World Heritage in the Caribbean

World Heritage in the Caribbean: updating the Action Plan 2012-2013 Kingston © UNESCO Kingston / Official opening of the course in St. Mary's, Antigua and Barbuda, March 24, 2013 April 8, 2013 / Kingston UNESCO World Heritage Center of UNESCO, in Paris, the UNESCO Offices in Kingston and Havana, in collaboration with the National Commission for UNESCO in Antigua and Barbuda, organized the training course for the Caribbean in the preparation of nomination dossiers for World Heritage , developed in St. Mary's, Antigua and Barbuda, from 24 to 28 March 2013. This training exercise was designed within the framework of cooperation of Japan's trust funds for the project "Capacity building to support World Heritage conservation and enhancement of the sustainable development of local communities in small island states (SIDS ) ". The official opening took place on March 24, 2013 at the Jolly Beach Hotel in Antigua, in the presence of Dr. Hon Winston Baldwin Spencer, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Hon Winston Williams, Acting Minister for Education Sports, Youth and Gender Affairs of Antigua and Barbuda; Yoshimasa Tezuka His Excellency, Ambassador of Japan in Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Alissandra Cummins, President of the Executive Board of UNESCO and the UNESCO National Commission in Barbados, so as representatives of the World Heritage Centre of UNESCO and the Organization offices in Kingston and Havana. Course, trace output to developed in June 2012 in Kingston, Jamaica, brought together about 20 participants from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Granada, Guyana, British Virgin Islands, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Martin, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago and Bahamas. During the training the participants exchanged their candidature files and information, while receiving advice and guidance of facilitators and Caribbean experts as well as representatives of ICOMOS, IUCN and the World Heritage Centre of UNESCO. 's Workshop 5 days concluded with an action plan aimed at strengthening the professional capacities in Small Island Developing States (SIDS) for preparing dossiers to increase the number and quality of nominations of cultural heritage sites and natural, focusing on the Sites of Memory in the Caribbean. Participants also committed to continue its efforts to implement the World Heritage Convention, including through the completion of the application pack and awareness and public education on World Heritage issues and UNESCO Conventions in the field of Culture. Kingston Action Plan (updated) (available only in English) More information Note: Spanish translation provided by UNESCO Havana

Antigua and Barbuda hosts Caribbean Training Course in the Preparation of Nomination Dossiers 2012-2013 (Follow-up)

UNESCO World Heritage Centre - Caribbean Training Course in the Preparation of Nomination Dossiers 2012-2013 (Follow-up)

Caribbean Training Course in the Preparation of Nomination Dossiers 2012-2013 (Follow-up)

The World Heritage Centre, the UNESCO Offices in Kingston and Havana in collaboration with the Antigua & Barbuda National Commission for UNESCO will organize the Caribbean Training Course in the Preparation of Nomination Dossiers, which will be held in St. Mary’s (Antigua & Barbuda) from 24 to 28 March 2013 within the framework of the Japanese Funds-in-Trust project "Capacity Building to Support the Conservation of World Heritage Sites and Enhance Sustainable Development of Local Communities in Small Island Developing States (SIDS)".

The objective of this 5-day training course is to strengthen professional capacities in the Caribbean Small Island Developing States (SIDS) in preparing nomination dossiers and increase the number and quality of nominations of cultural and natural heritage sites, with a focus on sites of memory in the Caribbean.

This training course is the follow up to the June 2012 training held in Kingston Jamaica and is geared at assessing draft nomination dossiers that each country participant has been in the process of developing over the last eight months. After this training, participants are expected to finalize the nomination dossiers for submission to UNESCO World Heritage Centre. Some 17 Caribbean countries will take part in the training.

Contact at UNESCO Kingston: Himalchuli Gurung h.gurung@unesco.org

Documents

• Concept Note
• Kingston Action Plan
• Training Course Programmed Barbuda hosts

Regions

• Latin America and the Caribbean

Activities

• Caribbean Capacity Building Programme (CCBP)
• SIDS Capacity Building Programme
• Small Island Developing States Programme

Partners

• Japanese Trust Fund for the Preservation of the World Cultural Heritage

Events

• Caribbean Training Course in the Preparation of Nomination Dossiers 2012-2013 Jun 5, 2012 - Jun 15, 2012

LiTTscapes for LiTTribute to Antilles

https://sites.google.com/site/krisrampersadgloba

Trinidad and Tobago’s Dr Kris Rampersad, author of LiTTscapes – Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago will team up with icons of Antigua and Barbuda to stage a literary tribute to the Antilles on Saturday (March 23, 2013) at the museum in St John’s, Antigua.

Dr Rampersad, whose book, LiTTscapes, was launched as part of the golden jubilee celebrations of Trinidad and Tobago last August, has undertaken a series of tributes called LiTTributes to highlight the contributions and value of the creative sectors of the Caribbean.

LiTTscapes has been described as a groundbreaking encyclopaedic yet coffee-table style compendium of the lifestyles, landscapes, architecture, cultures, festivals and institutions of the Caribbean and quintessential to the Caribbean diversification agenda as a means of promoting sustainable development through the creative sector in its presentation of  history, politics, cultures and lifestyles, by reviewers as head of the Guyana Prize for Literature and deputy vice chancellor of the University of Guyana, Professor Al Creighton; Poet Laureate of Port of Spain, Pearl Eintou Springer; former principal and pro vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies, Dr Bhoe Tewarie and former First Lady of Trinidad and Tobago Dr Jean Ramjohn Richards, among others.

Said Creighton: “Easy to read, LiTTscapes is a work of art, a documentary, a travelogue, a critical work with visual and literary power. It is a quite thorough artistic concept, a portrait and biography of the nation of Trinidad and is attractively, neatly and effectively designed. It reflects a considerable volume of reading, ranging from the dawn of Caribbean literature (as early writings of Walter Raleigh, through to present including Nobel laureates Derek Walcott and Sir Vidia Naipaul). Whatever one says no one book can do, this one almost does.” 

Rampersad explained:  “The literary tributes, called LiTTributes, celebrate the creative synergies between fiction, the built and natural landscapes and the creative energies of writers, musicians, dramatists, artists, architects and other creators.” She noted that the launch of LiTTscapes was followed by the LiTTribute to the Republic in Trinidad and Tobago in September 2012 and LiTTribute II - LiTTurgy to the Mainland in Guyana in February 2013.

“The Antiguan event is being called LiTTribute to the Antilles and will include presentations by Rampersad and Antiguan writers and performers, including writers as Joy Lawrence, Joanne Hillhouse and Floree Williams with support from the Historical and Archaeological Society of Antigua and Barbuda which operates the museum, and Best of Books, Antigua. It will feature readings and performances inspired by LiTTscapes, which represents some 100 works of some 60 writers, including the Caribbean Nobel laureates for literature, Derek Walcott and Sir Vidia Naipaul.”

She said: “LiTTributes are meant to make both the creators and our communities aware and heighten appreciation of how we may work in tandem for the benefit of our countries and our region. I am indeed humbled and buoyed at the enthusiasm being showed throughout the region and indeed the diaspora for these as already I also have interests expressed for similar LiTTributes in North American and Europe from where a considerable number of our fiction writers have functioned.

 “LiTTscapes is a celebration of ourselves – small islands whose creative energies have generated enormous waves across the globe, as this LiTTribute to the Antilles will endorse. Antigua has given us writers like Jamaica Kincaid and Joanne Hillhouse.  Derek Walcott titled his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize, The Antilles – Fragments of Epic Memory. This event is a celebration of that epic Antilles, not as fragments, but for the wholeness of our aesthetics,” said Rampersad.    

Rampersad said along similar lines of the LiTTscapes celebrations, the Antigua/Barbuda event will feature the Caribbean architectural alongside literary, visual and performance heritage. Its staging at the museum building will recognise Antigua’s oldest heritage building which is the former site of an indigeneous marketplace. Previous events were staged at the historic Moray House in Guyana, Knowsley Building in Port of Spain and White Hall, one of Port of Spain’s Magnificent Seven edifices.

For details and information, reviews, interviews email lolleaves@gmail.com or visit kris-rampersad.blogspot.com.

In Brief:

LiTTscapes: Key Features

Ø  Full colour, easy reading, coffee table-style

Ø  More than 500 photographs of Trinidad and Tobago

Ø  Represents some 100 works by more than 60 writers

Ø  Captures intimate real life and fictional details of island life

Ø  Details exciting literary moments, literary heritage walks & tours

Ø  Essential companion on T&T for tourists, students, policy makers, academics, lay readers

Ø  Totally local effort to stimulate local creative industries

Ø  Encourage literacy and creative activity

See: LiTTscapes album on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kris.rampersad1

    About the Author – Kris Rampersad

For more than two decades Dr Kris Rampersad has been actively involved in analysing, assessing, critiquing and defining the development agenda for Caribbean societies.

She is a journalist and educator in Caribbean literature, culture and heritage.

See: https://sites.google.com/site/krisrampersadglobal; http://kris-rampersad.blogspot.com