Our Old-Fashioned Island: The Alliouagana Singers Reflect
Our Old-Fashioned Island: The Alliouagana Singers Reflect
The Alliouagana Singers are proud to announce the publication of their first book, ‘Our Old-Fashioned Island’: The Alliouagana Singers Reflect, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the volcanic crisis on Montserrat.
The book is a collection of poems and short stories chronicling the experiences of the choir members during the chaotic and traumatic early years, as well as their reflections during the subsequent years re-building their lives in the UK.
The book also celebrates the 15th Anniversary of the Alliouagana Singers, and is a tribute to the Group’s founder, Beverley Dewar.
The Alliouagana Singers is a non-denominational, London-based choral group that is committed to preserving Montserratness within a rich Caribbean heritage via music and songs - gospel, negro-spiritual, folk, reggae, calypso, contemporary, and other non-Caribbean genres. Early settlers of the island, the Amerindians, named the island Alliouagana, a name derived from an Amerindian term for the ‘prickly bush’ that was found in abundance on the island, hence the name Alliouagana Singers. The Oriole and the Heliconia are national bird and flower of Montserrat, respectively. The Group has therefore adopted an image of the oriole on the heliconia flower as its Montserratian character representation.