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Today we remember Sir Rupert ‘The Mighty Swallow’ Philo through “Wire’s” spontaneous reflections, which he extended and has agreed to share.
We release these musings as they reflect an up-close-grassroots view of King Swallow, who felt particularly at home among and was warmly embraced by, that generation of Trinbagonians of the “earlies”–the latter part of the 1960s–who led the way carving a path, a cultural space, for calypso and then soca in New York.
“Wire”–a talented cultural worker in his own right– comes out of, and belongs to, that generation of legendary cultural warriors, our unsung heroes, who contributed and helped shape the West Indian cultural personality in Brooklyn and NY generally. Swallow was most at home right there, in that emerging, underground cultural space.
Ever fresh, the King of Brooklyn Labor Day, who had an uncanny ability to capture the Caribbean spirit and heartbeat in a song, went on to connect solidly with generations of newer arrivants who followed in the 1970s, 80s, 90s, and the first two decades of the 21st century. A slice of Swallow’s decades of fantastic work is here sampled in ‘Wire’s’, “Rememebring Our ‘Soca Warrior'” [and in James ‘Nick’ Cox’s, “Memories of the Mighty Swallow.”]
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Roger Toussaint, former President of the Transport Workers Union, Local 100, who led the 2005 NYC Transit Strike, is a founding member of the Caribbean Awareness Committee, NYC.