:: some kinda funny "porto rican" ::
screening saturday 6.3 :: steel yard theatre :: 9p
presentation prior to screening
The title, SOME KIND OF FUNNY "PORTO RICAN", is derived from an actual comment made many, many years ago. My beau's brother was a student at Brown University in Providence, RI. Upon learning that his brother had met a Cape Verdean girl from Providence, the Brown student replied, "Cape Verdean? Oh, there are a lot of them around here; they're some kind of funny "Porto Ricans." (Note: spelling of "Porto" is the way it was pronounced, hence the spelling in the title). This is a classic example of the (mis)perceptions of Cape Verdean Americans. Rich anecdotal stories like this abound, adding texture and shape to the reflections, observations and experiences--joyous and painful--of growing up in this close, self-contained New England community.
The community of Fox Point was situated near the waterfront and the Port of Providence. Clustered in tenements, families, relatives and friends lived within shouting distance of one another. Once a bustling port for loose cargo-lumber, coal, scrap iron-most of the men from the Point "worked the boats" as proud members of the Longshoremen's Union Local l329.
Three generations of Cape Verdeans were born and raised in this tight knit neighborhood that stretched along the waterfront. Uprooted by urban renewal in the l970s, the disbanded Cape Verdeans scattered to other parts of Rhode Island. Yet Fox Point remains "home" - at least in heart and spirit-for Cape Verdeans who lived "down the Point." SOME KIND OF FUNNY "PORTO RICAN"?© chronicles this community's history, music, ties to the old country, and the maritime/seafaring traditions, especially the longshoremen, who "worked the boats" in the Port of Providence. The narrative vehicle for SKFPR is my childhood memories of family, friends, textures and sounds of the l950s, l960s and early l970s in the Cape Verdean Fox Point section of Providence, Rhode Island.
SKFPR does not attempt to be the definitive word on the "Cape Verdean" experience. What the project endeavors to do is to tell a story that is rich in human experience and scholarly detail. The search for visual material for this project has been an ongoing hunt for over twenty years.
about the artists
Claire Andrade-Watkins
