Reacting to Cargo

By Neko Meicholas

Why does it always seem that everything I do starts with me not wanting to be bothered?

Have I gotten that old?

Have I become that miserable?

As usual, the evening started with me having promised to do something and no longer wanting to do it. Only two things kept me moving forward; I had made a promise to my niece to go and she had already spent her money. Too, I had wanted to support the efforts of another Bahamian artist…something I always try to do.

As I had missed the premier of the movie at Atlantis because of a total screwup in our scheduling I felt I was obligated to get my tired, overburdened tokhes (tuckus? Whatever!) up and go and support Kareem Mortimer’s latest effort and I’m glad I did.

Although Cargo has its weak points, like several dialogue/script issues, problems with Bahamian dialect use and a few unconvincing actors who really need to hone their skills, Kareem’s production held my attention. He told a story and told it beautifully. Would I ever watch this movie again? Hell no! By the end of the movie my heart was broken and I was so intensely depressed I could not bear to voluntarily put myself through that level of emotional devastation again. Quite frankly, Kareem was too successful at achieving his goal and telling his story, and telling it excellently.

WELL DONE KAREEM!

There were several powerful scenes in the movie delivered by the two stand-out actors: Berneice (played by Persia White) has a meltdown at the dinner table and Mona (played by Sky Nicole Grey), the Jamaican caretaker, finds herself trapped in a terrible situation as a result of Kevin (played by Warren Brown), the main character’s terribleness and descent into complete depravity. These two women actually play the most tragic characters in the movie.

After the movie ended and I had given it more thought, I realized that, in Cargo, Kareem had paid homage to the film American Beauty that stars the now sadly disgraced Kevin Spacey. I will leave you, the viewer, to discover those bits on your own.

In Cargo, I truly appreciated that Kareem had gone after art. The beautiful opening scene with the wooden necklace/rosary floating languidly in the blue water with the sunlight dancing around which heralds the only positive moment that comes later in the movie; the little broke-down crap-ass piece of boat chugging, forward in an endless sea of blue heading toward an uncertain destiny; the grot and ugliness of Celianne’s (played by Gessica Geneus) home and the moment when Kevin is forced to clean his mother’s shit from the walls of her room are a few.

And… for those more prurient viewers out there YES this movie has more than enough “T”, “A” and “D” to keep you happy. I mean quite frankly and quite humorously locked in my mind is Celianne’s dark, rigid skyward-pointing nipples contrasted against her suspiciously proud breasts and the blue water… I wonder how these aspects were negotiated in the actors’ contracts? (Insert wicked grin here).

Like the movie Lord of the Rings with its too many endings, I feel that Mortimer could have done without the multiple endings of Cargo, especially, the pointless scene between the grandson and grandmother.

Would I recommend going to see Cargo to anyone?

HELL YES!!!

Kareem does a great job of telling a story that needed to be told and does a beautiful job of doing it…never mind a few hiccups.

#cargo #Bahamas #film #kareemmortimer #review #migration #immigration #Nassau #illegal immigration #Haitian #Kevin Spacey #American Beauty #review #movie #Patricia Glinton-Meicholas #Kareem J. Mortimer #plight #refugee #folklore #folktale #goodreads #books

PATRICIA GLINTON-MEICHOLAS, GUANIMA PRESS LTD AND ITS SPONSORS GIFT MORE THAN 500 COPIES OF LUSCA AND OTHER FANTASTIC TALES TO THE STUDENTS OF AQUINAS COLLEGE

Presentation by Neko Meicholas
Guanima Press Ltd
to the Students of Aquinas College
Loyolla Hall
Gladstone Road, Nassau, Bahamas
November 15, 2017

With this book we have preserved a part of our Bahamian heritage that was being lost.

With my wife Patti’s words and my illustration and electronic graphics skills we have locked... in ink and paper... a small part of our rich and colourful folklore.

This book represents our hope for the positive reform of our people and our country.

I hope with all my heart that each and everyone of you will realize the importance of this gift and make an effort to read it.

Patti wrote this book for you.

The Guanima Press Books for Students project was born because we despaired at the BGCSE results we were seeing written about in the newspapers. 

We believe that young Bahamians no longer read as much or as widely as they need, and this is contributing to academic underachievement.

We wanted to do something to help by encouraging the reading of good books.

We wanted you to know the importance of reading. 

We wanted you to know how important it is to spend your whole life reading, learning, gathering information and knowledge from books and other sources.

We wanted to encourage you to use that information to craft yourself into the best version of you.

We wanted you to know that you are brilliant.

We wanted to give you this book that was created about Bahamian lore… for Bahamians…by Bahamians.

We knew our small publishing company Guanima Press Ltd could not afford to do this alone, so we went into the community and asked for support—support that was readily given by wonderful and generous people.

We thank our wonderful sponsors.

We especially thank a very special woman—Barbara Thompson.

We thank Orry J. Sands, Earla Bethel of Danbrad Ltd, The Charitable Arts Foundation, The Cable Bahamas Cares Foundation, Sir Franklyn and Lady Wilson, Dawn Davies and those sponsors who have chosen to remain anonymous.

My dream of gifting thousands of Patti’s new book Lusca and Other Fantastic Tales to Bahamian students has become a reality because of our efforts and the support of this stellar group of people.

Today we are giving every single one of you, all 500 plus of you here a copy of this book for FREE.

Please read LUSCA and Other Fantastic Tales.

Read lots of other books… Bahamian books, books from other countries.

Please just read copiously and experience the magic it will create in your school performance and your life.

Patricia Glinton-Meicholas Marks the Launch of Her New Book, Lusca and Other Fantastic Tales by Gifting 600 Copies to the Students of the Government High School

(L to r) Linda Fisher, librarian, The Government High School; Earla Bethel of DanBrad Ltd, first sponsor to the Guanima Press Ltd book-giveaway project and Patricia Glinton-Meicholas, author, Lusca and Other Fantastic Tales.

In support of a book-giveaway project launched by Guanima Press Ltd, Patricia Glinton-Meicholas marked the publication of her new collection of original short stories, Lusca and Other Fantastic Tales, by gifting 600 copies to the students of her alma mater—The Government High School.

Glinton-Meicholas (right) is shown with (l to r) Linda Fisher, librarian at the Government High School and Earla Bethel of DanBrad Ltd. Also a graduate of The Government High School, Bethel was the first sponsor of the Guanima Press project, which aims to put copies of the book into the hands of thousands of young Bahamians to encourage them to read more.

The project has also received the support of B.T., Orry J. Sands, The Charitable Arts Foundation, The Cable Bahamas Cares Foundation, Sir Franklyn and Lady Wilson, Dawn Davies and others.

“For some time now, I have had a deep concern for the widespread underperformance in educational achievement, when I know that Bahamians are brilliant. I believe that low achievement in reading and the spurning of reading widely contribute significantly to the problem. Guanima Press has always given away lots of books, but with the launch of Patricia’s new book, I decided to do it in a really big way, giving away thousands of books in the hope that it would encourage more reading” said Neko Meicholas, owner of Guanima Press Ltd, which published the new work.

Recognized nationally and internationally for her writing ability and cultural knowledge, Patricia Glinton-Meicholas has created, in Lusca and Other Fantastic Tales, yet another means of preserving several of the unique, legendary, but mostly forgotten creatures of Bahamian folklore including Lusca, the Hag, and Chickcharnie. With her fertile imagination at play, she has also created a number of otherworldly characters, who demonstrate powers that are sure to have readers looking over their shoulders at unusual sounds.

Lusca and Other Fantastic Tales continues what Patricia’s first book An Evening in Guanima started, the preservation of a wonderful aspect of our Bahamian heritage—its rich folklore.

Antonius Roberts' Newest Sacred Space at the Cove, Atlantis, Paradise Island

By Neko Meicholas

I am not interested in writing fancy, big-worded, pretentious, pleonastic art reviews—in short no bafflegab for me. I have neither the inclination, nor the desire and I would prefer to write about my gut reaction to an artist’s work.

I have just returned from an awesome experience. Everything seemed to align to make it wonderful. And to think, I had been tempted not to bother to attend, simply because I could barely muster the energy to stuff myself into stiff clothing. I’m so happy that I ignored my cave-dwelling, hermit’s personality and made the effort. I put on the clothes, got into the truck, drove over the bridge, etc, etc.

We arrived early. We had half an hour before we were to be met. As we were at the Cove on Paradise Island, waiting in their beautiful surroundings would be absolutely no problem. What is more, today was the first day of Bahamian winter which meant that the temperature was simply perfect—not too hot, not too cold. So we sat in their breezeway and we spent the time watching…the carp? Koi? Fish!

By the time our greeter, who had walked past us twice, finally realized that we had arrived early and cautiously approached asking who we were, we had been waiting for nearly forty minutes. I had seen her both times and had a more than 1,000% correct inkling that she was the one meeting us, but I wanted to take some photos and I wanted to watch the fish and so I played truant, looking for an excuse to avoid being shut in by ceremony. No harm done…cheerfully, our greeter finally escorted us through the many walkways of the Cove, onto the waiting buggy and then out onto the beach at the wondrous Cove Point.

We were already perfectly calm from our visit with the fish but—the ocean, the setting sun, the Junkanoo drummers playing in front of the fire and the view, in the distance, of the sculptures in Antonius Roberts’ newest Sacred Space simply made for perfect tranquility.

(L to R) Annette & Antonius Roberts with Patricia Glinton-Meicholas

We were in an extraordinary space. A foretaste of heaven maybe?

The big G’s natural resplendence, and the man-made glory He doubtless inspired was reaching out to touch our tired, slightly discouraged, and definitely overburdened souls. As we walked along the sand and finally stood in the centre of Antonius' seven praying women I took a deep breath and simply reveled in the moment, the art surrounding me and the perfection of my surroundings. Everything had worked together in perfect harmony.

The carved wooden women with their copper headdresses stood in still adoration and in contrast against a darkening sky, lending to its own mauve-tinged glory. The event introducing the bevy of sculptures to the group was brief. It opened with Jack and B’er Debbil—a fun session of storytelling by Patricia Glinton-Meicholas; a few words from the COO of Atlantis, Audrey Oswell and then the artist, Antonius Roberts paid a tribute to women—especially those who have contributed to his formation.

Cameras dangling, I stood on the side clicking away and simply standing quietly in and enjoying the moment. Was anyone else feeling what I was feeling?

As with all good things they end far too quickly. Personally, I would have happily spent another few hours in that glorious space that was filling me with such a wonderful sense of much needed peace.

---

---

I am never satisfied…

I wonder if it is the curse of many artists to never be satisfied with anything you have done? I will draw and redraw and redraw and am still hardly ever satisfied with the end product.

And…

Why does it always seem to take forever to get anything completed when you are working with deadlines.

I have been working on the illustrations for LUSCA and Other Fantastic Tales for a very very very long time. Partly because I lacked the discipline and the focus to simply sit down and complete the task and then as crunch time approached I was redrawing everything because this fin did not look right or I needed more tentacle to show. As usual I have scrapped more drawings than actually ended up in the new book.

It puts a lot of pressure on you when you are trying to preserve the creatures of Bahamian folklore. It is no longer just about creating a drawing. It becomes a mission to preserve as accurately as possible a part of your heritage that is rapidly disappearing… Here’s to hoping that I have succeeded, in some small way, in saving a small bit of our heritage for generations to come.

ABOUT LUSCA
LUSCA is a creature from Bahamian folklore. Out of the depths of the sea, it has the head of a shark and the body of an octopus. In Patricia Glinton-Meicholas' story she is given the role of a protector/avenger. And although you are not supposed to play favourites LUSCA is one of mine…

---