Back-ah-yard, Grenada Government celebrate Point Fortin Ancestry Project

Back-ah-yard, a youth, culture and community non-profit organisation, and the Grenada Government will team up to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Point Fortin-Grenada Ancestry Project.

Back-ah-yard is also celebrating its 18th anniversary of serving Point Fortin and its environs.

It has also extended its poetry in the classroom programme to Grenada and currently engages 12 primary and six secondary schools on the island, a media release said.

In keeping with its anniversary celebration theme Evolve, Back-ah-yard will hold a celebration concert titled Evolve, featuring SuperBlue, MX Prime, Mistah Shak, Sheldon Blackman, Isaac Blackman, Shakeela-Ria, Damion Melville, Back-ah-yard musicians and youth performances, the release said.

Showtime is 7 pm at its Mama’s Yard Facility, Boodoo Street, Point Fortin, on March 30.

Back-ah-yard founder and president Dixie-Ann Joseph said its Poetry and Creative Arts in the Classroom, Community and Online (Paccco) programme, and ancestry project are officially endorsed by Grenada's Government and its Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Tourism and Civil Aviation, Grenada Cultural Foundation, Grenada Spice Mas Corporation and the Grenada Consulate in Trinidad and Tobago.

“We are proud to deliver poetry and the creative arts to classrooms in Grenada as part of our ongoing ancestry-based regional cultural exchange between Point Fortin and Grenada," Joseph said.

Locally, Back-ah-yard's youth, cultural and community development programmes are supported by the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and The Arts, Ministry of Sport and Community Development, Atlantic LNG, Peiping Supermarket, Point Fortin Mayor’s office, MP for Point Fortin and Heritage Petroleum, the organisation said.

The release said the Grenada Government has officially regarded 2024 as the Year of Return for the Grenadian diaspora in Point Fortin to reconnect with their Grenadian roots to generate and harness greater knowledge of the Point Fortin-Grenada ancestral connection.

Since the early 1900s Grenadians have migrated to Point Fortin in their thousands, it said.

Joseph thanked the Grenada Government for supporting the events, and ongoing celebration activities which began March 27 and end April 1.

Back-ah-yard began its mission to boost and sustain healthy youth self-esteem via poetry and the creative arts in 2006 at the Point Fortin Anglican Primary with its Poetry in the Classroom programme.

“Back-ah-yard has now evolved to serve 14 primary schools and five secondary schools in Point Fortin and environs, (from Cedros to La Brea) in 2024, through its Paccco programme. (It) compiled six anthologies featuring youth poetry and creative writing and engages hundreds of at-risk and vulnerable youth annually, through its community and online poetry/creative arts/life skills education workshops at our Mama's Yard, Youth, Culture and Community Development Facility," Joseph said.

Back-ah-yard has also expanded from delivering poetry workshops for youth solely in children’s homes in Grenada from as early as 2006, to partnering with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport of Grenada, to conduct its Poetry in the Classroom Programme in 12 primary schools and six secondary schools in Grenada, the release said.

It said, "This yearly regional cultural exchange is regarded by both nations as an official part of the Point Fortin Borough Day celebrations."