Repeated here is a 2006 documentary from Howard University's PBS affiliate in Washington DC on the phenomenon of the DC Caribbean Carnival as it existed then on the original venue of Georgia Avenue, where it had been held until 2011 except for 2003. It has since been combined with another event in Baltimore and moved the 40 or so miles there, though talk is of returning it to DC by 2015.
The documentary also touches on the aspects of the Caribbean diaspora that has gathered, among other places, in the DC area, the history of divers individuals and the contributions of all in many ways to local life. One of those individuals that was in the area for some time was a photographer from Trinidad whose work appears here... details at the end.
Useful inks to aspects of Caribbean life in the DC area and the Carnival and parade are as follows:
A long-running radio show by Trinidadian Von Martin on local Pacifica public radio station WPFW is Caribbeana; the website for the program containing Radio Stream links to the live show on Saturday evenings and recent podcasts: [ Ссылка ]
A good overview of the Carnival, parade, its history and where it's going is given by Washington City Paper, coincidentally located at the time of this article in the same building as WPFW in the Adams-Morgan neighborhood, also home to our referenced Trinidadian photographer and sometimes station volunteer: [ Ссылка ]
The official website for the Carnival is at [ Ссылка ]
Back to the back-story of Trinidadian photographer Silas McGuffers. McGuffers was living in Adams-Morgan in Washington in 2003 and 2004 and became aware of the Carnival and parade which for that year only was to be staged upon the National Mall near the Capitol. Sensing some excellent photo opportunities, he duly clicked away and came up with numerous good shots, some of which were posted on a website and descriptively-labeled. Unknown to him at the time, one of those pictures was to later catch the eye of a Howard intern unversed in the niceties of artist permissions, attributions, copyright and plagiarism concepts.
In 2006, Silas was living in the Tidewater, Virginia are and returned for a weekend visit to his old digs in Adams-Morgan; thoughtfully-maintained for his convenience by his dear cousin from Owosso and Detroit, Michigan. When McGuffers actually arrived it was late at night. He went right to his separate quarters, turned on the TV for company and found the beginning of this documentary just beginning on WHUT. This being of natural interest, he settled back for a good viewing. Imagine His Surprise when, about 3 1/2 minutes into the show he saw one of his pictures taken in 2003; this not being preceded by any communication from anyone at Howard. The shock! Mixed feelings of flattery and indignation and disbelief at the pure chance of seeing the picture culminated in resolve to make a friendly phone call to the producer to investigate the circumstances of this Slight Oversight.
According to the producer the next day, who must have been equally-shocked to hear from McGuffers, an intern or student who was helping on the production had easily found the picture on the internet and decided that it was not only a great picture but that it could just be an unattributed addition to the documentary. For unknown reasons, all of the plainly-visible contact information on the site it was on was bypassed and ignored... Silas had heard no preceding peep.
Not one to lord his unassailable position over the poor producer for this sin of omission, and being a supporter of public television, public radio, higher education and Caribbean culture in general, Silas magnanimously offered to let Howard continue to use the photo on the condition that proper credit was given upon subsequent airings and in any possible DVDs that might be distributed. This YouTube airing is for purposes of both sharing a very good documentary AND to ensure that at least here the picture in question is duly credited and to remind Howard University of its obligation to carry through on that credit.
See more of Silas' work at [ Ссылка ]
Best wishes to the Carnival in the future and to Howard and the peoples of the Caribbean diaspora in the DC area and to fellow photographers in our needs to have our copyrights respected.
(note: the title says "2005" photo date, when it was actually 2003)
