Category: Culture


  • This was another of the Psychology of Carnival Series I did for teleSUR English. Hoping to find all four. Will include the Wayback Machine Link to the original here. Some notes to consider I now spell the festival as Kambule, which is from the Kikongo word for procession. The old understanding was that it evolved…

  • I am sharing some of my articles on my blog, because it seems to be the only way to safeguard them from being erased from the internet. Perhaps they may also find a new audience who may have something interesting to add to the reporting. It also allows me to stop wasting my blog space.…

  • Après Carnival-la and we are here in T&T reminiscing on what we’ve just experienced. This was a different season for me, a returning to centre because I was never a big masquerader. All I did this year on Monday and Tuesday was J’Ouvert with 3Canal which was special. My first was their last as the…

  • I went to the Monday Night Theatre Forum (MNTF) as a reporter with the Caribbean New Media Group (CNMG) in June 2016. I went to report on the talk that veteran actor, director and member of the rapso group 3Canal Wendell Manwarren had to say about his creative life in Trinidad and Tobago. Formed by…

  • [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McPMyu5_3TI?rel=0&w=560&h=315] I’ve been waiting for this video to be released for so many months now. I’d heard snippets from the set from the Producer, and some of the co-ordinators, and have waited with baited breath for its release and finally it’s out. The video released on The Fader Friday. My friend Laura at LoopTT…

  • There’s a conversation that takes place in Jamaica about Dancehall versus Soca very regularly. And that conversation gets very heated around Jamaica Carnival. It’s a hard conversation for me to listen to, because having lived in Jamaica – I studied at UWI, Mona – I hear the xenophobia in the comments. Too often when Jamaican…

  • Local designer Ryan Chan has just released an adult colouring book. You know that I’m obsessed with them. Especially Caribbean colouring books. To the point where I had promised myself that I’m only allowed to buy Jade Gedeon’s Carnival Escape colouring book. I going to break that promise to include this gem. Some pages from…

  • My new favourite thing for Carnival isn’t new at all. It’s a traditional martial art, or fighting style, that was born in Trinidad to African and Indian parents and seems to be having a revival. It’s called Kalinda or Stickfighting. I first went to Stickfighting last year, and had a blast. My favourite thing are…

  • I had a lot of fun this year covering all manner of things cultural and artsy. It was very inspiring to see people doing their thing in this country. It belies the rab that nothing good can come from here. I saw amazing art, and was party to enlightening conversations about design and history. I…

  • Television journalist Soyini Grey of C Television sits with Nigel Campbell to discuss the 2016/2017 budget with reference to the creative industries in light of his recent blogpost which analyses the government’s diminishing response—both financial and conversational—to the idea a creative industry. Video courtesy CNMG Programme Air Date: Tuesday, 28 October, 2016 Programme Length: 0:25:28…