bigdrumnation

Reading Time 1 minsJuly 9, 2024 Big Drum Nation joins millions worldwide in recognizing ‘Sparrow Day,’ Slinger Francisco’s 89th birthday. Renowned for his lyrical prowess and charismatic persona, onstage and offstage, time after time, Sparrow has been acknowledged by his many fans as the embodiment of the people’s aspirations. His accolades extend beyond Trinidad and Tobago, where he received the prestigious Chaconia Gold Medal in 1993 and the Order of the Republic in 2023, to international recognition, such as Chief of the Yorubas (Chief Omo Wale of Ikoyi) during Nigeria’s Festac in 1977. Cementing his legacy throughout his six-decade career, Sparrow… Read More »BDN Celebrates July 9th as Sparrow Day!

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 7 minsJuly 9, 2022 ‘Irony has only emergency use. Carried over time it is the voice of the trapped who have come to enjoy their cage.’ (Lewis Hyde).  Slinger Francisco, the Mighty Sparrow, has been pronounced dead in the past so many times before that he will surely pinch himself on his birthday, July 9, to reassure himself that he yet breathes and lives. The trajectory of his career, beginning with Road March and Calypso King titles in 1956, is nothing short of amazing. He has since won both Road March and Calypso King titles eight times, has… Read More »SPARROW’S TWO SONGS OF SOLOMON-Ken Jaikaransingh

Reading Time 11 mins July 9, 2024 Happy Birthday, Slinger Francisco, aka Mighty Sparrow! Today, his 89th birthday, Big Drum Nation is proud to republish a slightly edited 2020 article by founding editor Caldwell Taylor–A Birthday Tribute in recognition of the bard’s 66th year on the stage.  – BDN Editors “Calypso is a product of Caribbean people’s struggle to articulate an identity in response to numerous attempts at fragmentation.” – Carole Boyce-Davis Long after most of us are forgotten, certain calypsoes will survive as the only reminders to some later generation of how we lived, loved, laboured and sinned. –… Read More »THE SPARROW REVOLUTION: MORE THAN FIFTY YEARS IN THE BUSINESS AND STILL GOING STRONG –Caldwell Taylor

Reading Time 1 minsMay 31, 2024 With the United States on the brink of the crucial 2024 Presidential Election, recent national polls reveal a growing disillusionment with the Biden Administration and a notable lack of enthusiasm, particularly among black women and young black voters. Surprisingly, even among Caribbean Americans, a traditional democratic base, whispers of defection exist.  This growing disaffection with the Biden administration and the looming possibility of a second Trump Presidency has many Democratic party loyalists in a state of heightened anxiety. The former president’s ability to evade the consequences of numerous indictments adds to the urgency felt… Read More »Are Uncommitted Voters Apathetic? — BDN Intro

Reading Time 6 minsVaneisa Baksh, Son of Grace: Frank Worrell – A Biography. Fairfield Books, 348 pages. (Paper £22.00) May 22, 2024 What set Worrell apart was his natural air of authority. He did not need to be in a leadership position to manifest it, and this characteristic defined his life… in the Sixties, until his death in 1967, he was more of an icon as a West Indian leader, whose qualities of grace and wisdom framed him as the ideal representative of a society still constructing its identity. (Son of Grace, p.13) The name Sir Frank Worrell is revered… Read More »[Book Review] SEARCHING FOR SIR FRANK- Ken Jaikaransingh

Reading Time 1 mins May 22, 2024 Caribbean nations commemorate Indian Arrival Day as a public holiday throughout May and early June. Today, May 30, it’s celebrated in Trinidad and Tobago, following Grenada on May 1, Guyana on May 5, Saint Lucia on May 6, and Jamaica on May 10. And on June 1, it’s celebrated in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Click here to read and join the conversation around “Crossing The Dark Waters,” Kenneth Jaikaransingh’s reflections on the East Indian presence in Trinidad and Tobago relevant to the broader Caribbean. The Day marks the arrival of the first wave of… Read More »SALUTING INDIAN ARRIVAL DAY!

Reading Time 3 minsMay 20, 2024 Yvon van der Pijl & Francio Guadeloupe (eds.), Equaliberty in the Dutch Caribbean: Ways of Being Non/Sovereign. New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2022. x + 202 pp. (Paper US$34.95) [A chapter] discusses the 1969 Trinta di Mei labor uprising in Curaçao influenced by the U.S. Civil Rights Movement and immigrant Caribbean residents as part of a broader pan-Caribbean struggle for equaliberty. Equaliberty in the Dutch Caribbean is a thoughtful and innovative anthology that contributes to the scholarly literature on Dutch Caribbean nonsovereignty from a “bottom-up” and mostly ethnographic approach. Yvon van der Pijl… Read More »[Book Review] Equaliberty in the Dutch Caribbean: Ways of Being Non/Sovereign — Michael Orlando Sharpe

Reading Time 2 minsApril 7, 2024 Today, April 7, 2024, marks the 25th anniversary of the transition of Dom Basil Matthews (1911-1999), the Trinidadian-born Benedictine monk and founder of St. Benevcicts College. Although most would remember Dr. Matthews as a monk, author, priest, educator, football pioneer, and debater, he was much more. Little wonder that his vision is deftly captured in “Can You Hear Me Now?” a stirring tribute to the Dom produced by Gil Figaro and Charles Dougherty. By excavating and sampling the Dom’s work, the CD not only provokes memory anchored in the conviction of citizens’ “right to… Read More »“Can You Hear Me Now?”: Remembering Dom Basil Matthews, the Revolutionary Priest

Reading Time 13 minsApril 7, 2024 First published in BDN,  March 4, 2012 “The Caribbean links the destinies of the Americas” – Dom Basil Matthews Dom1 Basil Matthews, the erudite Trinidadian-born Benedictine monk (191 1-1999), ought to be a fixture in the popular mind of Trinidad and Tobago and the Americas. But unfortunately, he isn’t; indeed, his memory tends to be invoked only in the context of what seemed a cameo appearance in the story of the meteoric rise of Dr. Eric E. Wlliams in the 1950s: “TheDom” at the behest of Count Finbar Ryan, the then Archbishop of Trinidad… Read More »DOM BASIL MATTHEWS. PRIEST AND PASSIONATE PAN-AMERICANIST — Caldwell Taylor