by Larry Smith
It was the days of wine and roses all over again.
A couple dozen middle-aged folks sitting beneath a moonless sky savouring one of Pat Rahming's rare musical excursions; and singing along to "a passing breeze filled with memories", like the pensioners we all thought we'd never be.
They are not long, those days of wine and roses. But in the company of relatives in the Ebenezer graveyard, we entered for a time into the misty dream of the 1960s, when Pat honed his personality performing folk music while studying architecture in Montreal.
Later, during those heady days of cultural emancipation in the 1970s, Pat launched his incendiary writing career - producing a stream of poetry, songs and essays, and becoming perhaps the quintessential Bahamian storyteller of our time.
He read and performed some of that remarkable output last night at a cosy little event sponsored by the West Nassau Rotary Club to raise money for Programme SURE, in support of youth development. The event also featured stunning works of art by Deborah Saunders-Weech.
"I write for therapeutic reasons," Pat told the online literary journal Tongues of the Ocean in 2009, "to have a conversation with myself about things that are on my mind, and to serve as a voice for the community of which I am a part. The role of the poet is the same as that for all artists - to share insight."
His greatest local musical influence was Charlie Adamson, a gas station attendant on Blue Hill Road who played guitar left-handed and sang about things that happened in the community. Internationally, his favourites include Paul Simon and the Mighty Sparrow.
Put those flavours together and you get classic Bahamian songs about gambling addicts, biggety women, trolling tour guides and shifty politicians.
He read and performed some of that remarkable output last night at a cosy little event sponsored by the West Nassau Rotary Club to raise money for Programme SURE, in support of youth development. The event also featured stunning works of art by Deborah Saunders-Weech.
"I write for therapeutic reasons," Pat told the online literary journal Tongues of the Ocean in 2009, "to have a conversation with myself about things that are on my mind, and to serve as a voice for the community of which I am a part. The role of the poet is the same as that for all artists - to share insight."
His greatest local musical influence was Charlie Adamson, a gas station attendant on Blue Hill Road who played guitar left-handed and sang about things that happened in the community. Internationally, his favourites include Paul Simon and the Mighty Sparrow.
Put those flavours together and you get classic Bahamian songs about gambling addicts, biggety women, trolling tour guides and shifty politicians.
Sitting in the cool back yard of Orry Sands' office next to Ebenezer Methodist Church, it was easy to look back towards that door marked "nevermore", that wasn't there before.
We loved Nassau and our six years there are filled with wonderful memories. I read the Pundit to keep up and am sad that there is no going back from Pittsburgh for me.
Posted by: amy core | February 27, 2011 at 10:40 AM
Enjoyed your article—but we are not pensioners yet, although it is creeping up!
Posted by: john robertson | March 02, 2011 at 04:05 PM