Search Results for: winthrop r holder, don't tell me

Reading Time 7 mins November 5, 2024 “The optics from Tim Walz is still an old white male… I think this country does not want to see old white males right at the forefront right now… The language of politics is dead.” — Charlemagne, The God*   Today might be the most significant election in my lifetime. I am an immigrant and a former high school Social Studies teacher. When I look in the mirror, I see that I am no longer retired but must enlist in an army of teachers, former students, and other people of conscience to save our… Read More »V. P. WALZ, FOMENTING STUDENT ACTIVISM/Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 8 minsJuly 9, 2021 Happy Birthday, Slinger Francisco, aka Mighty Sparrow! On this, his 86th birthday, Big Drum Nation is pleased to republish Winthrop R. Holder’s Reflections on “Soca Anthology: Dr. Bird- – The Mighty Sparrow.” – BDN Editors “That little poowatee man… A little piss’n tail, man.” Jean in Tony Hall’s Jean and Dinah: A Lordstreet Lime “… they fighting for progress to stop.” Mighty Sparrow “The year introduced a calypsonian who was destined to be the most popular for most of the rest of the century. His contribution in 1956 made an impact that no calypso before or after… Read More »Celebrating the Genius of Slinger Francisco: Reflections on the Sparrow Anthology–Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 10 mins April 7, 2024 “The country … seems to be trapped in a state of in-betwenity.” — DBM Finding the almost hidden “Dom Basil Matthews: Nihil Omnino Christo” in the back of the CD stack in a music store and reading the liner notes, I wondered how could the producers, Gil Figaro and Joe Brown, pull off the improbable: use a mere CD to celebrate/commemorate the life work of such a multi-faceted personality as Dom Basil Matthews. Since I avoided Latin in high school, the “Nhil Omino Christo” made me cringe and wonder if a lot of… Read More »Dom Basil Matthews: Pedagogue of God*  — Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 11 mins February 26, 2023 I. Prologue: ‘A Source of Authenticity’ “I think every poet of any modesty hopes to make just a small contribution to the sound of the world’s hum.”–Derek Walcott “Ah fraid he jail me like he jail Rex Lassalle.” –Chalkdust, “Ah ‘Fraid Karl“ “The Commonwealth Court Martial was my 3rd Court Martial… I never accepted the Colonial narrative that was its dominant feature and openly challenged it when… BS came up.” –Rex Lassalle, February 6, 2023 Who,  then, is this man Rex Lassalle? And from which source springs his hope? Though he says that he only started writing… Read More »In Conversation With Rex Lassalle On 1970 And Beyond*–Winthrop (troppy) Holder

Reading Time 26 minsJanuary 7, 2023 (First published in Trinidad and Tobago Review, October 6, 2008). A Wide-Ranging Appreciation Of Black Stalin’s ‘Hard Wuk’ (PART TWO) “It’s important to see us through our language…. When I say our language, I mean our Resistance English. [Our] music is for the world but, again, through our eyes.” – Black Stalin, 2001 Commenting on Spice islander talkshop–which approximates a public university where everyone is both student and professor–Bigdrumnation asserts, “Stalin conferred on Brother Valentino the title of ‘People’s Calypsonian’ [and] Stalin lavished tributes (in song)… on panist Winston ‘Spree’ Simon, and chutney singer Sundar Popo.” Just… Read More »A Kaiso Doctor(Black Stalin): Give Praise and Thanks! (Part II)/Winthrop R. Holder*

Reading Time 11 minsDecember 30, 2022 (First published in Trinidad and Tobago Review, October 6, 2008). AN APPRECIATION “You cannot see a light if it is put in a place of brightness, so it was necessary that [European colonists] create darkness so that their light would shine.” Earl Lovelace, Trinidad and Tobago Review, June 1998 “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.” Proust Debate, rather a celebration, broke out on Spiceislandertalkshop.com, an open Grenadian forum on the Internet, when word leaked, from the ivory showers of the University of the West Indies,… Read More »A Kaiso Doctor(Black Stalin): Give Praise and Thanks!/Winthrop R. Holder*

Reading Time 8 minsMay 25, 2021 _________________________________________________________________________ Indeed, Kevin Pope was a boss lyricist who, by the sheer power of crisp and deft word choice and masterly rhyme scheme, brought his audiences into his scenes and compositions as participants… He didn’t sing to an audience but with them. The bard served as a vehicle that gave Voice to those on the margins. By recording the lives of ordinary folks in song, he not only validated them but may well have re-fashioned and extended lives—social realism at its best! __________________________________________________________________________   “Mussolini, you too brass face and bold/ Ah mean to claim our… Read More »Calypso In The Service of African Liberation: Kelvin (‘Mighty Duke’) Pope’s Contribution– Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 10 minsMay 25, 2020 “Mussolini you too brass face and bold/ Ah mean to claim our land that’s filled with gold…. We are going to fight until we get you in the grave.” “Advantage Mussolini”, – Roaring Lion, (1936) “The national flag is a lovely scene/ With beautiful colors red, gold and green/And a black star in the center/ Representing the freedom of Africa.” – “The Birth of Ghana,” Lord Kitchner (1957) “The race question is subsidiary to the class question in politics, and to think of imperialism in terms of race is disastrous. But to neglect the racial… Read More »Kelvin ‘Mighty Duke’ Pope: Calypso In The Service Of African Liberation–Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 14 mins(II of V) Big Dum Nation’s Introduction   “I was kidnapped by strong Imagination… I tumble down and wind up in a dungeon.” Shadow, “Animal Kingdom” “Boy ah glad Shadow didn’t go He woulda break from dey waist right down to dey toe You know why — dey call him a Comedian.” Julien (The Mighty Unknown) Pierre, ‘Prick For Judges’ quoted in Short Pants,’ Things Going Thru Mih Mind, 1984. “It is therefore important that in the Caribbean we, who are deluged by Euro-centric history and literature, document our true history…” Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool, From The Horse’s… Read More »Dr. Winston ‘Shadow’ Bailey’s ‘Evolution’: ‘Write That Down In History’!* — Winthrop R. Holder