Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to Strictly Facts, a guide to Caribbean history and culture, hosted by me, alexandria Miller. Strictly Facts teaches the history, politics and activism of the Caribbean and connects these themes to contemporary music and popular culture. Wagwan people, welcome back. Thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Strictly Facts, a guide to Caribbean history and culture. If you have tuned in for some time, you know I am a big fan of the arts and I mean that in a very encompassing sense.

Speaker 1: 0:36

I think we as a Caribbean people are a very creative set of people, from things of paintings to music to writing and everything in between, and our episode today is no different, as we explore the arts of the Bahamas and a bit of something new that we haven't necessarily talked about before here on the show, exploring a bit of arts education. And so, before we get there, I have to, of course, introduce our lovely guest, keisha Oliver, assistant Professor of Art and Design at the University of Bahamas and a PhD candidate in the dual title Art Education in African American and Diaspora Studies program at the Pennsylvania State University. So, keisha, thank you so much for joining me. It's been a minute since we've seen each other when we met in Puerto Rico. But for our listeners, why don't you tell us a bit about yourself your connection to the Caribbean, of course, and what inspired your interest in Bahamian visual culture and education?

Speaker 2: 1:32

Thank you so much for having me and giving me this opportunity to share. It's nice to be outside of the formal kind of you know settings in a lecture or a formal presentation, so I am quite excited about our discussion. So, as you said, my name is Keisha Oliver. I am a Bahamian artist, scholar. My work kind of intersects heritage studies, arts pedagogy and African diaspora studies, and so my interest really in nurturing and sustaining Bahamian visual culture comes from a desire to continue the legacies of Bahamian women like Pamela Burnside, patricia McCullough and the late Gail Saunders and others who have been cultural advocates and educators who've supported my work and ushered me to this kind of interest for preserving and writing on 20th century Bahamian arts.

Speaker 1: 2:31

I'm certainly really excited for our conversation, especially as it pertains to the arts, because I think, as I mentioned, you know there are so many different forms that we could talk about and, of course, there are definitely similarities and differences, of course, across our different islands. But one that I hope we really tease out through our conversation is talking about arts education, which I'm really interested in hearing your perspectives on. But before we get there, you know, to talk and think through what you would call Afro-Bahamian visual art culture, right, or visual culture rather, and its importance in society. What are some of the earliest forms of Bahamian visual culture that we can overlook when we think of art, as you know, being paintings or sculptures and things like that?

Speaker 2: 3:22

Yes, I think it's such an interesting question, particularly as we think about the idea of preserving what is African, what is indigenous to this part of the world. And for the Bahamas, I think a lot of the practices have been gendered, and straw work in particular. Straw craft has been one of those practices that has leaned towards the weaving of straw, the weaving of sisal and palm leaves by women, right, and so that kind of has come out of a lot of work done by Bahamian scholars, historian Kim Alton Stubbs and her work alongside archaeologist Grace Turner. They wrote a article in the mid-90s. It was titled the Straw Work and was a case study that was actually written for the Smithsonian Folk Festival, so this was 94. And what they allow us to see for the first time in public scholarship and they allow us to learn is that the marketing of straw work really began with the wife of, who was century, and so here we see the involvement of like the wholesale production of straw and it being exported from the Bahamas to Bermuda. And so in the article what they really maintain is that the only sources that they have are evidence from some of the historical documents, like plantation statistics, archaeologists, kind of the research they're doing, and then the surviving traditions that women who are straw vendors are maintaining through the industry right, and so I'm interested in their work and how that work is continuing through more contemporary and emerging scholars like Simone Cambridge, who, when she was at University of Amherst in Massachusetts, she had published this work that was so inspiring because the impetus of the work was from her grandmother's thesis.

Speaker 2: 5:43

The impetus of the work was from her grandmother's thesis, and so here you have this contemporary scholar in 2022 writing about straw craft, straw work, and she's writing about it in reflection of a piece of archival material that she found during her discovery that led her to her grandmother, and so her grandmother's thesis in 1968, along with some more contemporary scholarship by Karen Knowles, which is a strong account of the industry in the Bahamas. These documents start to kind of help us glean a little bit of what the history looks like, because there is no formal text, as it were. We have articles in newspapers, we have articles by scholars, but nothing comprehensive, which is something that I think will be fascinating for this part of the world, and so, for me, what is most interesting with Cambridge's work is because she's not only talking about the historical significance of this practice. But she is then creating a bridge between the historical and the contemporary by now citing exhibitions and artwork by contemporary Bahamian women artists that use the straw craft essence and some of the weaving styles to pay homage to these kind of 19th century practices. Right, and so for me, scholars like Cambridge, and the work that she's doing.

Speaker 2: 7:18

I think there was a recent exhibition that she curated at the National Art Gallery. It was entitled. It comes from the head Straw Heritage, and so she's including artists like Anina Major, artists like Avery Wright, who are ceramicists but also working in the sculptural form and having themselves connections with women in their family who were straw benders. So the contemporary, pulling from the historical, not only through scholarship but through the artistic practice, is quite inspiring for scholars like myself.

Speaker 1: 8:02

That was beautifully said. Especially, I did come across that article, thinking through that scholars work in terms of not only her own scholarship but that of her grandmothers, and I think I'm just really drawn to the way that art brings us through genealogies and you know, your answer helped captivate. What I'm hoping we explore is, you know, this way of us thinking through art and art education, but connecting the past and the present. And so, before we get too much into the present, I do want to take us back a bit to this 20th century moment. I think, especially across a lot of the Anglophone Caribbean, that mid to late 20th century period is, of course, caribbean.

Speaker 1: 8:47

That mid to late 20th century period is, of course, very impactful and influential for a lot of reasons, the main one being independence, obviously. But that period also marks a lot of ways that, as our islands are becoming independent nations, we are trying to, not that we didn't have our own identities, but we're, you know, staking claims at it in very intentional ways as we are becoming independent. And so some of your research, as I know, does touch on this moment and you know what Bahamian visual culture was looking like as we transitioned from being colonies to independent. I know you've given us a few artists already, but who are some of the key artists of this period in the you know like mid 50s and 60s, and how did their experiences shape the artistic identity of the Bahamas?

Speaker 2: 9:36

Thank you for bringing it forward to the 20th century, because I have a little bit more to talk about, seeing that. That's where my scholarship lives, and I'm primarily concerned with the 1950s and 60s because I'm interested in at least reclaiming some of the memories that still exist through some of the figures that are still alive, right, they're mentees, they're students, right. And so that's why I chose to focus on the 20th century in this work. And for the 1950s, for the Bahamas, this prefaced the moment across the Caribbean, diaspora of that nationalist momentum, right Territories becoming independent we have, with the lead of countries like Jamaica and Trinidad in the 60s and the Bahamas in the 70s. I think oftentimes we celebrate those moments in those years but we ignore and this is just, for instance, you know, civilians, my mom, my cousins, co-workers. They forget about what happens before, right, what led up to that, because there was a lot of work, a lot of labor involved in those victories, and so the 1950s and 60s stand out as those periods of labor, and oftentimes the artistic element, and oftentimes the artistic element, the artistic contributions of artists that were also educators, go unnoticed, and for me there were two Caribbean men who led the four as it relates to formal education and informal alternative education outside of the classroom. And those two men were Horace Wright, who was the educator in the formal setting, who would have actually been the only arts educator for the entire Bahamas, which is an archipelago of islands, which is an archipelago of islands, and so imagining that students would only have him once a month, or once every two months, you know, because he had to make his rounds, he had to travel to these different spaces. And then you have a Donald Russell, who was really in the space of alternative arts education, where he was all about what we now would refer to as community arts education and creating spaces that allowed, particularly in this moment of segregation, whites and blacks to learn in the same space. And these were students that were finishing high school and maybe transitioning into the workforce or, for those who are a little bit more privileged, traveling abroad to continue their education, right. And so here we had a space that they could do that.

Speaker 2: 12:40

And what I find most interesting about these individuals, as they are a reflection of the migratory patterns that were so intense at this moment, because here we have Horace Wright that was actually born in Chicago to Jamaican parents and he moved to the Bahamas at the age of two, and so he knew no other home really but the Bahamas.

Speaker 2: 13:05

But he was born to Jamaican parents and born in the United States, right, and so the fluidity of identity is so interesting as it kind of marks our cultural imprinting and what we identify as home or what we identify as personhood, nationhood, and so I find that interesting in his story.

Speaker 2: 13:29

But then when we look at Donald Russell, it's a very similar kind of mobility that has impacted his cultural kind of identity, in the sense that Donald Russell was born to Bahamian parents but he was born in New York and he migrated to the Bahamas. He returned to the Bahamas, I should say, in his late 30s to start the Donald Russell Arts Academy, which was in an academy of sorts Academy is such a extravagant term. It was really a studio, his art studio, that he opened up to a few students who were looking for mentorship and he in a way had started a momentum of community-driven arts experiences that have manifested throughout the years through spaces like Project ICE that opened in the early 2020s. And so we see there that this tradition of learning outside of the formal classroom has a legacy that started with post-independence moment. It started with Donald Russell. So these two icons I'm very fascinated about who they were and what they contributed, particularly because in reading the few texts that exist on Bahamian art history, they only ever appear as footnotes in that history.

Speaker 1: 15:20

I'm always so intrigued when we really dive into people's origins in the way that you carve out for us, because, you know, whether we like it or not, movement and migration is always a part of that Caribbean, not just the islands, right, we move, we come back, we return, as you mentioned, and it's part of not only our individual histories but of, you know, our global capacities and influence on the world in a lot of ways and, as you sort of outlined, for us, right, these are things that are integral to these particular artists and educators, but for us as a people, right, I think it builds bridges in a lot of ways that sometimes, you know, when we tend to think of things along nationalistic lines, it sort of gets away from that point, which I'm really proud of.

Speaker 1: 16:17

In addition, I'm also, you know, really interested in learning more about Russell and his academy, just because, from a Jamaican standpoint at least, you know we talk a lot about Edna Manley and her impact on arts. You know our art school is named after her in Kingston. But what does this sort of moment of Russell's academy mean for the Bahamas, especially along racial lines, as you mentioned?

Speaker 2: 16:45

Yeah, I think it's really important you raising this idea of racial kind of impact, and not only racial impact but economic impact. You know racial capitalism, for example. You know racial capitalism, for example, how that would have created very difficult scenarios for a thriving artistic kind of moment. Right, I often tell students if I'm teaching, particularly a studio class, and you know students often say, oh, art supplies are so expensive, and I think they are, but imagine the masterpieces that were produced that we are in awe of now.

Speaker 2: 17:30

An individual who had no community. That looked like him right In the arts. He had to lean to some of his other colleagues at the time in literary arts, in performing arts, to find a sense of community. And you know, for those listening, you know they may remember the names of TG Glover or RH Sawyer and these educators. They would probably only remember their names because a lot of the educational institutions today that exist secondary education, primary education these schools are named after these individuals because of the impact of their work. And so I think that speaks volumes not only of their contributions individually but collectively and how they would have had to support each other across the arts.

Speaker 2: 18:45

And I like to talk about art with an S because the visual arts, performing arts, literary arts, they all lean on each other in different moments. In the Black Power movement on the United States or the Black Arts movement in the Black Power Movement on the United States, or the Black Arts Movement in the United Kingdom, the Harlem Renaissance. You often realize that the artists are always in community, despite the genre of art that is being produced, right, they inform each other. And so we see how writers like Claude McKay writing about certain artists, um, through articles, through poetry, through book chapters, etc. And I feel for the Bahamas, that was really important during this moment that prefaced independence, because you had this Black majority working together to actually promote the importance of what it means to celebrate who we are. Our identity is through this kind of Black expression, right, this Afro-Bahamian expression through the visual, through the literary, through the performing. And so oftentimes there are images that I share, particularly of Horace Wright, thanks to his granddaughter, who is also an art educator, and Miss Wright she shares this image with me, where you see these art educators Horace Wright standing as really a minority, with a few of his colleagues in other arts departments, but as a minority to the prominent white British educators who, for the most part, dominate the education space and as a residual of that domination, we see that some of the curricula, the textbooks, the language and the structure of our education still reflects that kind of colonial impetus. And so I imagine to be teaching in this moment was very much radical.

Speaker 2: 21:05

We don't speak about Black radical education in the Caribbean. So much Black radicalism typically comes from the African-American spaces, right, black radical thought. However, when we think of CLR James, black radical thought. However, when we think of CLR James, you know we have to remember CLR James and Stuart Hall. These are Caribbeanists, so to speak, who are, yes, speaking often from an African-American space. But again, you speak to migration. But again you speak to migration. Where did these individuals?

Speaker 1: 22:05

come from right, and so I like to think of the work that I'm doing as a continuation of Black radicalism for the Caribbean in how I am hoping to decolonize arts education through the momentum that existed prior to independence.

Speaker 1: 22:10

Certainly, I think that that's a really great point.

Speaker 1: 22:12

Even you know, to add on to CLR James and to Stuart Hall, when we think of radical politics in the Caribbean, it often is in like a political, in terms of like a governmental sense, right, or you know something like that and for us to be able to bring that internally into like an education sense.

Speaker 1: 22:30

I know there has definitely been a lot of conversation around Walter Rodney's impact. You know, at UWE, mona, I think definitely from a higher education space, from a collegiate, you know sense, but to think of arts education as also being an avenue for us to explore, that, I think, is definitely a wonderful thing for us to pay attention to and to also historicize for future generations. You brought up a really interesting point that you know in terms of some of the challenges of establishing arts education in the 50s and the 60s. How have you seen these challenges evolve since then? What are some of the ones that still prevail today, especially as it relates to Afro-Bahamians, and how have aspects of you know things like cultural identity and you know nationalism, et cetera are factored into some of these challenges in arts education today.

Speaker 2: 23:33

I think, going back to the moments that preceded independence, when independence, when the political figures at that time were thinking about ways in which they could reinvent what it means to be Bahamian through this independent moment. And so the arts then become this tool for articulating that message. And in that moment we have figures like E Clements Bethel, who emerges after independence as a kind of minister for culture, for arts, for creativity, and we have in this moment the forming of a collective of creatives like James O'Reill, who was an arts educator, but then he is kind of coming into the space of the state, the government, and working in culture and cultural kind of, not so much preservation but cultural awareness. And what I find interesting is that culture then becomes important to bolster national development. Right, and the challenge, what I've seen happen over the years, is this energy that existed in this moment of independence, the years after independence, where a lot of cultural advocates, historians, archaeologists, writers were excited, right, and so were the political figures, in funding and supporting these individuals and preserving what it means to be Bahamian, what it means to promote Bahamian identity and cultural practices. And year by year, decade by decade, you saw that fade right, that excitement for what it means to be aligned with foreign elements, be it European, be it North American, etc.

Speaker 2: 25:45

Particularly as the tensions with migration, right, and that respectability politics where a lot of Bahamians, particularly searching for what we call quote unquote a better education in North American universities in the 50s and 60s, we see that thrust of students travel and what it means for those students who are then abroad to look back or to return, as you say, and how, little by little, that exodus of knowledge and that return of imparted knowledge, if it even returns, what does that cause for the momentum and for the sustainability and survival for culture?

Speaker 2: 26:33

Because it means, over a period of time, cultural elements are lost or they are changing. Elements are lost or they are changing. And I think historians and cultural advocates from the 70s, they feel that the Haman scholars of tomorrow are not as concerned with their African and indigenous roots and they feel that a lot is being lost. And so for me, I think the challenges are how do you continue to preserve when a lot is changing and how can you actually bring change into the fold, right? How can you convince those veteran historians and scholars and cultural advocates that it's okay to allow for change? Change is inevitable right, and so, for me, that's something that I'm often grappling with.

Speaker 1: 27:31

Definitely. You've certainly given us a lot to think about and also a lot of artists and scholars for us to definitely delve into for our listeners who want to learn more about Bahamian visual culture. What are some of your favorite examples of you know, this 20th century art and art education showing up in popular culture?

Speaker 2: 27:55

I think one of the really interesting, interesting parts or elements of Bahamian culture that has evolved from our African and indigenous identity, you know, from the continent, that persists to now, is this idea of Junkanoo.

Speaker 2: 28:20

Right, junkanoo for us is an arts festival that is celebrated Boxing Day, new Year's Day, and it is traced back to our West African roots.

Speaker 2: 28:31

Right, we make parallels with the Igungun Masquerade Festival of the Yoruba peoples, and what I think is so fascinating is because it's undeniably African but it's also undeniably Bahamian.

Speaker 2: 28:49

And what does that mean? Right, when you see an African Yoruba costume or mask of the, say, the early 19th century, compared to one of the Bahamas in that period, and then comparing those contemporary materials or products of the festival, now, right, it's undeniable that there is a diaspora connection that is so beautiful and so important to this idea of evolution. And I think for me, when we talk about education, that in itself, the materials, the sounds that are produced, because it's a multimodal festival, so we have dance, we have music, we have the artistic elements of the costumes and for students who are either artists or taking art criticism or arts writing, that exists as a form of what I referred to earlier in Simone Cambridge's work, bridging the contemporary with the historical right and showing the value in studying, preserving Bahamian culture and arts over time. Junkanoo is an ideal pedagogical tool to think through these ideas of change, evolution, african Indigenous identity, contemporary interpretations of those identities for students today and tomorrow.

Speaker 1: 30:41

Definitely and one I hope that you know certainly continues. I think especially they were, you know, recently over the Christmas holiday there were a lot of reports for Jamaica's junkanoo and how you know it's decreased significantly over the last you know few decades. So one that I definitely hope not only is preserved but definitely lively. So one that I definitely hope not only is preserved but definitely lively, and continues in mass for all of the region.

Speaker 2: 31:24

But I have a question for you, and this is why I think now the state in the Bahamas is taking an interest in, a serious interest in investing in culture when establishing a I think it was last early last year a museum dedicated for John Canoe. I think investments like that really speak to the level of value, because oftentimes you realize certain disciplines within the academy, certain ideas and ideologies do not resonate as valuable as currency, right um for small island, developing states like, uh, jamaica, like the bahamas, and can you, can you say that jamaica, outside of music, outside of the arts, is the festival um johnoo has been given that same level of um value for your, for your government no, I wouldn't.

Speaker 1: 32:10

I think you know, in a lot of ways, folk cultures if that's what some people would certainly label junkanoo or other sorts of um creative and cultural practices as compared to you know, like latter 20th century um practices between reggae and dancehall especially become, come to dominate and, of course, from a financial aspect, they are bringing in monies in droves in ways that I think there's definitely more investment.

Speaker 1: 32:38

Um, from a governmental sense, looked towards um, but the, of course, the thing that we always have to be aware of as people, as islands, as um, as our, you know, as caribbean people, is, yes, the money coming in from tourism etc is definitely important, but there comes a time where we have to definitely be aware of how neglecting some of the things that made us who we are and in this case you know we're talking about Junkanoo, but neglecting the histories and the importance of some of those early practices in our early development, will then lead to sort of like a watering down. I mean, there are a lot of folk practices that went on to influence Jamaican popular culture, particularly music, especially when we're thinking of things like kumina and definitely other folk religious and cultural practices. And yeah, to your question, if we continue to neglect them from, like you know, a more focused point on what's solely bringing in money, we will lose parts of who we are. For generations to come, we won't be the same.

Speaker 2: 33:53

But why I ask? Is because you know I had written a paper recently trying to kind of make these connections diasporically with Caribbean territories like Jamaica, like the Bahamas. And as you're aware, you know Jamaica and the Bahamas are very, very different. You know the Bahamas is a lot smaller. They became independent almost 10 years later. So I feel like you could almost make these parallels with how the cultural kind of evolution of the Afro elements of Jamaicans cultural evolution were so much further ahead because of that, because of them becoming independent, because they were a lot larger.

Speaker 2: 34:45

So the dominance of the mass of people and then also the migration patterns. There had been a lot of migration between Jamaica and the Bahamas, mainly outward, from Jamaica to the Bahamas. In education I couldn't identify if arts education was specifically impacted. But I raise that point because I think that the more we can lean into really investigating and critiquing these kind of cultural flows, right of knowledge and artistic production, we may glean some very interesting kind of scholarship that has never really been thought of, right, because we're always thinking about migration outward, to you know first world countries for example, and not really making more of the diasporic kind of connections with that mobility, particularly from an educational standpoint, kind of connections with that mobility, particularly from an educational standpoint. And so I thought, yeah, jamaica is of interest, and also Haiti, but that's a whole other conversation.

Speaker 1: 35:50

Yeah, certainly I think to your point on diaspora, right like that's definitely one of my impetuses for starting this show. I think I've been able to, through my own education, study and explore some of these similarities and continuities through migration and things to that nature, but they're not always as present in conversation and I think in a lot of ways it's not only just about the scholarship that could be produced, but definitely for our own. You know cultural or communal preservations, right as you brought up the state a little bit ago, and you know the problems with the state in preserving some of these things. Sometimes we have to do it for ourselves, and so that's something that you know I'm passionate about in terms of, you know, just harboring and documenting our own stories for that legacy for the future and documenting our own stories for that legacy for the future.

Speaker 2: 36:44

Yeah, and I commend you on that works, because I feel that, mainly for archival purposes and we see particularly a lot what's going on in the US that we have to look to alternative ways of preserving outside of the institutions, because everything is at risk, right, because everything is at risk right. And so I think for me, I've always been very much big on community archiving or citizen archiving and personal archives and things being multi-sided, particularly with climate change being imminent threats to the Caribbean, what it means for us to think about having our legacies continue outside of the fact that, you know, in 2050, the Bahamas may no longer be where it is, it may be underwater, right, and so how do we preserve who Bahamians were outside of the physicality of the Bahamas? And so, yeah, I think the work that you're doing kind of speaks to those alternative ways that we can continue the conversation and be in community, outside of national community but Caribbean community, diaspora community to come to these solutions.

Speaker 1: 37:57

Certainly, certainly, I think that, you know, definitely brings me to my final question as our you know Bahamian art expert, for our episode today what are certainly some of your hopes for the future of Bahamian art, caribbean art and the arts education that is, you know, obviously intertwined with our discussion today?

Speaker 2: 38:20

you know, obviously intertwined with our, our discussion today. So, for me, I am really leaning towards, like I'd mentioned previously, this idea of actually challenging my past self. And so, when I started my doctoral program, I was upset, I was livid. I'm like why does so much of the Hayman history exist outside of the bahamas? Why is it so much more accessible to me, um, once I am not home, to access this information, right, and these repositories that exist in europe, in the us, etc. And now I'm realizing, like I mentioned previously, about the threat of climate change, particularly with flooding and islands not being habitable, etc.

Speaker 2: 39:03

There is value with this idea of multi-sidedness, right, but not only multi-sidedness, but the multi-modality, the fact that not all elements of culture will resonate in written form or be articulated well in written form.

Speaker 2: 39:19

But we need to think about podcasts, right, oral histories, song, dance, other ways, african diasporic archival methods is what interests me.

Speaker 2: 39:34

Or Black diasporic archival methods, or preservation methods that not only embody who we are, but look back on some of the indigenous practices of our ancestors and bring them to the, to the fore right, bring them to the contemporary being, um, so that we can honor our ancestors but we can also be moving in a way that decolonizes a lot of what we know to be archiving or preservation. So for me I'm using art education as a inroad to think about the broader aspect of cultural heritage and documenting aspect of cultural heritage. And documenting, reclaiming through discovery of archives, mainly in the United States because that's where I'm located now, but over the next year when I start to travel with my research in Europe, specifically in London, and looking at those archives and almost creating like a network so that this idea of discovery we can illuminate what exists in these archives and almost create a way for future researchers to have the resources that are needed to create the educational material to teach and to nurture this idea of community art education. So I hope that answers your question?

Speaker 1: 41:10

Yes, it does.

Speaker 1: 41:10

I think in a lot of ways, you know, our inspirations are very similar right To document these things for ourselves in ways for them to last, right, so these histories are not lost, especially when that comes to being predominantly communities that are Afro diasporic communities, and so any ways that we can continue these things and make them more accessible, whether that be digitally or you know other avenues, as you mentioned is something that I'm always excited about and definitely rooting for you as you enter this fieldwork and dissertation stage, because I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes of your work in terms of arts, education and so, with that, our Strictly Facts family.

Speaker 1: 41:56

I hope you really enjoyed listening to this episode. I know it was one that, for me, brought a lot of pieces together that I'm interested in between education and the arts. You know, black Power, movements, empowerment, all of these things communal practices and community and, yeah, I will definitely add a lot of the links and stuff that we mentioned today to the Strictly Facts syllabus for our listeners to check out. Um, thank you so much, keisha, for sharing with us about, you know, your own personal history and journey and, um, academic work and interest, and you know, till next time, little more.

Speaker 2: 42:33

I appreciate you. Thank you so much Strictly Facts.

Speaker 1: 42:37

Thanks for tuning in to Strictly Facts.