The story of Chewstick brought vividly to life

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 9: Ten years of cultural arts, nurturing of creative talent and freedom of expression were celebrated at Chewstick’s Tenth Anniversary Musical on Saturday evening.

Young and old performed spoken word, poetry, music and dance to descibe the milestones throughout the organization’s development.

Old and new faces graced the stage and took to the mic including those from the organization’s predecessors — Flow Sunday and Neno Letu (our word).

Chewstick co-founder Gavin Smith said that it was the first time all these people had been in the same room at the same time and it gave us a sense of the history behind the movement and the journey it has taken to get where it is today.

Ten years on, Smith told us that Chewstick, which only became a charity in May 2009, was still in its developmental phase.

“Tonight is about the transformation of Chewstick,” he said. “The first ten years have been about development, experiment and exploration — the next ten years will really be about fortification and getting ready for the future.

“Najib (Chentouf, co-founder) and I have always talked about getting this going so that we can eventually leave in the knowledge it will be carried on in to the future.”

After a short prelude by office administrator Deidra Lee-Bean, young singer Danger, aka Devaughn Raynor, burst on to the stage in a high-energy performance that got the atmosphere going.

After the song, 12-year-old Quinn Outerbridge joined Smith on stage and asked him to tell her how Chewstick started out. With a little persuasion — an almighty “pleeeaaase” — he gave in and began the story.

We were treated to an entertaining video of Smith with old his hip-hop band Sketch-A-Wreck, showing a side of him many of us have never seen.

The show moved on to the Flow Sunday and Neno Letu gatherings that came before Chewstick and we were given performances by Alan Smith, Lauren Francis, Vejay Steede, Laurel Monkman and Beatnik Rubaine.

Francis’s emotive language in her piece Survivor, about the plight of a female slave, was particularly memorable. Among the heartfelt lines were: “She is wishing for something in the form of a miracle like death, or for white people to develop a heart, or a conscience or a life unsupported by the ownership of her people… Her family is their industry.”

Attitude

Three members of ChewSlam performed a collaborative spoken word piece that was packed with energy and attitude. This group has clearly spent time practicing and the pieces included some “spectacular vernacular” to borrow one of their lines.

The poem ended: “We’re chained to the rock and we are proud of our shackles,” as each poet left stage shouting “St George’s!” and “Somerset!”.

Another stand out performance was by KASE, (Keamon Woolaston) and R?ddler (Roddy Nesbitt) — the pair’s stage performance was electric.

The audience was told there would be an interval of strictly ten minutes which seemed a little short for everyone to visit the bar. It turned out the interval was closer to 20 minutes and it was a little annoying that they weren’t straight up about it in the first place.

Later in the show, Beatnik Rubaine, one of the first members of Flow Sunday and now a DJ in London, took to the stage. He told the audience: “I am completely humbled by the progress that Chewstick has made and I am fortunate to have been a part of all three movements that swept the island.

“One of the biggest changes now is that you can go and hear music and arts in the development stage and also at the highest stage. In Bermuda we only see professional music videos and so when we go to see Bermudians perform we expect it to be star studded like that but that’s not the reality.

Honest living

“My main bit of advice to anyone in the creative arts is that it’s not about being in big music videos. It is about making an honest living from your craft and that is why I left Bermuda, to make an honest living from my craft.

“Life and music is a live stage.”

He also talked about an annual Bermuda Day in London event that has grown to attract some 2,000 people including at least 200 Bermudians. The celebration includes 12 hours of appreciation of Bermudian food, culture, music and he opened up an invitation for talented artists to perform at the event. Rubaine can be contacted via Chewstick.

Chentouf’s son, Yassine, was the youngest performer of the night at just ten-years-old and the audience were putty in his hands. His performance was a humourous story about a girl who lost her limbs by a railway track. He was was animated and his comic timing was spot on.

Technically, there were a few hitches throughout the night — mics fading out and a painfully long pause as Quinn waited for a member of her band to return to the stage.

She had to stand there, centre stage in the spotlight, in front of a full crowd of people, for what seemed like a couple of minutes before being able to perform her finalé song. It didn’t seem to phase her too much at all. She chose to sing Shine Ya Light by Rita Ora and did a great job — there were some powerful parts to the song, she hit most notes and sang with confidence.

Quinn, like Chewstick, is in her developmental stage and it is great that she has had this opportunity to perform in front of her peers and mentors. It is just one of the many opportunities that Chewstick offers the island’s young people from the likes of its regular open mic nights right up to BeachFest and the international stage.

Smith said: “The Chewstick Foundation was built to try and be something for the next generation and we were trying to tell a story that personified what it means. Some people say to me, ‘you lot are just having fun man, you’re just having a good time.’

“Well it is fun, there’s no question, we guys are living our dream but it is also a lot of hard work. I see youths like Quinn who is day in, day out in the grind and it is really inspirational.”

After the show there was the presentation of the charity’s annual Mary Prince award and Quinn became the youngest artist to receive it.

Smith said: “The award has always been given to those who were in the college bracket largely because they were seen as more focussed in their craft and on their journey. Tonight we are pleased to give it to give it to the youngest recipient of all time, Quinn Outerbridge. Quinn has shown a deep interest in learning to play the guitar and so we are pleased to give her a scholarship for half a year of intense guitar workshops.”