Art expo controversy puts local arts community in controversy

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The National Art Gallery of The Bahamas’ (NAGB) controversial “We suffer to remain” exhibition came to a close Sunday, with a moving rendition of Sonia Farmer’s poem ‘A True and Exact History’.

Eleven cultural champions loaned their voices to the stirring performance.

Artists and collaborators in the project said, they were left feeling “stunned and angry” by the British Council’s decision, while the gallery described it as a lost opportunity to foster goodwill, describing it as a white Scotsman being sanctioned to talk about slavery while black people should stay silent because their feelings are too raw, too aggressive and too political.

Ironically, We suffer to remain was to be the final phase of a British Council series called “Difficult conversations” – examining the United Kingdom’s (UK) involvement in the Caribbean slave trade.

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