Originally published in the Trinidad Guardian in January 2021 under the title ‘Leave me let me wine” this article and video that explored the history of our wine, so the conference mentioned took place in 2021. The Caribbean wine is a thing of wonder, and sometimes derision. We have a love/hate relationship with the movement.…
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.…
Bahamas Carnival just ended and Machel Montano and Bunji Garlin were there. It was the first time the pair performed their soca hit Busshead outside of Trinidad. The duo were interviewed about their collaboration, and careers, on ILTV’s chat show The Stew. They’ve (the show’s producers) posted the entire episode online, so you can fast…
The Voices From Inside event was one of those really nice and hopeful events that make you believe in the potential of us all to do good things. It was a showcase of the prisoners’ poetry, and a reading from Dr. Baz Dresinger’s new book Incarcerated Nations. She had travelled all over, looking at our…
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…
In the 7 years it’s been around, Bocas has grown from strength to strength. The annual literary festival has hosted some of the most successful and interesting writers, publishers and poets of Caribbean, and World literature. And because it’s in Trinidad, there’s a non-pretentiousness to the proceedings that may make your faves seem significantly more approachable.…
The Africa World Film Festival started today. Screenings will be held at UWI’s Film School in St. Augustine, and at the Caribbean Traveling Film School on Gordon Street in Port of Spain. This is the 10 year anniversary of the film festival, so they’re doing a retrospective. Yesterday, I spoke to Festival Coordinator Wayne Cezair…
Michiel van Hout created the Holy Week Art Exhibition to help him find a space in the local art scene for his work. Michiel is a religious artist, and for him his work is a reflection of his faith. It is also part of his spiritual practice. The Holy Week Art Exhibition was created because…
I have it. Jade Gadeon’s Carnival, adult colouring book. Jade has realistically rendered the costumes, colour and music of Trinidad Carnival. You can tell that the book was made by a mas playing Trini. I was surprised by the Minshall costumes that she included in the book. She clearly had access to his work. I…
The Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival tries to showcase Trinbagonian and Caribbean films outside of the traditional festival period. Their Carnival Film Series (to diffrentiate it from its main festival) has been going on for a few years now. This year they decided to take a look back. The Film Series will feature 3 feature…