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“[W]e were passionate about Laventille and the lack of recognition of Laventille as the cultural womb of our society. [Leroy and I] used to have many, many conversations about Laventille and giving recognition to the heart of Laventille: Desperadoes and (the recently departed) Brother Resistance (Lutalo Masimba).” Poet Laureate Eintou Pearl Springer
November 1, 2021
Iron Love: A Book of the Desperadoes Steel Orchestra
By Patrick Roberts
PR Trinidad Publishing, 2021
US$50
215 pp. Illustrated, Hardcover.
“Isn’t it a beauty?” My words to a friend who was sharing her excitement after reading ‘Iron Love.’ I continued, “Ever so often I reach for it to re-read a line or paragraph… this could easily be an international Best Seller!”
Like a thrilling movie series done too soon, one is left yearning for a sequel for more intimate glimpses into Despers and Laventille and even of the author himself.
‘Iron Love,’ by Patrick Roberts, a book about the world-renowned Laventille born and bred Desperadoes Steel Orchestra, is an enthralling historical, sociological, spiritual, cultural, and biographical discourse. An excellent narrative of not just the conception of our best
A pastel painting on watercolour paper (by Patrick Roberts) of the first Spiritual Baptist Cathedral built in Trinidad in 1920 at 192 Laventille Road by Brother Taffy. In the prologue of The Dragon Can’t Dance, Earl Lovelace features Brother Taffy.
steel band, but of the Midwives, Doctors and Ancillary staff – enablers of its birth–and the Elders, Arrangers, Captains; the entire Laventille community, who groomed and raised it and continue to, ensuring that the Despers Brand reigns larger than life, always.
Iron Love is just not words, though. In true West Indian style, there is a lagniappe housed within its centerfold. An Art Gallery of beautiful period architecture, Gingerbread Houses, Chattel Houses, some recently deemed Heritage Sites, but all of them housed the minds and souls of ancestors and their descendants of the immediate and extended Laventille/Despers family
A compelling and easy read. Patrick Roberts seems to be sitting at our side, professing his deep love for Despers and Laventille.
He regales us with some saucy snippets of his personal growth, neatly embroidered within the folds and foibles of that great steel band and its largely misunderstood womb, that suburb of Port of Spain. Iron Love takes us on a compelling journey. Events outlined in 1834 hold our interest as much as the events of 2021.
Throughout it, all, the pervasive motifs of love, loyalty, and commitment abound. And most of all, just in case you were uncertain, it is made joyfully clear that Despers IS Laventille and Laventille IS Despers – Iron Love.
To order book, send an email to: patrickroberts779@gmail.com
Stella Richards-Alleyne is an Educator, Researcher/ Exponent of the Traditional Mas Characters of Trinidad and Tobago particularly, “The Bat.”