No Spice Word Festival this year

Lack of funds has been cited as the main reason for the cancellation of a cultural programme that was introduced to Grenada three years ago by the National Democratic Congress administration.

The Aunty Tek Spice Word Festival, which was launched in October 2010, was aimed at establishing a niche for Grenadians in “spoken word, penmanship and the dramatic arts,” former Senator Arley Gill said at the time. He was then Minister responsible for Culture.

“The Spice Word Festival,” he explained, “would give the authors, poets and other artistes their own cultural space on the national calendar of events.”

In the second year of the festival in 2011, several new features were added including workshops on publishing and creative writing.

But acting Chief Cultural Officer, Thomas Matthew, has announced that there will be no Spice Word Festival in 2012.

“Unfortunately, we are unable to host the festival this year because of financial constraints,” Matthew said.

He said the Ministry of Culture had been in negotiations to secure funding for hosting of the festival.

However, Matthew said the timeframe was “a little too short” to finalise the funding arrangement.

He said the festival should return to the cultural calendar next year.

The festival is named after the late Grenadian cultural icon, Thelma Ermintude Knight-Philip.

She, along with Grenadian authors Clyde Belfon, David Omawale Franklyn and Merle Collins, were honoured at the inaugural festival.

The 2011 festival, from October 19-21, paid tribute to educator Christine Clarkson for more than three decades of service to theatre and the dramatic arts.

Last year’s festival also designated three writers as the event’s “featured authors”.

They were former Governor General, Sir Paul Scoon; England-based university lecturer Jacob Ross; and biographer Verna Wilkins, founder of Tamarind Books.