For the sec­ond con­sec­u­tive year, Trinidad and To­ba­go will be rep­re­sent­ed at the Eth­nic Roots In­ter­na­tion­al The­atre Fes­ti­val (FI­ER), to be held from No­vem­ber 5 to 8 in the Arch­i­pel­ago of San An­drés, Old Prov­i­dence, and Saint Cather­ine. The par­tic­i­pa­tion is a col­lab­o­ra­tion be­tween the Em­bassy of Colom­bia in Trinidad and To­ba­go and the lo­cal cul­tur­al sec­tor.

The del­e­ga­tion from the Acad­e­my of the Per­form­ing Arts of Trinidad and To­ba­go will in­clude La Shaun Prescott, Paulette Al­fred, Ki­ran Man­wah, Nkosi Wal­dron, and Safiya Charles. Last year, The Quay’s Foun­da­tion, led by Der­ron Sandy, rep­re­sent­ed the coun­try at the fes­ti­val.

FI­ER will fea­ture 19 groups per­form­ing 25 plays and shows, with rep­re­sen­ta­tion from Colom­bia’s Afro-Colom­bian, Gyp­sy, In­dige­nous, Palen­quero, and Raizal com­mu­ni­ties. Del­e­ga­tions from Ar­genti­na and Ja­maica will al­so at­tend.

The fes­ti­val will in­clude the An­ces­tral Knowl­edge Tent, show­cas­ing cui­sine, crafts, sus­tain­able fash­ion, and lo­cal prod­ucts. Events will be staged at the Portofi­no Events Cen­tre and across lo­cal schools, hos­pi­tals, and com­mu­ni­ties.

Fes­ti­val Di­rec­tor Mar­i­lyn Bisacíno Miller said FI­ER con­tin­ues to pro­mote mem­o­ry, re­sis­tance, and in­ter­cul­tur­al ex­change among Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­can peo­ples.

The Eth­nic Roots Fes­ti­val, now in its 26th year, re­mains one of Colom­bia’s ma­jor cul­tur­al events, cel­e­brat­ing an­ces­tral her­itage through the­atre, dance, mu­sic, and tra­di­tion­al knowl­edge.