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Reading Time 2 minsJuly 19, 2021 “Everybody give praise Rally, rally ‘round the West Indies Now and forever Rally, rally ‘round the West Indies Now and forevermore.” David Rudder, “Rally Round the West Indies,” 1987 Imagine one book that engenders community pride causes Granny and Daddy to reminisce with joyful tears and pushes readers to jump out of their chairs dancing and singing to the music pounding silently in their heads. How can that be? History of West Indies Cricket Through Calypsoes does it all. The author, Nasser Khan, taps two significant passions of the Caribbean; cricket, and calypso; and… Read More »CRICKET CALYPSOES: FUELING MEMORY! — Carlyle G. Leach

Reading Time 1 minsJuly 19, 2021 BDM is pleased to share comments on two incredible books for young readers and the young at heart. In “An Inspirational and Universal Story for the Young,” Ketlie Camille reviews Olympic Hero: Lennox Kilgour’s Story by Joanne Kilgour Dowdy. This children’s book tells the story of the author’s father’s glorious march to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Camille draws life lessons from the beautifully illustrated book, which she read in English, and Kreyol–the language she learned while growing up in Haiti. Kilgour Dowdy’s Olympic Hero is probably the first children’s book translated from English into Haitian Kreyol. (The Kreyol version of the review will… Read More »‘Olympic Hero: Lennox Kilgour’s Story’ and History of West Indies Cricket Through Calypsoes: Two Memorable Books For The Young

Reading Time 2 mins                                                                                                  July 7 – 9, 2021   The month of July provides the opportunity to salute two outstanding octogenarian Caribbean cultural icons, the Birdie and brother Val. Big Drum Nation features back-to-back releases on these two prolific and popular proponents of socially conscious Caribbean music. While today, July 7th,… Read More »Saluting Brother Valentino/Emrold Phillip at 80!–BDN Editors

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Reading Time 3 minsJune 17, 2021 The Oil refineries in Curaçao in the early 1940s played a significant role in steelpan coming to Antigua; that was where Antiguan workers met their Trinidadian counterparts. On one occasion, the Ship taking them back to Antigua stopped to refuel in Trinidad, and that was where they first heard the sound of Steel Pan, met the men who played them and saw the steel oil drums used to make them. Upon returning to Antigua, they set out trying to make the steel pans they heard in Trinidad. Point, a neighborhood along the coast where… Read More »Iron Band-Steel Pan Wadadli Style– Iyaba Mandingo

Reading Time 1 minsJune 17, 2021 (Update) “Every heart, every soul, is a drum… here’s your sanctuary.” David Rudder, Song of the Earth Kim Johnson’s The Illustrated Story of Pan captures and reveals so much of the Caribbean‘s essence by prompting our dangerous memory, its activation, and reclamation. By fashioning a haven for deep meditation on “the transformation of a drum into a melody maker,” the book compels cultural retrieval, not just in Trinidad and Tobago, pan’s birthplace, but in pan communities throughout the world. Against the backdrop of panjumbies adding to Johnson’s story, in this post, “Iron Band-Steel Pan Wadadli Style,” Iyaba Mandingo initiates a discussion on the Antiguan… Read More »Recapturing The (True) Spirit Of The ‘Pan Pioneers’*

Reading Time 9 minsJune 16, 2021 BDN is pleased to share Dr. Laurie Lambert’s talk, “Comrade Sister: Caribbean Feminist Revisions of the Grenada Revolution,” which she presented at the 2021 virtual African Liberation Day Celebrations hosted by the Grenada African Liberation Day Organizing Committee (GALDOC), May 25, 2021. The presentation was primarily excerpted from her acclaimed book of the same name.  Read the post and join the conversation. BDN Editors Thank you to the organizers for the invitation to present. I am going to read a section from my book, Comrade Sister: Caribbean Feminist Revisions of the Grenada Revolution. It’s a book of literary… Read More »Comrade Sister: Caribbean Feminist Revisions of the Grenada Revolution–Dr. Laurie R. Lambert

Reading Time 6 minsJune is here again. Mid-year. National Caribbean American Heritage Month gives the Caribbean its deserved center stage in the nation’s consciousness! So it is in geography as it is in history and current affairs; the Caribbean is middle America. As it is annually, June 1 began month-long activities officially designated as National Caribbean American Heritage Month by Presidential Proclamation in the United States of America since 2006. The proclamation was enacted under the George Bush administration in recognition of the extraordinary contributions Caribbean Americans have historically made to the development of the United States. Millions of people… Read More »Caribbean American Heritage Month: Recognizing a Key Ingredient of the American Mosiac – Martin P. Felix

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