Danica David and Sayeeda Carter, St. Croix Educational Complex teachers, are committed to getting their students to study and preserve local culture.
David is a visual arts teacher at the high school and Carter teaches drama and speech.
The women collaborated and, with their students, produced a calendar featuring cultural contributors. They agreed the celebration of the Centennial Anniversary year was the perfect time to do the calendar project.
“I know Danica and I knew she was someone I could conspire and work with to help preserve culture,” Carter said.
They created the Virgin Islands Cultural Contributors Calendar Creation and Theatrical Performance.
The project involves an interactive learning experience for students and participants in the community who are actively contributing to the development of Virgin Islands culture.
The criteria for being a Virgin Islands Cultural Contributor are:
– A native or resident of the Virgin Islands for a minimum of 15 years or more,
– An active contributor to the development of Virgin Islands culture through fine arts, education, literature, and history in the past or present, and
– Thriving and still living in the US Virgin Islands.
David’s SCEC Art Club students photographed or used provided photographs of selected participants to create mixed media collage and watercolor portrait paintings. David helped the students with layout and design.
Zaquira Carti, a senior, said she learned a lot from the project. She was excited she was chosen to design the calendar cover and the page for Willard John.
Carter’s drama club and speech students interviewed selected participants.
Participants were asked questions modeled from Vanity Fair Magazine’s Proust Questionnaire. The Proust Questionnaire has its origins in a parlor game popularized (though not devised) by Marcel Proust, the French essayist and novelist, who believed that, in answering these questions, an individual reveals his or her true nature.
Samples of the basic Proust Questionnaire are – What is your idea of perfect happiness? What is your greatest fear? Which talent would you most like to have? What do you consider your greatest achievement?
“The questionnaire gives kids the perfect way to find out about people,” Carter said. “And I’m also a big fan of Vanity Fair.”
Monologues and or short scenes were created based on participants’ responses. The completed students artwork and responses were used to create the colorful calendar featuring well known local people like Eugene ‘Doc’ Petersen and Valrica Bryson.
A culminating event scheduled for Jan. 20 will be an art exhibition, theatrical performance, and reception. Students from Carter’s speech and drama classes will read biographies and expressively reflect on the cultural contributors lives. And the art work of David’s student’s will be on display. There are 13 art students and 14 speech and drama students working on the project.
David and Carter developed this idea so that on a yearly basis students can learn about individuals who are aiding in the advancement of Virgin Islands culture.
“The students are already working on the 2018 calendar,” Carter said. “This is such an exciting project. A lot of kids didn’t know the contributors they were working with.”
Freshman Tyrone Reed, photographer for the calendar, said he was happy to capture and learn about the people featured.
“I’m glad for the exposure too,” Reed said. “I might get hired after they see the calendar.”
Jahmoi Benjamin, also a freshman, said he helped with layout and he liked expressing himself in the design of the calendar.
The Virgin Islands Cultural Contributors Calendar Creation and Theatrical Performance collaborative project is also a fundraiser. David’s students will use proceeds to fund a trip in April to St. John to view an exhibit at the Bajo El Sol Gallery.
David said the calendars are arriving any day and will be available this week for purchase at Complex. Information on purchasing calendars can be obtained by sending email to David at danica.davidevide.vi or to Carter at sayeeda.carterevide.vi.
“This project is so exciting,” David said. “I love to expose the students and let them shine and be known for what they do.”
The project was funded by a grant from the Community Foundation and the Rotary Club of St. Croix Mid Isle.
This is David’s second school year with SCECHS. Last year she was an artistic mentor to her student, Masa Ito, who won the Congressional Art Award. Carter has been with St. Croix Educational Complex for six years and was voted SCECHS Teacher of the Year during that same school year.
