BASSETERRE, St. Kitts-NEARLY twenty inmates of Her Majesty’s Prison showed great potential in the field of art and craft on February 13 as they were honoured at Independence Square for their participation in a recently held Ceramic and Pottery Workshop.
The course ran a total of three weeks and was facilitated by Adam Azaire, a potter and artisan out of St. Lucia. During the course, the participants were taught a variety of beginning craft skills such as drawing, pottery and glazing.
Prior to coming to St. Kitts at the request of Sandra Weekes and the Caribbean Development Bank, Azaire had hosted a similar prison workshop in Anguilla. He told SKNVibes that such skill training workshops, particularly in the field of art, have a “therapeutic” effect upon the prisoners.
“By the end of the course they are better behaved than a class of high schoolers. These guys crave discipline and once you give it to them they work very hard,” he said.
New Birth Gospel Tabernacle church was one of the main sponsors for the course, and Bishop Cyprian Williams said at the closing ceremony that his congregation saw the participants not as social pariahs, but as persons in need of a second chance.
“I believe that we are in a season of new beginnings. This programme is a new beginning for [the inmates]. It is a new opportunity for them to shine.
“I want to say to the participants, that they are tomorrow’s heroes. If they take the information they have received and use it to the best of their ability, the best is yet to come,” he said.
Speaking on behalf of those incarcerated at Her Majesty’s Prison, course participant Ricky Ferlance stated that he and his peers felt “blessed” to have an opportunity to demonstrate their talents.
“In prison there are many gifts, talents and abilities that are hidden behind walls, but they are not buried or dead so to speak…and we are thankful for this chance,” Ferlance said before reading a moving poem he wrote called “Words”.
In addition to the poem, many other talents were displayed at the ceremony, including drawings, pottery, hand-made wind chimes and a song called “Praising up the Father” by Java Lawrence that drew loud cheers and applause from the gathered audience of locals and tourists.
The participants were encouraged by the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of National Security, Astona Browne, and the Superintendent of Prisons, Franklyn Dorset, to seize this “golden opportunity” to develop a skill that is in high demand for the St. Kitts-Nevis tourism market.
To this end, the New Birth Gospel Tabernacle donated a surprise gift of EC $4000 for art materials so the prisoners would be able to continue their training until the second and third planned installments of the workshop are held later this year.
