Call for more support

Grenada’s cultural practitioners are talented, experienced and have an important role to play in national development and the well-being of the society. What they need, however, is greater support from media organisations in helping them to bring their art to larger audiences.

This was the appeal made by Sandra James of the Heritage Theatre Company of Grenada, to members of the regional media at a recent training workshop to discuss opportunities under the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

The workshop was hosted by the Caribbean Export Development Agency (Caribbean Export), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and the Grenada National EPA Implementation Unit (NEPAIU). It was supported in part by Caribbean Export, through the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) Regional Private Sector Development Programme (RPSDP), and is also being financed by GIZ. Funding also came from the Caribbean Aid for Trade and Regional Integration Trust Fund (CARTFund).

She lamented that there was not enough local content seen in the media, and challenged the media practitioners to reverse this trend. “Our musicians, our actors, are as good as or better than those that come in!” insisted James.

Highlighting the achievements of her organisation, she noted that in its 23 years of existence, the Heritage Theatre Company had staged three full-length productions, 18 short comedy productions as well as a 104-episode soap opera which ran for a full calendar year. The troupe has also toured regionally and internationally in North America and Canada.

She also pointed to the educational aspect of theatre for the benefit of the society. Their first soap opera focused on family planning, while the second – which has been written, but is yet to be staged – deals with various aspects of HIV, including youth and alcohol.

She also expressed the need for more training opportunities to hone the raw talent of Grenada’s performers. “We have to figure out how to harness and grow that talent so we could have our own
domestic Tyler Perry’s,” she suggested.

Meanwhile, a representative from the Grenada Broadcasting Network (GBN) later responded that the media house had been making an effort to increase the percentage of local content, citing a number of programmes which highlight the Grenadian cultural industries and using local talent.

However, James maintained that more could be done. She urged the media to highlight the challenges and success stories in the cultural sector and to col-laborate with industry practitioners to develop local content.

“It is very important that when we look at television, we see ourselves reflected and not someone else’s culture,” she reminded. “I know a king does not have honour in his own land, but make us kings and queens so when we go out there [to international markets] we can walk tall because we have our countries behind us.” (YA)