Trinidadians are being chastised for not learning the lessons of the pandemic. Cultural Studies Lecturer Dr. Kai Barratt says the One Caribbean Music Festival featuring Dancehall artist Adija Palmer aka Vybz Kartel is a type of insecurity that exists in this country for foreign validation. The organisers say the show which is scheduled for Carnival…
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.…
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.…
[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…
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…
If you are coming to Trinidad for Carnival bookmark this post because it has the dates of all the must-see, never-been-to-but-want-to, and regional Carnival events for Carnival 2017. This first is from the Ministry of Community Development, Culture and the Arts. The Second is from the National Carnival Commission. This one is the one to…