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NE8 participating artist Jeffrey Meris sat with his brother, Junkanoo artist, Wadlet ‘Greedy’ Meris, for the first bush tea session where they speak about family, being of Haitian descent, their relationship to their mother, labour, life in the Junkanoo shacks, classism and racism experienced across The Bahamas.

Images have always been controlled by those in power. Dr. Ian Bethell-Bennett writes about how certain kinds of images have been used to represent us in particular ways that we usually have no control over. During slavery, blacks were depicted in a specific manner, and black women were always rendered either as workhorses, conniving thieves, jezebels, or wanton women. Here, Dr. Bethell-Bennett studies the work in the National Exhibition 8 to develop ideas around reconfiguring blackness.

Dr. Ian Bethell-Bennett writes about unearthing voices and two central projects of the National Exhibition 8, Edrin Symonette’s ‘Residue of a Colonia Past’ and Keisha Oliver’s “Porch Conversations’. 

Dr. Ian Bethell-Bennett pens an argument for supporting local creative production in “Made in The Bahamas: Authentic action, authentic support”

Recent events in the nation, perhaps most notably the We March protest that took place last week, showed that The Bahamas has begun to shake off the veil of apathy that we have slumbered under for what feels like too long. This year has been a belter for politics and people of all beliefs making their feelings known – for better or for worse. And, as art so often engages with the state of society, so it is that many of the submissions for the 8th National Exhibition (NE8) at the National Art Gallery of The Bahamas (NAGB) were brash, bold, opinionated, and deeply political; reflecting how strongly so many of us feel after the various events of 2016.

How much more value can we get out of tourism by really investing in Nassau and promoting small businesses like walking tours, garden cafes, and tea shops along with waterside bars? The longer we take to change the model of rot, the harder it is and the worse the actual situation gets. Why travel to downtown Paradise to see decay? Is it not better to remain locked in a resort or on a ship?

As the lushness of the island disappears in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, it is important to note the significance of imaging who we are and where we live.  As Bahamians, we inhabit a geographic space that has beauty beyond words along with limitless possibility, and we must embrace our reality and step outside of the constructed, constricted reality being imposed on us.