In the summer of 2013, which marked the fortieth anniversary of Bahamian independence from British colonialism, Meris met with forty people of all walks of life living in the Bahamas - from civil servants to art patrons to college students- to individually investigate the essence of what it means to be Bahamian. Meris made forty ceramic teacups and saucers and had forty individual conversations that transcended social, economic, ethnic, and racial boundaries. After each conversation, Meris traded a teacup and a saucer with the participant. Dis We Tea Party is a physical manifestation of my findings: diverse, symbolic, personal, and collective. In 2014, TEDx Nassau invited Meris to present on Dis We Tea Party
.Meris was born in Haiti to an unmarried woman who was born in the Bahamas before the Bahamas declared independence from the United Kingdom in 1973; by Bahamian law, this makes him a Bahamian citizen. Although growing up, society treats people of Haitian descent as third-class, which, for much of Meris's youth, presented an identity crisis. Forty years later, we citizens and children of the soil and blood find ourselves pondering the existential question: What does it mean to be Bahamian? More globally, how can we look beyond a singular romantic view of homogeneous citizenship? If we are different, how do we allow space for difference?
Here, Meris had tea with abstract expressionist painter from the Bahamas Kendal Hanna (1936- 2024)
Meris had tea with Royann Dean, creative consultant, brand strategist.
Meris had tea with Dr Peter Bailey, professor and writer at the University of the Bahamas.
Meris had tea with creative and artist Harry Wallace
Here, Meris has tea with Amanda Coulson former director of the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas.
Meris traded a teacup and saucer that he made in exchange for this cup and saucer from self described cultural warrior Angelique McCkay
Meris traded a teacup and saucer that he made in exchange for this cup from artist Dionne Benjamin Smith
Meris traded a teacup and saucer that he made in exchange for this cup from businessman Ted Coakley
Meris traded a teacup and saucer that he made in exchange for this cup from artist Stan Burnside
Meris traded a teacup and saucer that he made in exchange for this cup from art patron Saskia D’Aguilar
Dis We Tea Party, 2013, socially engaged work involving conversations over tea, exhibited at Central Bank of the Bahamas Art Gallery, collection of Central Bank of the Bahamas