Fresh Milk on VOB’s radio show: 630 with David Ellis

June 17, 2015June 25, 2015Leave a comment

Fresh Milk director, Annalee Davis, and recent resident artist Thais Francis were both interviewed for the June 10th edition of the Voice of Barbados (VOB 92.9) radio show 630 with David Ellis. Their segment became part of a larger programme featuring Annalee’s father and brother, Vere and Paul Davis, who spoke about Walkers Dairy (on which Fresh Milk is located), its history and the work being done.

Listen to Annalee and Thais’ contribution in the excerpt below, and to hear the full podcast, click here for Part 1 here and here for Part 2 here:

Thais Francis’ Residency – Week 4 Blog Post

June 17, 2015June 17, 20152 Comments

Thais Francis shares her fourth and final blog post about her recently completed Fresh Milk residency. Looking back on her time in Barbados, Thais is happy with the the focus that having a dedicated, peaceful working environment has afforded her, as well as the work she was able to do with the children at Workmans Primary School, overall leading to a very productive and inspiring residency period. Read more from Thais below:

“I heard you on the radio, are you here in Barbados?”

When I saw those words, I felt sad – because the answer was no. I am no longer in Barbados, I am back in America, and maybe I missed my opportunity to sit with you and thank you. Thank you for opening my eyes to a world of Caribbean literature, for introducing me to the Orishas and for being a pioneer. Who would have thought my NYU professor from 5 years ago would remember me and even find my email address? Who would’ve known he’d be listening to the radio right at the moment when I came on? He was the person who taught me how to look at words through an Afro-Caribbean point of view, thus shaping the person I am becoming. Kamau Brathwaite great writer and Barbadian, thank you. The next time I’m in Barbados you will not find out through the radio.

Had it not been for this residency, I would not have known my weaknesses. Have you ever had time to just sit and think? Sit under a tree, and read a book, or write in your journal, without any distractions? Thinking can be quite intense sometimes, but then it can be quite revelatory. You know how Stella went to Jamaica to get her groove back? It felt a little like that – thankfully I’m still young and I have not lost my groove, but I empathize with Stella. I got something in Barbados. I got the ability to fully see and carry on – even in the midst of not knowing. This is beginning to sound like a chapter from Eat Pray Love so I’ll be moving on with my point.

I have 136 pages of a screenplay. It may be good or it may be bad but I DID IT. I sat down and wrote, even when I was bored I continued, even when I wanted to go to the beach – I did it (sometimes I couldn’t resist the beach though). 136 pages later, I’m ready to continue. Writing a screenplay and seeing that into fruition on a screen seems like a never-ending process, but there is a skeleton, and writing in the studio really helped. Working with the children helped too. I figured I should share my gift. It’s fun to write for your own projects, but even better when you’re able to show kids that art is fun. Playing is fun. Dressing up, saying your name loudly, bowing when your classmates clap, imagining worlds and storytelling is fun. Life should be fun. I hope they learned as much from me as I did from them. I salute teachers. I salute Mrs. Bradshaw and Ms. Gatsby the principal of Workman’s and Annalee and the Fresh Milk team for making the space so aesthetically inviting.

All in all, it was a great experience. My quarter life identity crisis issues have somewhat abated, and now I must proceed. I’ll let you know when the movie comes out. Maybe I’ll have a screening in Barbados. Okay?

Saada Branker & Powys Dewhurst – Week 2 Blog Post

June 16, 2015June 17, 20151 Comment

Fresh Milk‘s current residents, writer Saada Branker and filmmaker Powys Dewhurst, share their second blog post about their experiences in Barbados. Despite going all out this week to gather information and stories for their documentary memory project about the effects of Hurricane Janet on the island, Saada takes the time to consider not only the power of individual accounts, but the importance of a broader context and the longer term results of the storm. Read more below:

Saada Branker and Edwin and Angus of Top Car Rentals.

It seems like self-inflicted cruelty to be picking up our pace in a place like Barbados. What has become the status quo in tightly-wound Toronto is almost ludicrous in sedate Walkers Terrace, St. George. Funny: I remember a friend once agreeing that navigating in Canada’s largest metropolitan city feels like being in a rat race. “But we’re not rats,” she added. Indeed.

Bad habits die hard, even in Barbados. To get what we need on Hurricane Janet, I’ve been going at a steady pace of chasing interviews, setting them up, helping to coordinate the team, interviewing, researching and writing. Of course, I’m not alone. Joining me is a wonderful team of Fresh Milk blog coordinators and chasers including my editorial assistant Natalie McGuire. ArtsEtc’s co-founder Robert Sandiford provides us advice and links to key people. Filmmaker Powys Dewhurst, assisted by our intern, Charles Phillips, does all the driving, courtesy of Top Car Rentals as and as of week three, Southern Rentals Barbados. The film duo also does the heavy lifting, setting up equipment, filming interviews, capturing additional visuals and packing up.

Microbiologist and acclaimed author, Alvin Cummins, signing his book, ‘Yeshua: aka Jesus the Nazarene’.

Filmmaker Powys Dewhurst and microbiologist Alvin Cummins on the boardwalk discussing the Bridgetown Dry Dock.

Truth is, to gather information about Hurricane Janet we need not just memories, but context. What was happening in Barbados in 1955? How were Barbadians living and how did they fare during the months of post-Janet recovery, especially as 20,000 people struggled to replace houses they lost to irreparable damage? What changed because of Janet?

To help us answer these questions and lead to further queries, we secured more extraordinary Barbadians. On Wednesday, Charles and Powys set off for a day of streeters in St. Phillip—essentially newsroom jargon for quick interviews on the road posing one or two questions. In a rum shop filled with friendly, card-playing patrons, they found what they needed. Thursday, Powys and I set out to meet Alvin Cummins, retired microbiologist, award-winning author and treasurer of the Barbados National Union of Fisherfolk Organizations (BARNUFO). Through him we learned of government-imposed changes to the fishing vessels after Hurricane Janet, and the socio-economic challenges families faced years later. Alvin was a wealth of information, just like his colleague Buddy Larrier the week before at Oistins. We learned what a Dry Dock is and that the world’s last remaining structure can be found nearby in Bridgetown & its Garrison area.

Craig Fernandez of Craig Fernandez Fine Arts Expression and Powys working well together.

Kalil, skateboarder recorded by Powys and Craig.

The strangest part of that day? A dynamic and loquacious photographer from Antigua named Craig Fernandez rolled up on us. In the course of a conversation, Powys eyed him carefully, thinking he saw a resemblance. It turned out he knew the artist’s father. To our surprise, Craig happily assisted us as 2^nd camera for about three hours.

Friday morning was spent at the Nation News headquarters where we met with Harold Hoyte, co-founder of the national newspaper and Editor Emeritus. His interview will shine in our documentary. Complementing Harold’s talk was the Nation’s Editor-in-Chief Roy Morris. It was a seamless film shoot thanks to the staff, in particular, Sonia Marville-Carter. Her coordinating skills ensured our time went smoothly and efficiently.

Harold Hoyte, Co-founder & Editor Emeritus at The Nation.

Roy Morris, Editor-in-Chief at The Nation with Saada and Powys.

We’re finding it hard to slow down. There’s something spectacular about learning of a shared moment from people with a comprehensive understanding of impact, whether they’re met on the road or in a newsroom. As each of these keen interview subjects point the team in a particular direction, we can’t help it; our excitement takes over and we find ourselves quickening our pace.

Sign-up for a sound workshop with upcoming resident artist Ask Kæreby

June 11, 2015Leave a comment

Danish composer and sound artist Ask Kæreby will be hosting a series of workshops around experimental ways of working with sound during his upcoming Fresh Milk residency in November, 2015.

Find out more about the programme below and email us at freshmilkbarbados@gmail.com to let us know if you are interested in attending, as space will be limited. More detailed information about the dates & times of the workshops will follow:

About the workshop:

What sounds are available for artistic expression and how can we approach them?

As a composer or musician it is very possible to take available instruments and their sounds for granted, as most have a heritage of hundreds of years, and many new are simply variations or emulations of earlier models. But what if we suspend “the usual suspects” for a while, and try to listen in a different way? What if we refrain from identifying a sound by its source, origin or processing, and instead try and describe what we hear by its own merits? If we open ourselves to the soundscape surrounding us, how can we appreciate this in a meaningful way, and can we communicate to others by means of our own soundscapes, composed or fabricated from field recordings?

In a number of workshops, we will focus on sound as a medium of intrinsic value and its own source of information. With inspiration from the World Soundscape Project from the 1970’s, we will begin an aural mapping of the environment, documenting the local soundscape via field recordings and discussing possible signature sounds or soundmarks. Using different types of transducers, we will investigate vibrations in different types of materials such as gasses, liquids and solids – thereby exploring different modes of perception and listening. These recordings will also function as the compositional base for experimental construction of sonic narratives, musical compounds or combinations thereof.

Ask Kæreby

Artist Statement:

My artistic practice is interdisciplinary and research-based, involving experimental composition, sound design and electroacoustic music. I’m interested in the presentation of narratives by means of sound – not through traditional musical gestures, but using different approaches such as musique concrète or the futurists’ bruitism, thereby giving the listener a more subtle way of experiencing the essence of the work. By placing myself in the intersection between the known formats, I wish to challenge our ways of listening – to music (live as well as recorded), to our surroundings and to (sonic) art.

Since the days of Aristotle, narratives in art have been characterised by a “poetic” organising principle, which is both logically and aesthetically superior to the random historicity of factual events. The incorporation and processing of pieces of reality in the shape of sounds in forming an audible work, contains possibilities for combining and juxtaposing these two principles, which I find extremely interesting.

My projects begin with a longer period of research, where I collect factual and historical information and gather impressions and sounds from the area and/or subject. Particularly interesting ideological or technological methods may appear, and form the basis of my further compositional work.

Bio:

Ask Kæreby is a Danish composer. He studied music production in Copenhagen, earning a MMus degree from The Royal Danish Academy of Music.

Kæreby’s artistic practice is interdisciplinary and research-based, including elements of experimental composition, sound design and electroacoustic music. He is interested in the presentation of narratives by means of sound – not through traditional musical gestures, but using different approaches such as musique concrète or the futurists’ bruitism. Working in the intersection between known formats, Kæreby wishes to challenge our ways of listening – to music (live as well as recorded), to our surroundings and to (sonic) art.

He has been awarded grants in support of his work from The Danish Arts Foundation, Danish Musicians’ Union, Wilhelm Hansen Foundation, Familien Hede Nielsen Foundation, Dansk Artist Association, Ellen & Erik Valdemar Jensen Music Grant, Anders Månsson & wife Memorial Grant and Karen Margrethe Torp-Pedersen & husband Foundation.

Charles Phillips interns with Fresh Milk residents Saada Branker & Powys Dewhurst

June 10, 2015June 10, 2015Leave a comment

Fresh Milk is happy to announce that recent graduate in the Barbados Community College (BCC) BFA programme Charles Phillips is interning with our resident artists, writer Saada Branker and filmmaker Powys Dewhurst, as their assistant director and 2^nd camera for their documentary project recording Barbadians’ experiences of Hurricane Janet, which struck the island 60 years ago. Charles will be assisting Saada and Powys between June 1 – 26, 2015. Read more about him below:

Charles Phillips. Photo by the artist, courtesy of Monochrome Media

About Charles Phillips:

Charles Phillips is a Barbadian digital artist. He acquired his Associate Degree in Visual Arts in 2012 and has recently completed his BFA in the same field at the Barbados Community College.

Charles has been part of various exhibitions at the Barbados Community College between 2010-2014 and has showcased his digital images at Barbados’ Animekon Expo between 2011-2013.

He employs the techniques of digital painting, photography and video. Most of his work investigates and includes elements from martial arts, psychology and mythology or fiction. Charles’s photography uses photo surrealism to create interesting pieces. His most current work explores fictional archetypes and the visual and thematic links between classical and modern fiction, looking at how these narratives repeat themselves.

Charles lives and works in Barbados where he co-founded Monochrome Media, a local company providing creative photography, videography, graphic design and other related services.