THE Folk Research Centre’s 6th St. Lucia Studies Conference opens tomorrow While registration begins at 8:30 a.m. and the first presentation by Dr. Anderson Reynolds is scheduled for 9:30 a.m., the official opening ceremony will be held at 7:00 p.m. at the FRC Headquarters at Mount Pleasant, Castries. The Conference runs until Friday.
The highlight of the opening ceremony will be the delivery of the keynote Harold Simmons Memorial lecture. The lecture had first been launched by the Cultural Department of the Julian R. Hunte group of Companies in 1979. The inaugural lecture was delivered by Derek Walcott on Wednesday January 24 1979, at the Castries Parish Centre. Other lecturers in later years included St. Lucian Patricia Ismond and Trinidadians Kenneth Ramchand and Merle Hodge.
The 2016 Harold Simmons Memorial Lecture will be delivered by Professor Hazel Simmons-McDonald, Professor Emerita, UWI. and a niece of the late. Harold Simmons. She will speak on “Culture, identity and language: reclaiming the soul of an island.” She has had a distinguished career with the University of the West Indies and is recognized as an expert in the area of Creole language linguistics. She has published several works on her subject as well as poetry.
Harold Simmons is regarded as the father of modern St. Lucian arts and culture and was a mentor to the young Derek Walcott, Dunstan St. Omer, Sessenne Descartes, Charles Cadet and many others of that illustrious generation. In 2012, the FRC established the Harold Simmons Folk Academy which oversees all the educational programmes of the institution.
Earlier this year, the late Harold Simmons (1914-1966) was given the posthumous award of the Saint Lucia Cross.
The re-established lecture will be presented in association with the Sir Julian R. Hunte Group of Companies.
On Thursday evening, at 7:00 p.m., the public is invited to attend two presentations by Dr. Marcus Day and Mr. Vladimir Lucien respectively.
Dr. Marcus Day will speak on “Youth gangs and violence – their contribution to crime in St. Lucia,” while Vladimir Lucien, who won the prestigious Bocas Literature Prize in 2015 will speak on obeah and tjenbwa. He has been researching the subject and his talk is titled,” A science from God: legitimacy, morality and the distribution of spirit power.” Dr. Day has been researching the area of youth, drugs, HIV issues, for many years. These two very relevant and timely presentations should be of great interest to the public.
The theme of the 2016 Conference is “Discovering St. Lucian life and culture through ongoing research.” The Studies Conference, begun in 2004 by the 43 year old FRC, is held every two years.
The themes of the presentations range from cricket to the literary work of the Walcott brothers to the St. Lucian trade union movement to education, among other topics. Twelve presenters are due to speak including Msgr Dr. Patrick Anthony, Kendel Hippolyte, Mark Hennecart, Dr. Sandra Evans, Dr. Terencia Joseph, among others.