Respecting the rivers, the Berbice Art and Craft Collective and others in the leap year..

Thanks Esther for the photo

Rivers

 "Mr Kissoon, you arite..." the boat captain asks me as I decide to be one with the river and not be afraid of it. I say yeah man.. I more concerned that he is arite because if the captain is not arite then we will not be arite no matter how much my soul and the river are intertwined.

Leap year and after years of working from the comfort of home , where commuting is clicking on keys in house clothes.. Universe says get  off your flattened ... and get on the rivers to go to work.

And so I have to say yes to the fear, and yes to the work and I go on the rivers in the first months of the leap year.  Dressed to protect from water spray but knowing really that  should the water embrace me fully there will be no protection except to swim.. which I can't do.

But respecting the river seems to ease the discomfort of not being able to swim in the river. And to enjoy the river, the smooth and the rough, the bamboo and other plants on the banks..

and the flash of the blue and black butterflies

and the flock of black birds with the red on the breast

and the other butterflies

and the bird which seems to be racing the boat, ahead on the water.. skimming ... for a long time

and the other bird which moves ahead for a short time

and 'duck' when moving through creeks where the trees are closer..

and being on the boat where the children practice their dance moves..

and not being ashamed for help to climb/stumble/clamber on and off the boat..

of raindrops stinging the face .. 

and wondering how people brush teeth in the river where others pee and engines might leak some gasoline. 

and not wondering about if boat capsize or engine catch afire or if I would need to go toilet... 

Berbice Art and Craft Collective

and crossing the rivers and the creeks now again, in car though, not boat, to drop everything on the day, to go pay homage to the Berbice Art and Craft Collective, a day I could have rested to do more of the work related to the rivers.. but rest comes otherwise..

so in the leap year, go do another thing randomly, first art exhibition in Berbice in a long time.

Going up not so much about the art, but to honour the organising and coming together of people to work and create, understanding that this is the first of what they hope will be other things. 

Because in this place of division, where organising is about access to political power and the oil money and so, is nice that people could come together to work on developing their work in art and craft.

So go in the room, walk around, gaff with people, watch at the work, moving slowly, interesting pieces.. rasta with spliff in he  mouth, police with lollipop in he mouth, natural world, fantasy world, devotion.  and we get lil poetry as Deodat shares a poem which Konyo reads in this way which will never happen again the same way. 

Much like how you never step in the same river twice... 

And so moving through the work, looking back at pieces, seeing new things in each piece, making different decisions about what we seeing and same man, same exhibition but like this river.. as you move, new ways of seeing things and possibly new ways of being..

Leap year

We talk about what people say about leap year , and then it hits me that this leap year has me writing this blog to catch the last day of the month so that I could write something this month and that I hustling up because other things came up like the random conversations with the historian and with the banker .and having to  learn new phagwah songs and remembering that the bad will come , but there will be new things, other rivers ..