Every year, the festival celebrates Caribbean culture and cuisine, but this year, explained organizer Anne-France Pierre ’10, the BSU aims to educate students about the Caribbean, as well. Carib Fest ’08 specifically focuses on health issues in the region, and the BSU intends to pick a different educational theme for all successive Carib Fests.
The event, which is also sponsored by Keefe Campus Center, the Social Council and Association of Amherst Students, opened Monday with pan players performing in the atrium, where organizers have draped flags of Caribbean countries. Tuesday, students were invited to create beaded bracelets and today, they were offered the opportunity to craft carnival masks. Tomorrow, from 11 a.m. until 2 p.m., students can test their knowledge about health in the Caribbean while tasting fresh fruit catered by Talk of the Town.
Organizers have also planned events for each evening, including film screenings on Monday and Tuesday nights. Tonight, Dr. Dawn Fraser-Stewart, the founder of Caribbean People International Collective, Inc., will speak about promoting healthy lifestyles for people of Caribbean descent at 7 p.m. in the Friedmann Room in Keefe. The week’s festivities will culminate in a banquet with Jamaican food and other Caribbean dishes at 6 p.m. tomorrow night, also in the Friedmann Room. This year’s Carib Fest focuses more on education than in previous years because organizers realized how little most students know about the Caribbean. “It was like the Caribbean did not exist for most students. I remember how three-fourths of the people who took the flag quiz got less than half correct,” said Pierre. “We want to change this mentality.”
Carib Fest organizers hope Amherst students will not only learn more about health issues and the Caribbean, but will also tangibly contribute to health care in the islands. Following the health theme, the Carib Fest planners aim to raise enough money for the Hospital Municipal de San Luis in the Dominican Republic to buy a new nebulizer, a $250 device that helps asthmatic patients breathe. The hospital, where three doctors help 250 people daily, only has one nebulizer. Students can donate money each day at the tabling or at the Thursday night banquet.