(The following is an extract of an interview with Burchmore Simon in Georgetown, Guyana, August 2015. Simon, a musician, is founder of Kross Kolor Records and Guyana Music Network)

Petamber Persaud (PP): We must expand on that; this creativity is hardly seen, it is an intangible. When former President Desmond Hoyte established ‘The Guyana Prize for Literature, he said, ‘We must give stature and status to our makers of words as we do to our makers of things.’ At that time, 1987, Hoyte saw the importance of the arts. But back to you and the intangible. Now, when you’re locked away in your studio, sort of sealed off from the outside, what is this thing you do? Is it a product?

Burchmore Simon (BS): It is a product that someone else could take and use without a financial transaction.

(PP): Why do others treat your product and my product as if it is nothing, it has no value?

(BS): Because they see it as an intangible thing. There is no weight levied on talent and creativity. And I don’t understand that, because if you look at, say, Michael Jackson’s ‘Thriller’ selling eighty million copies and selling at say one dollar each, that’s eighty million dollars! But somehow in Guyana we have traditionally seen creativity as intangible – it has no weight, no value, because for non-creative people it seems to come so easily. They think that writing a song is a couple of words you put together. But if you should minus music from the world – from all the television and radio ads, from all the films and operas — just minus music for just one day from your life and tell me what you come up with; it is empty…

(PP): It would be a sad world

(BS): An extremely sad world. So we need to start from the government, from the top. We need to treat creativity as an industry, like becoming a doctor or a lawyer or any other professional. So when I’m in my studio working, I expect value for my work, just like a tailor who makes a shirt or a jacket and sells it for money; he expects to be paid for his work.

At Kross Kolor, we create a piece of music, or Petamber writes a book; that is your creative energy turned into a commodity, a product, from which you expect a return, like from rice, sugar, bauxite, gold. We expect a return, and despite reports after reports of billions of dollars being brought back to a country in foreign exchange, like Jamaica and Barbados, Guyana has failed miserably to take hold of that opportunity. But it’s not too late…

(PP): No, it’s not too late. What I’m getting from you is that there is somewhere to start and we could start with the legislation revamping those laws.

(BS): And the legislation is not the panacea, is not the end-all of it; but it provides that stage on which we can build so many things.
Think of stimulating an industry where you have all the village competitions in terms of music, poetry, art; the government providing performance centres in area of Guyana – that would be the rebirth of art and culture and literature and everything ….

(PP): We must look at it as an industry. I write, someone else does the layout and design, someone else the book covers, someone else printing and publishing. You make music, someone prints and designs the labels, someone else the DVD jackets; then there is marketing, storage and distribution. So many aspects/spinoffs to an industry…

(BS): Licencing…
(PP): Designing…
(BS): It is an industry that is bearing fruits for millions of people from around the world. Look at America; why is America so powerful? Is it because of their art, their sport? No, it is mainly because of how they export those things. Look at how the foreign culture has dominated Guyana…

(PP): And we have to pay for that…
(BS): Yes, to the detriment of our own…

(PP): Burchmore, you have produced music, you have ‘found’ and nurtured many singers and performers. The talent is there…

(BS): But look what is perpetuated on local radio and television. 99% of what is aired to the people is foreign. We have had our fits and starts and little glory areas, but it has not become institutionalized that we push our own, a national pride; that I prefer to play a Jomo Primo instead of a Machel Montana. That’s what I’m talking about. That is what we need! We need a general resurgence; that force coming from the people to the people; our national radio station making it mandatory that we will also play 60% local content. Then you encourage me and all the other local people to create and fill that void, and a chain reaction begins. We can’t stop importing, but I, as a Guyanese, can make that commitment to support our own. So when I use the example of the restoration of the Arch, I felt so good — national pride — that resurgence of pride in your own! That is what Guyana is missing, and if we can harness that, whether it is our products using art and culture, and if we can then extend that to the people, what unity and prosperity will prevail!

(PP): I need to slow down, because something is growing on me. I’m getting the feel (of) how important we the creators are, and how important we the creators are to a country’s wellbeing. You are into music in a big way, let’s play that analogy, think about putting different words and phrases, bits and pieces to create a harmony, and you are able to do it. Let’s think of copyright in this same way — bringing harmony to our creative industries.

(BS): And that’s what I’m talking about. If we can develop respect for the work we create…

(PP): Great word that: ‘respect’. We will spend some time on respect for the work of the writer, artist, performer…

(BS): Once I respect what I create, I respect you as a fellow Guyanese; because I understand what it is to love what I create. And what I create is my child that I nurture, that I develop, that I give you as a gift, and you’re supposed to take care of that gift and add value to that gift as we go along. But we don’t get that from people with creativity in Guyana, and creativity and the creative industries can bring so much more joy and pride to Guyanese people. But we need to add value to it. The requisite framework MUST be put into place, not SHOULD be in place, but must be in place so that we must have a creative environment — that enabling environment that we can earn from our creativity. It is a love for Guyana that has kept many of us here. That love of country…

(PP): Fortunately/unfortunately…

(BS): I don’t know, but we are here because we want to see things get better. So let’s have these things in place…
(PP): And the onus is on us to make it happen.

(BS): Yes, the onus is on us, the creative people…

(PP): Having said all of that, there are some people who are benefiting from the ‘confusion’…

(BS): Yes, the pirates, but there is a legitimate way to do things and to stay in business. The owners of copyright get a cut, the foreign companies get a cut, the creators get a cut, the local country gets a cut…

(PP): A win-win situation….

Responses to this author telephone (592) 226-0065 or email: oraltradition2002@yahoo.com

WHAT’S HAPPENING:
The Guyana Annual Magazine 2014-2015 issue in now available at Guyenterprise Ltd., Lance Gibbs and Irving Streets, Tel # 226-9874 and from yours truly.

By Petamber Persaud