The National Endowment for the Humanities in support of the “We The People” project awarded the Virgin Islands Humanities Council a grant of $30,980 in September of 2005. The goal of this grant / project is to encourage and strengthen the teaching and understanding of American history and culture through which we ultimately define ourselves as Americans. The Humanities Council project is entitled, “U.S. Virgin Islanders: A People’s Continued Quest for Self- Governance.”
"We the People" 2006 project
"We the People" 2005 project
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| Project Title | Project Description | Funding |
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Wha Yo Say? Yo' Want to be a Virgin islander Eh? |
In this five-week project (4 hours per session), educational professionals and other interested community participants learned about Virgin Islands history and culture through interactive sessions with Virgin Islands culture bearers. Each week, participants were asked to complete a project based on the instruction and interaction of that week. | $10,000.00 |
| St. Croix Quelbe Festival | The Gladys Abraham Elementary School Intermediate Choir performed for the first time on the island of St. Croix and participated in a Quelbe Festival. The Choir performed Virgin Islands folk songs from their first CD recording entitled "Folk Music of the Virgin Islands". | $750.00 |
| Liberated Minds | This documentary will explore 4 categories (education, media, law, and religion) and how they have been used over time to bring about the condition of mental slavery that exists today among African descendants. This media production will be filmed in the VI, Denmark, Ghana, and the US. | $10,000.00 |
| Taino Culture and Mythology Art Program | In recognition of VI-PR Friendship Day, Puerto Rican artist (Arroyo Rivas) led two public discussions on the mythology and culture of the Taino people. | $3,500.00 |
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Legacies of Upstreet |
A publication grant which chronicles the lives and social order of St. Thomas, specifically the "Upstreet" neighborhood or Kongens Quarter, by documenting families, traditions and cultural events. | $12,441.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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("Legacies" 2003-04 funding) |
- $9,441.00 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Jamesie: King of Scratch |
A media project, a documentary about the life and music of Jamesie Brewster, a world reknown Quelbe musician and cultural icon. | $2,225.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Mock Achaeological Dig |
An innovative project and interactive educational approach to archaeology. Through a very hands-on process, 5th & 6th grade students will create, 'discover', and document their findings. | $3,869.15 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Cultural Traditions of the V.I.: Disseminating & Educating |
A 4-part summit which chronicles our musical culture and social traditions in order to increase awareness among Virgin Islanders, particularly teachers, through culture bearer recognition and teacher workshops. | $4,650.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Market Women & Sunday Market Square |
A lecture which is one of the celebrations scheduled for the Christiansted Market Square revitalization. The accompanying exhibit is housed at Fort Frederik on St. Croix. | $3,500.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Socio-cultural Changes in the Past 100 Years in the V.I. As Seen Through the Humanities |
A resubmittal of the Mrs. Eulalie Rivera media project with its focus on her community service and life as a suffragette. | $2,000.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Storytelling and Bookmaking Workshop |
A workshop that intends to promote literacy and creativity, by facilitating the creation of a storyline and book for and by elementary aged children. It also trains teachers and other volunteers on how to under take the workshop for other groups in the community. | $3,500.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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'Traveling Quelbe Exhibit and Colloquium |
A quelbe traveling exhibit which brings quelbe to the community as an art form, & musical tradition of the Virgin Islands. The scholarly panel discussion calls attention to historical and critical aspects of this music form as well as ehibiting musical artifacts. | $10,000.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Folk Music of the Virgin Islands |
A quelbe workshop for students with Mr. Jamesie Brewster and the All Star Band and Mrs. Joyce LaMotta, one of the authories on the music preservation in the V.I. These students will culminate the workshop with a recording of 8 folk songs of the Virgin Islands. | $2,500.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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"We Are Culture Bearers Too! Youth Preserving Traditional Games |
The preproduction media project with a student production team prepares for the videotaping and editiong of demonstrations and oral histories of traditional V.I. games. | $3,302.20 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Caribbean Museum Center for the Arts. Inc. | Professor Siuko Garcia conducts a lecture examining how Puerto Rican art reflects ties to taino, European, and African Heritage. The lecture shows commonalities bewteen P.R. & V.I. Arts; An exhibit of authentic folk art is a part of this exhibit. | $1,676.00 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
A Sampling of Previously Funded Projects
In partnership with community organizations, cultural agencies, and divisions of the University of the Virgin Islands, the Virgin Islands Humanities Council reached Virgin Islanders of all ages and backgrounds within the Territory through its community support grants.
The Masjid Nur Ahl-Us Sunnah Islamic Center on St. Thomas used a $2,000 grant to bring a well-respected imam from Muslim America to present a lecture on the continuing impact of Islam and slavery on the Caribbean Region’s understanding of traditional African customs, rituals, ideology, and values.
As we entered the new millennium, UVI’s Humanities Division organized a unique festival in celebration of the humanities assisted by $8,700 from VIHC. The festival united well-known Caribbean humanists, UVI faculty, students, and the general public for study, cultural events, and music to help underscore the link between humanities education and community enrichment. Dr. Orville Kean presented the following address entitled, "Perspectives on the Humanities" at the festival.
In the continuing quest to have Virgin Islanders appreciate their diverse and renowned ancestry, VIHC awarded the Ivan Jadan Museum on St. John a $900 grant to present a lecture and public discussion about the African ancestry and the poetry of the acclaimed Russian poet Alexander Pushkin.
“What’s Mother Goose doing in the Caribbean,” you say? Disguised as members of the VI Institute for Teaching and Learning, “she” collected $2,000 from VIHC to help parents and educators apply critical thinking approaches to reading, and introduced them to locally-relevant stories that feature Caribbean and multi-cultural themes.
In an exciting governmental cultural exchange, a $9,534 VIHC grant and $24,847.55 of community support brought together historians, archivists, and preservationists in a symposium to understand the scholarly and technical demands needed to study previously inaccessible primary source materials about the VI that are archived locally, as well as in Denmark and the US.
VIHC approved $10,000 to help the VI Bar Association mount a walk-through exhibit depicting the painful and often bitter story of the conditions forcing the adoption of the 14th Amendment to the US Constitution, and the heroic role of its defenders and advocates in legally and politically reversing unequal treatment for all Americans, but especially African Americans.
Many Virgin Islanders attended one or more of the inaugural activities held during the founding of a music research institute to honor the achievements of native composer and bandleader Alton A. Adams by the Center for Black Music Research at Columbia College, Chicago. Events included a colloquium on black music and linguistics, and a comparison of the festival arts in Brazil, Trinidad, and Great Britain. A highlight of the event was a live presentation with commentary of traditional VI music by “Jamesie” Brewster, the Starlites band, “Lad” Richards, and others. VIHC contributed $2,000 to this historic project, which will allow residents to electronically study and research the life and work of Mr. Adams.
To illustrate the preservation of Caribbean masquerading traditions on the island of Montserrat, the Montserrat Association of the VI used a grant of $2,690, along with $5,800 in community support, to present slides, videos, photos, and a research paper on their island’s mas’ art. The Montserrat Masqueraders, who exemplified the art form through interpretive performances, provided an additional treat.
Nine elementary students from Ulla F. Muller School took a field trip along St. Croix’s Heritage Trail as part of a project funded by a $750 VIHC grant to digitally record VI history and culture. The students took over 100 photos, using standard and digital cameras, edited the photos, distributed them on the schools computer network, and also developed slides for the school’s web page.
Information on the Community Grants Program are available here.