Get your CARIFESTA XV Event Tickets Now!

bottom of page