bigdrumnation

Reading Time 4 minsThis piece was inspired by the riveting momentum generated by the rapso movement during its ‘toddler years’ – thanks and praises, Bro Resistance, for the opportunity to be! Today, ‘My J’ourvert Vibes’ (MJV) is being revisited in humble tribute to Bro Tony Hall, the juggernaut keeper of the keys to the celestial trove that is Trinidad & Tobago’s cultural self  – thanks and praises, Bro Tony, for incessantly stoking the teeming bushfires of our collective psyche. From the onset, MJV sought to encapsulate the emotions, verve and starkness of the transformation, on J’ouvert morning, from an everyday being… Read More »MY J’OURVERT VIBES– Steve Clarke

Reading Time 2 minsYour old neighbor, Mister Jay started jumping the fence when his family put a lock on the gate, stopped leaving change around the house. Nothing worked. He walks the four miles to Pointe-a-Pierrebrisk and worried the refinery whistle would blast,the timekeeper blemish his proud and perfect record. The guard at the gate comes from his booth smiling: What you doing here, Mister Jay? So long you retired, so long this plant closed, points up at the chimney: not a flicker, not a flame. A full head of grey brushed neatly back, Mister Jay, easy as he came, would turnand be on his way, till next… Read More »Grey Area for Tony Hall –Dawad Philip

Reading Time 7 minsAnthony Michael Hall was born in San Fernando to a Trinidadian mother and a Barbadian High School teacher father on July 16, 1948. An alumnus of the Southern ‘Ivy League’ High school in Trinidad, Naparima Boys College, he went on to further studies in Drama and Theatre at the University of Alberta in Western Canada.  According to his brother, the ever popular comedian and cultural researcher, Dennis Sprangalang Hall, Tony skipped classes twice during his Primary and High School level years. This steadiness foreshadowed his scholastic achievement, which was reinforced in his adult years as a theatre… Read More »A Man of all Seasons – Tony Hall by Rhoma Spencer

Reading Time 2 minsEvery year for the past 10 years, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) encourages us to recognize June 25th as the International Day of the Seafarer. This year it is celebrated under the theme Seafarers are Key Workers. This could not have been a more appropriate theme as the world is virtually under lockdown in the COVID-19 pandemic.  With almost 90 percent of the world’s goods transported via shipping, according to IMO’s estimates, the ship workers are particularly hard hit by COVID. Many Caribbean islanders depend on shipping (including cruise ship work) and related industries to earn a… Read More »June 25: Day of the Seafarer #SeafarersAreKeyWorkers — BDN Editorial

Reading Time 18 minsExcerpts from Classroom Calypso: Giving Voice to the Voiceless, (Peter Lang Publishing, NY 2007), a compilation of fourteen to eighteen-year-old Brooklyn high school students writings about, and challenging, rampant injustices such as police misconduct between 1989 and 2000. This chapter speaks to the ‘Uprising’ that’s refashioning American society’s fabric. “Could not recognize the faces standing over me/ They were all dressed in uniforms of brutality.” – Bob Marley, “Burnin’ and Lootin’.” “[P]oor America is maintained by the police. Its denizens are familiar with nightsticks, handcuffs, and jail cells.” – Walter Mosley, What Next: A Memoir Toward World Peace. “‘Are Drugs,… Read More »Engaging Race On The American Plantation — Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 8 mins“Don’t push me ‘cause I’m close to the edge. I’m tryin’ not to lose my head.” Grand Master Flash and the Furious Five, 1982 “Until the philosophyWhich hold one race superior and anotherInferiorIs finally And permanentlyDiscreditedAnd abandonedEverywhere is warMe say war”Robert Nesta Marley, 1976 It feels like the earth is wobbling precariously on its axis like an old merry-go-round spinning wildly, trying mightily to fly off its warped tracks each time it passes the blaring music. The ride speeds up, and you are in full terror. It slows down almost imperceptibly, and you exhale, exulting in the silence… Read More »FIGHT WITH POWER — Carlyle Leach

Reading Time 1 minsI protest because it is in my blood. I feel the strength of my father and grandfather with each step I take. I feel my voice get stronger as I think of their faces. I realize that they were not only fighting for themselves, but for their children and grandchildren. As I stand outside yelling, “No Justice, No Peace!” from the very depth of my being I realize that I am not yelling just for myself— I am demanding change for posterity, as well. How can I bring another brown child into this world without trying to make it a… Read More »Why I Protest–Auguste Leach

Reading Time 6 minsMay 25, 2020 “The truth is that any figure of Africans imported into the Americas which is narrowly based on the surviving records is bound to be low, because there were so many people at the time who had a vested interest in smuggling slaves and withholding data. Nevertheless, if the low figure of ten million was accepted as basis for evaluating the impact of slaving on Africa as a whole, the conclusions that could legitimately be drawn would confound those who attempt to make light of the experience of the rape of Africans from 1445 to… Read More »A Caribbean Reparations Lens on African Liberation Day — Martin P. Felix

Reading Time 5 mins#MothersDay #ILoveMyMom #HappyMothersDay #MotherLove May 10, 2020 “The baby monkey holds on to its mother who jumps from tree to tree. The baby holds on to its mother for life knowing for sure that a slip in his responsibility might become a fatal mistake. The kitten on the other hand cannot and does not make anything to protect itself. It continues to do just mewing letting the mother know its needs. Wherever the mother decides to take it to, sometimes on a nice cushy bed, and sometimes on a poor bed of haystacks, it has to accept that… Read More »My Mother’s MOTHER’S DAY — Dr. Joanne Kilgour Dowdy