– is the theme of Guyana Folk Festival 2020

THIS year, the Guyana Cultural Association of New York, the organisation that hosts the annual Guyana Folk Festival in Brooklyn, New York will celebrate its 20th anniversary.

Typically, four of the season’s signature events are held during the week leading up to Labour Day, the first Monday in September.
Over the past 20 years, the Guyana Folk Festival has emerged as the largest Guyanese summer festival in New York. Each year, Guyanese in Brooklyn welcome Guyanese from home and across the diaspora to this celebration of Guyana’s multi-ethnic heritage and creativity.
According to a release, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Guyana Folk Festival season will be different. It will be virtual and the 2020 theme is “Reflection & Reaffirmation”.

This focus has informed two of the season’s recently concluded signature events, namely the Summer Workshop Series (July 4–August 4, 2020) and the Literary Hang and Symposium (August 22, 2020).

“In both of those events, using Zoom and Facebook, we were able to widen the scope to include participants from Guyana and across the Guyanese diaspora. The same is expected for the upcoming signature events: The annual Awards Ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday, September 2 at 18:00 hours. The GCA Annual Awards will bestowed, the Godfrey Chin Prizes for Heritage Journalism will be awarded, and two new prizes for 2021 will be announced. The event will be live streamed on the GCA Facebook page,” the organisers said.

A ‘Queh Queh’ night is also on schedule.
“We will draw upon our archives to showcase this distinctive Guyanese premarital tradition. In addition, we will explore the similarities between ‘Queh queh’ and other premarital traditions, such as ‘matticore’, in Guyana and our continental African and Indian root cultures. Family Fun Day, which is scheduled for Sunday, September 6 from 15:00 hours, will showcase global Guyana,” the release concluded.