The
National Endowment for the Humanities in support of the “We The
People”
project awarded the Virgin Islands Humanities Council a grant of $30,980
in
September of 2005.
The goal of this grant / project is to encourage and strengthen the
teaching and understanding of American history and culture through which
we ultimately define ourselves as Americans.
The Humanities Council project is entitled, “U.S.
Virgin Islanders: A People’s Continued Quest for Self- Governance.”
"We the People" 2006
project
"We the People"
2005 project
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| Project Title | Project Description | Funding |
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Wha Yo Say? Yo' Want to be a Virgin islander Eh? |
In this five-week project (4 hours per session), educational professionals and other interested community participants learned about Virgin Islands history and culture through interactive sessions with Virgin Islands culture bearers. Each week, participants were asked to complete a project based on the instruction and interaction of that week. | $10,000.00 |
| St. Croix Quelbe Festival | The Gladys Abraham Elementary School Intermediate Choir performed for the first time on the island of St. Croix and participated in a Quelbe Festival. The Choir performed Virgin Islands folk songs from their first CD recording entitled "Folk Music of the Virgin Islands". | $750.00 |
| Liberated Minds | This documentary will explore 4 categories (education, media, law, and religion) and how they have been used over time to bring about the condition of mental slavery that exists today among African descendants. This media production will be filmed in the VI, Denmark, Ghana, and the US. | $10,000.00 |
| Taino Culture and Mythology Art Program | In recognition of VI-PR Friendship Day, Puerto Rican artist (Arroyo Rivas) led two public discussions on the mythology and culture of the Taino people. | $3,500.00 |
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Legacies of Upstreet |
A publication grant which chronicles the lives and social order of St. Thomas, specifically the "Upstreet" neighborhood or Kongens Quarter, by documenting families, traditions and cultural events. | $12,441.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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("Legacies" 2003-04 funding) |
- $9,441.00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Jamesie: King of Scratch |
A media project, a documentary about the life and music of Jamesie Brewster, a world reknown Quelbe musician and cultural icon. | $2,225.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mock Achaeological Dig |
An innovative project and interactive educational approach to archaeology. Through a very hands-on process, 5th & 6th grade students will create, 'discover', and document their findings. | $3,869.15 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Cultural Traditions of the V.I.: Disseminating & Educating |
A 4-part summit which chronicles our musical culture and social traditions in order to increase awareness among Virgin Islanders, particularly teachers, through culture bearer recognition and teacher workshops. | $4,650.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Market Women & Sunday Market Square |
A lecture which is one of the celebrations scheduled for the Christiansted Market Square revitalization. The accompanying exhibit is housed at Fort Frederik on St. Croix. | $3,500.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Socio-cultural Changes in the Past 100 Years in the V.I. As Seen Through the Humanities |
A resubmittal of the Mrs. Eulalie Rivera media project with its focus on her community service and life as a suffragette. | $2,000.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Storytelling and Bookmaking Workshop |
A workshop that intends to promote literacy and creativity, by facilitating the creation of a storyline and book for and by elementary aged children. It also trains teachers and other volunteers on how to under take the workshop for other groups in the community. | $3,500.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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'Traveling Quelbe Exhibit and Colloquium |
A quelbe traveling exhibit which brings quelbe to the community as an art form, & musical tradition of the Virgin Islands. The scholarly panel discussion calls attention to historical and critical aspects of this music form as well as ehibiting musical artifacts. | $10,000.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Folk Music of the Virgin Islands |
A quelbe workshop for students with Mr. Jamesie Brewster and the All Star Band and Mrs. Joyce LaMotta, one of the authories on the music preservation in the V.I. These students will culminate the workshop with a recording of 8 folk songs of the Virgin Islands. | $2,500.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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"We Are Culture Bearers Too! Youth Preserving Traditional Games |
The preproduction media project with a student production team prepares for the videotaping and editiong of demonstrations and oral histories of traditional V.I. games. | $3,302.20 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts. Inc. | Professor Siuko Garcia conducts a lecture examining how Puerto Rican art reflects ties to taino, European, and African Heritage. The lecture shows commonalities bewteen P.R. & V.I. Arts; An exhibit of authentic folk art is a part of this exhibit. | $1,676.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A Sampling of Previously Funded Projects
In
partnership with community organizations, cultural agencies, and divisions
of the University of the Virgin Islands, the Virgin Islands Humanities
Council reached Virgin Islanders of all ages and backgrounds within the
Territory through its community support grants.
The Masjid Nur Ahl-Us Sunnah
Islamic Center on St. Thomas used a $2,000 grant
to bring a well-respected imam
from Muslim America to present a lecture on the continuing impact of Islam
and slavery on the Caribbean Region’s understanding of traditional African
customs, rituals, ideology, and values.
As we entered the new millennium, UVI’s Humanities Division organized
a unique festival in celebration of the humanities assisted by $8,700
from VIHC. The festival
united well-known Caribbean humanists, UVI faculty, students, and the
general public for study, cultural events, and music to help underscore
the link between humanities education and community enrichment.
In the continuing quest to have Virgin Islanders appreciate their diverse
and renowned ancestry, VIHC awarded the Ivan Jadan Museum on St. John
a $900 grant to present a lecture and public discussion about the
African ancestry and the poetry of the acclaimed Russian poet Alexander
Pushkin.
“What’s Mother Goose doing in the Caribbean,” you say?
Disguised as members of the VI Institute for Teaching and Learning,
“she” collected $2,000 from VIHC to help parents and educators apply
critical thinking approaches to reading, and introduced them to locally-relevant
stories that feature Caribbean and multi-cultural themes.
In an exciting governmental cultural exchange, a $9,534 VIHC grant
and $24,847.55 of community support brought together historians, archivists,
and preservationists in a symposium to understand the scholarly and
technical demands needed to study previously inaccessible primary source
materials about the VI that are archived locally, as well as in Denmark
and the US.
VIHC
approved $10,000 to help the VI Bar Association
mount a walk-through exhibit depicting the painful and often bitter story
of the conditions forcing the adoption of the 14th Amendment
to the US Constitution, and the heroic role of its defenders and advocates
in legally and politically reversing unequal treatment for all Americans,
but especially African Americans.
Many Virgin Islanders attended one or more of the inaugural activities
held during the founding of a music research institute to honor the achievements
of native composer and bandleader Alton A. Adams by the Center for Black
Music Research at Columbia College, Chicago.
Events included a colloquium on black music and linguistics, and
a comparison of the festival arts in Brazil, Trinidad, and Great Britain. A highlight of the event was a live presentation with commentary
of traditional VI music by “Jamesie” Brewster, the Starlites band, “Lad”
Richards, and others. VIHC
contributed $2,000 to this historic project, which will allow residents
to electronically study and research the life and work of Mr. Adams.
To illustrate the preservation of Caribbean masquerading traditions on
the island of Montserrat, the Montserrat Association of the VI used
a grant of $2,690, along with $5,800 in community support, to present
slides, videos, photos, and a research paper on their island’s mas’ art.
The Montserrat Masqueraders, who exemplified the art form through
interpretive performances, provided an additional treat.
Nine
elementary students from Ulla F. Muller School took a field trip along
St. Croix’s Heritage Trail as part of a project funded by a $750 VIHC
grant to digitally record VI history and culture.
The students took over 100 photos, using standard and digital cameras,
edited the photos, distributed them on the schools computer network, and
also developed slides for the school’s web page.
Information on the Community Grants Program are available here.