Culture

Analyze a Poem written in Virgin Islands Dialect

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The poem “Mistah Please Take Back Yoh Daughter” is from Jose Patrick Gimenez’s book “Virgin Islands Folklore and Other Poems” published in 1933. Gimenez wrote in English, Spanish and West Indian dialect. The language used varied based on the topic of his writing and the intended audience. José Patrick…
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Analyzing Church Records, Female Baptisms, Friedensthal Moravian Church, St. Croix 1764

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Records of baptisms, marriages and deaths of free and enslaved congregational members have been compiled since the Eighteenth Century by the officially sanctioned churches in the Danish West Indies, specifically the Lutheran Church, the Moravian Church, the Anglican Church, the Dutch Reform Church, and the Roman Catholic Church. The…
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Dat Jumbi Woman Poem

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The poem “Dat Jumbi Woman” is from Jose Patrick Gimenez’s book “Virgin Islands Folklore and Other Poems” published in 1933. José Patrick Gimenez (1893-1953) was born in St. Thomas on March 17, 1893. He was a poet and composer. He wrote in English, Spanish and West Indian dialect. He…
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Young Masqueraders, Christiansted, St. Croix

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An African tradition, street masquerading on holidays has been a popular cultural tradition in St. Thomas and St. Croix since the eighteenth century. Initially confined to adults, children have been practitioners since the early twentieth century as demonstrated by this photograph. The early holiday masquerades influenced what would later…
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