bigdrumnation

Reading Time 5 mins August 31, 2023 “David is the only person in the Caribbean who has ever been imprisoned for writing a letter.”   What a mind, David’s capacity to overcome obstacles and keep his focus. I sense that he has been doing that since early childhood. For sure, this was very present in his accomplishments at Sandhurst. In that racist institution, he was awarded the stick for being the top Overseas Cadet of his intake. You can read Overseas to mean black, brown, and yellow skin color officer cadets. On his return to Trinidad, there was no acknowledgment… Read More »Lieutenant David Brizan, That Stoic, Elusive Warrior – Rex Lassalle

Reading Time 2 mins                               August 31, 2023 Commemorating Emancipation provides apt opportunities to recognize the spiritual and intellectual forces that have kept us going during enslavement and our ongoing quest for self-determination and reparatory justice. Our African-retentive Kaiso music originated in our struggle for emancipation and permeates our essence. Yet, our indigenous arts have been slighted, not given fair credit in scholarships compared to the established icons of social and political sciences and art flowing from ‘our’ European ‘heritage.’ August 1 marked 189 years since… Read More »Freedom’s Continuous Journey: August Emancipation Month Roundup

Reading Time 3 mins August 31, 2023 Gods of Bruising, the debut novel of Dara Wilkinson Bobb, is a family tragedy centered on nineteen-year-old fraternal twins Dominic and Diallo. It opens with the accidental death of their parents. It examines how this tragedy upends lives while painting a picture of a community of colorful characters living together in a neighborhood that Dominic describes as “gone from middle class to lower middle class to having some elements of a rough block” or as the middle-class policeman derisively calls it “rats teeth poor people.”  This engaging and short but easy-to-read novel is… Read More »READING Dara Wilkinson Bobb’s ‘Gods Of Bruising’ Through An EMANCIPATORY LENS

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Reading Time 5 mins     A Review of ‘ATTACK WITH FULL FORCE…’ — CLYDE WEATHERHEAD* “A small band of heroic fighters, no matter how courageous, without the leadership of a strong political force armed with the necessary ideological outlook and linked to the masses of the people and mobilizing them ideologically and organisationally to take the insurrection to the conclusion of capturing the political power of the state by the people and in their interest will not achieve a decisive victory for the People’s Cause and the advance of the society. “ History, it has been said, is written by… Read More »A Review of ‘Attack With Full Force…’ — CLYDE WEATHERHEAD

Reading Time 4 mins“life hadn’t caught up with art, but play had to ceased to be play.” V.S. Naipaul. By Winthrop R. Holder LIFE may have caught up with art when armed rebels seized hostages while looters rampaged the city, sowing fields of fire in their wake. Expressed love for country was the avowed reason behind the action, steeped in the conviction that even Allah – who knows all – and the oppressed populace were bound to support the overthrowing of the government. Everywhere, the events were being described as an attempted coup, but those familiar with their literature would have… Read More »Naipaul and The Rebels Without Conscience* — Winthrop R. Holder

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Reading Time 5 minsJune 30, 2023 When I was five or six years old, my father brought home a portable record player for our home with several LPs. There were two or three by the Kingston Trio and one album by the Limelighters. They were both “folk” groups. These purchases reflected an intense and transitory popularity for a certain lusty, harmonized, guitar-driven music from 1958 to 1963. The Kingston Trio is, for me, an historically interesting group. They were started by Dave Guard, Bob Shane, and Nick Reynolds. Shane and Guard grew up in Hawaii, attending the same prep school… Read More »GROWING UP IN THE USA WITH CALYPSO!/Jeff McNish

Reading Time 8 minsMay 30, 2023 “My activism always existed. My art gave me the platform to do something about the activism.”–Harry Belafonte.  Harry was so many things but never enough, for he set his standard much higher than stardom. His legacy illuminates and inspires us in his afterlife. From music to film, Harry broke records and became the industry standard–becoming the first recording artist to go platinum with his monster album Calypso, which caused a stir in Trinidad as it was labeled “The King of Calypso.” Harry is an EGOT (Emmys, Grammys, Oscars, and Tony) recipient, a rarity even… Read More »Harry Belafonte! If Not The King Of Calypso, Then The King of Woke?/Kanene A. Holder

Reading Time 7 minsJuneteenth: A Special Case for Reparations Ain’t no stoppin’ us nowWe’re on the moveAin’t no stoppin’ us nowWe’ve got the groove There’s been so many things that’s held us downBut now it looks like things are finally comin’ aroundI know we’ve got, a long long way to goAnd where we’ll end up, I don’t know “Ain’t No Stopping Us Now.” (1979) Song by McFadden & Whitehead  The past is not past. And slavery is not just the past. African American communities are still enslaved today because many still suffer from the long-term social–economic effects of slavery, directly and… Read More »Juneteenth: A Special Case for Reparations — Martin P. Felix