Flavor of the Caribbean

This weekend is the sixth annual Carifest festival in Charleston. From Thursday to Saturday, the festival seeks to educate participants on Caribbean culture, celebrate Carnival and have fun along the way.

The festival is organized and backed by S.C. Caribbean Culture and Heritage Inc.

Lorna Shelton-Beck, who is from Jamaica, started the group and created Carifest after Congress in 2006 declared June as Caribbean-American Heritage Month.

Carifest's purposes include fun, of course, but also education and culture.

"It's not just about having a big party. It's really about getting people together and sharing their cultures and history and learning from each other," Carifest symposium moderator Lisa Randle says.

Between Friday's masquerade party and Saturday's parade, there's tons of room for fun.

Dominican Republic

Over the years, the components of Carifest have been tweaked, as events such as the masquerade were added in 2010. The festival highlights a specific Caribbean island, another aspect of Carifest that changes each year.

This year, the Dominican Republic is featured. Past years have promoted St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and Barbados, among others.

Randle said she, like Shelton-Beck, hopes that "people get a better understanding of the different islands and understanding how that culture is blended into the culture here, especially in Charleston."

By featuring one island, "we want to show the similarities and the cultural differences among the islands," according to Shelton-Beck. The end goal is that participants learn more about the island and its culture, and perhaps even visit.

It is "important for us to incorporate the educational element, so people know we're not just fun and games," she says, adding that Carifest incorporates traditions from Carnival, the Caribbean and Africa.

Much of Carifest's educational aspect can be found in Thursday's symposium at the College of Charleston's Avery Institute.

Symposium

Thursday's three-hour free symposium will feature two talks on identity in the Dominican Republic starting at 6 p.m.

Randle describes the symposium, which has been a part of the event since 2009, as a "way to get people to come together and talk about their commonality."

While attendance at 2009's symposium was small, last year's symposium brought about 80 people, according to Randle.

Symposium speakers are Dr. Kimberly Simmons, a University of South Carolina professor who specializes in identity and African-American studies, and Monika Ponton-Arrington, who is the Southeast representative for the United Confederation of Taino People.

Simmons and Ponton-Arrington will each have presentations lasting 15 to 20 minutes followed by a Q & A session and a small reception, Randle says.

Food featured at the reception will be traditional Dominican fare, such as the national dish sancocho, which is similar to gumbo; Dominican potato fritters; Dominican potato salad; and Cassava cake, according to Randle.

Simmons' talk on identity will focus on how Dominicans identify themselves, specifically by skin color, and the "idea of mixture."

"Race identity is changing in the Dominican Republic," according to Simmons, who lived there for four years and considers it her "second home."

Her presentation will be based on her 2009 book about racial identity, "Reconstructing Racial Identity and the African Past in the

Dominican Republic."

She adds that African history in the Dominican Republic is "coming to the surface" lately.

Ponton-Arrington will share stories and information about Taino culture, including dances, cooking and dress. Some traditional Taino meals include the heavy use of "tubular root vegetables" and fish, tropical fruits such as mangoes and oranges, she says.

She explains that the Taino, who live on islands, including Jamaica, Haiti and the Dominican Republic, are "the ones Christopher Columbus came upon first in the Caribbean islands when he was supposedly going to discover the New World."

The Taino organization she represents is a commonwealth and "the umbrella for the Taino people in the U.S. as well as Puerto Rico and the Caribbean islands."

At the symposium, Ponton-Arrington hopes to "get the message out that the Taino people are not extinct." She estimates there are about 2,000 to 3,000 Tainos in the Southeast alone.

Other misconceptions about the Taino, Ponton-Arrington says, include that they are "uneducated savages" and that they don't have their own language. Numerous Taino words have been adopted into English, according to Ponton-Arrington, including canoe, hurricane, hammock and maracas.

Masquerade Party

On Friday, Carifest will celebrate Mardi Gras at its Masquerade Fete, held 7 p.m.-midnight at the International Longshoreman's Hall, 1142 Morrison Drive.

Shelton-Beck likens the masquerade fete to a big Mardi Gras party. "The masquerade is really part of the foundation of a Carnival."

The $30 ticket covers dinner, entertainment and all aspects of the event, she says. Because the masquerade includes a dinner, tickets should be bought in advance on Carifest's website.

Attendees may dress in costume or semiformal attire. Masks aren't mandatory, but will be available for purchase at the door.

For the first year, a king and queen of Carnival will be crowned at the masquerade.

Parade

On Saturday, Carifest will take to the streets with a parade starting at 3 p.m. at the Visitor's Center downtown and ending at Brittlebank Park with a celebration in the park until 9 p.m.

But the parade is more a parade of people than floats and cars. "We traditionally have people walking, dancing through the street, which is a little bit opposite to the way we have parades here," Shelton-Beck says.

The Brittlebank Park celebration will feature craft booths, food, dancing and lots of music. She says there will be a variety of Caribbean and Spanish music such as soca, steel band, reggae and salsa.

Shelton-Beck describes the celebration as the "piece de resistance" and says that besides performances by steel band, cultural dancers and a soca artist from Trinidad, DJ Luigi, will be there. Last year, roughly 1,000 people attended the park celebration, Shelton-Beck says.

Tickets to the park festival are $10 at the gate or $5 in advance. Carifest will have an after-party 10 p.m.-2 a.m. at Tropix Bar and Grill, 5131 Dorchester Road.