Students stepped out of their classrooms Friday and into living history as schools from across St. Croix gathered at the Estate Whim Museum for hands-on cultural workshops as part of the fourth annual Virgin Islands Folklife Festival.
The interactive sessions introduced students to traditional Virgin Islands culture through music, dancing, cooking, art, and storytelling led by local culture bearers and artisans. Throughout the morning, students rotated through workshops where they learned about traditional foods, watched cultural dance demonstrations, participated in mask-making activities, and experienced storytelling and music that reflected the territory’s heritage.
The workshops were part of the opening activities for the festival presented by Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights, the internationally recognized Quelbe ensemble led for more than five decades by master flutist Stanley Jacobs. From their home island of St. Croix, the group has helped carry Quelbe across the Caribbean and around the world.
Festival coordinator Kendall Henry said the goal of the festival is to highlight the people who have preserved the territory’s traditions.
“The Folklife Festival is about honoring the people who have kept our traditions alive — often without recognition,” Henry said. “We are creating a space where culture is not simply performed but understood.”
Henry described the festival as both a celebration and a “living archive,” where cultural knowledge is passed from one generation to the next.
“Our culture has never been static,” he added. “It evolves. But it evolves best when we understand where it comes from.”
One of the highlights of the day was a cooking demonstration led by Alda Francis, who showed students how to prepare traditional banana fritters while explaining the history behind the dish and its connection to earlier generations.
“People didn’t have the luxury of throwing food away,” Francis told students. “Anything they had, they preserved it in some fashion. Banana fritters is one of those things that came about out of not throwing away bananas.”
Francis explained that traditional banana fritters differ from banana pancakes, noting that the original recipe uses only simple ingredients.
“In traditional amounts, there’s no eggs, there’s no milk, none of those other additives,” she said. “Just very basic flour, banana, sugar or some form of sweetener, and a few spices.”
According to Francis, those choices were practical. Adding milk or eggs meant the fritters would spoil faster, especially in earlier times when refrigeration was not available.
“If you add milk, it takes away the shelf life of staying out on the table,” she explained. “So we go back to the very traditional way.”
Francis also encouraged students to think about how resourceful earlier generations were when it came to cooking. Depending on what ingredients were available, different types of fritters could be made.
“If there were no bananas on the trees and you had corn, you shaved the corn,” she said. “If you had leftover rice, you mixed it up and made fritters from that too. You could actually make fritters out of anything.”
She also pointed out that the fruit’s flavor plays a role in the dish’s taste.
“The taste of banana fritters made with local bananas is very different to the taste of bananas bought from the store,” Francis said. “Bananas from the store don’t have the opportunity to go through the right ripening process naturally, so the smell and flavor are different.”
While the culinary workshop gave students a taste of traditional foodways, other sessions throughout the day highlighted storytelling traditions, artisan crafts, and demonstrations of traditional quadrille dance. Students also learned about Quelbe, the official music of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
A session where Henry taught students the maypole dance proved both challenging and fun, as students moved in and out, trying not to bump into one another. Meanwhile, Cedelle Petersen shared an Anansi story while students giggled and listened closely.
The celebration continues throughout the coming weeks with events across the territory. On Saturday, the Folklife Festival Awards Celebration honoring Virgin Islands culture bearers will take place at Fort Frederik beginning at 7 p.m.
On Sunday, the public is invited back to Estate Whim Museum for Folklife Festival Day from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., featuring cultural workshops, Quelbe music, quadrille dance demonstrations, cooking demonstrations, and storytelling sessions.
Additional events include St. Croix cultural school tours from March 9 through March 12, featuring student demonstrations in quadrille dance, Quelbe music, head ties, and maypole traditions.
A culinary event titled “A Crucian Taste” will take place on March 14 at Fort Frederik, offering a tasting and discussion of traditional Crucian cuisine. Admission is $25.
Later in the month, “A Night of Storytelling” will be held on March 20 at Fort Christian at 7 p.m., highlighting stories rooted in Virgin Islands history, memory, and tradition.
The festival will also host “A Cultural Day in the Park” on March 21 at Emancipation Garden from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., featuring live music, dance, food, art workshops, and cultural displays.
Summer programming will continue with the Quelbe Tramp and Quadrille Under the Stars with Verne Richards on July 3 at Veterans Park, followed by the Folklife Festival Youth Workshop at Estate Whim Museum from July 21 through July 23.
Many of the events are free and open to the public, offering residents and visitors an opportunity to experience the traditions that continue to shape the cultural identity of the U.S. Virgin Islands.
