Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
of glittering beads, foils and rhinestones. Many spend a year planning their cos-
tumes, keeping their designs a carefully guarded secret.
The energy of this carnival is that of a joyous and frenetic explosion. In Nas-
sau the first 'rush,' as the parade is known, occurs on Boxing Day (December
26); the second happens on New Year's Day and the third in summer, when the
shacks go over their game plans. Head for the Fish Frys if you won't be there
for the festival, this is where the shacks rehearse their dances and the music for
the big nights. Thursday nights are practice night in Grand Bahama. In the Fam-
ily Islands the summer 'rushes' are on different days to Nassau. Parades start
around 3am and finish by noon in time for a big lunch.
Rake 'n' scrape music can be heard at local bars throughout the islands, and is a highlight
of many festivals such as Family Island regattas. Grand Turk has a fabulous annual festival
when these musicians gather from across the Turks and Caicos region to display and enjoy
their talents.
Dance hall, a kind of Caribbean rap and the in-vogue working-class music of the
formerly British Caribbean islands, has evolved its own style in the Bahamas, where it is
known as 'chatting.' It is performed entirely in local dialect by DJs with their own mobile
discos.
Visual Arts
The so-called father of Bahamian art is Amos Ferguson, the nation's foremost folk artist.
Ferguson is intensely spiritual. His naive, palette-bright canvases focus upon religion, his-
tory, nature and folklore, or 'ol' story.' Ferguson began making bird figurines, tumblers and
jars for the tourist trade. You can see a permanent collection of his works in the Pompey
Museum in Nassau.
Bahamian Art 1492-1992
by Patricia Glinton-Meicholas, Charles Hug-
gins and Basil Smith is a splendid book on Bahamian visual art.
Brent Malone, Max Taylor, Rolph Harris and Alton Roland Lowe - the Bahamas' artist
laureate for more than three decades - are also all writ large in the Bahamian art world.
The islands' plastic arts (ceramics, sculpture, painting, woodcarving and textiles) have
been late in flowering, and with the exception of straw-work, the crafts industry is relat-
ively undeveloped. It has been influenced in recent years by the influx of Haitians, who
have inspired intuitive hardwood carvings, often brightly painted and highlighted by poin-
tillist dots.
