Reading Time 10 minsOctober 19, 2024 The 36th Annual SUNSHINE Awards celebration, a global event, is scheduled for today, October 19, 2024, at the Robert Treat Hotel, 50 Park Place, Newark, New Jersey. The program will begin with a cocktail reception from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm, an Awards Presentation, and a live show featuring the Trinidad and Tobago Female Police Band. Among today’s Awardees are: Samraj “Rikki Jai” Jaimungal (Trinidad & Tobago) Samraj “Rikki Jai” Jaimungal (Trinidad & Tobago) is a Cultural Icon and Musical Ambassador–with a career spanning over three decades. His musical journey began in 1986 with… Read More »CELEBRATING THE SUNSHINE AWARDS 36TH YEARLY CELEBRATION

Reading Time 2 mins October 17, 2024 With its well-intentioned curricula of the Theory and Practice of the many aspects of its rudimentary ‘Mas Course,’ all being well, Caribbean Yard Campus would succeed in unearthing what goes on here and thereabouts in the region. Without embarking on the need to solidify the life-bleeding sustenance of the Culture Complex that greed has derailed from its trek along the communal path towards socially rounded development and consequently detoured Carnival unto the limitless highway of money making, let’s reflect on my growing up days in cosmopolitan Belmont from 1938 through adolescence. From Sir… Read More »ALL HAIL CARIBBEAN YARD CAMPUS — Duff Mitchell

Reading Time 7 minsOctober 15, 2024 ‘Haitian dishes represent a unique culinary tradition… Distinguished by its syncretic blend of African, French, Creole, and Native American influences, Haitian cuisine offers a distinctive gastronomic experience.’ David Rudder’s 1988 masterpiece of a song, “Haiti I am Sorry,” from the album Haiti, reflects on the Caribbean nation’s accomplishment and the irony of collective ignorance of its impressive contribution to our history.  But it has now become a political fashion among conservative extremists to insult Haitians. It seems like a weird kind of political sport. First, we had the Trump and JD Vance attack on… Read More »HAITI, I AM SORRY! — Martin P Felix

Reading Time 2 minsOctober 14, 2024   ‘As a young man, I faced the world bravely and confidently because of my education on the street.’   Two points in the discourse on The Campus Yard Interview resonated deeply. Gibbons’ portrayal of the ‘lime’ as a form of theatre instantly transported me to a vibrant era in Success Village, Laventille, a time and space when our community thrived. Liming was a pastime and a catalyst for flourishing sports and cultural activities: the numerous football and cricket teams; the iconic steel bands like Highlanders and Savoys, the festive Carnival and Christmas bands;… Read More »A Reflection on Rawle Gibbons’ Caribbean Campus Yard Interview – Monty Guy

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 1 mins October 14, 2024   As we commemorate Indigenous Peoples’ Day in the U.S.A. today, The Big Drum Nation Collective is delighted to highlight Caribbean Yard Campus, an innovative educational enterprise designed to network traditional knowledge systems in the Caribbean. The great cultural diversity of the Caribbean has bequeathed its people’s ways of being, seeing, knowing, and doing, which are informed by places of origin, historical conditions of arrival in the Caribbean, and encounters with other cultures in this space.  This body of knowledge and lived experiences, know-how, wisdom, and values constitutes traditional and indigenous knowledge that continues to shape… Read More »Caribbean Yard Campus

Reading Time 4 mins September 16, 2024 Lately, I’ve contemplated national mottos, those of North and South America and the Caribbean. I thought that forging a collective identity was a significant component of nation-building in these parts. To my mind, all of these countries in the New World were populated by some combination of indigenous natives and immigrants from Africa, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and just about anywhere else. They were smashed together by European colonialism and its genocide, slavery, racial oppression, and immigration. As such, I expected all, or most, would have had a motto addressing the central… Read More »FORGING A COLLECTIVE IDENTITY: TOGETHER WE ASPIRE — KIM JOHNSON

Reading Time 1 minsJuly 27, 2024 “This is my land, that’s why I am fighting for it,” Abu Bakr “We are still depending on demonstrations, placards, and the ballot box to get people out of office,” Black Stalin Given the historical nature of Attack With Full Forec, Ancil Antoine’s reflections on 1990–of which he was a central actor–Anthony Pantaleon takes another look, suggesting that “the most important aspect of this book is… Yasin Abu Bakr’s miscalculation that because there was political and economic discontent in T & T, all societal actors, including the security forces, would embrace… his ragtag band… Read More »“ATTACK WITH FULL FORCE,” REVIEWED/BDN INTRODUCTION

Reading Time 2 minsJuly 27, 2024 ‘Curiously, the author did not consider Bernadette James’s death as the trigger that inspired the Jamaat to attempt to overthrow the Government of T & T.’ Ancil Antoine, the author of Attack With Force, was one of the military leaders involved in suppressing the insurrection undertaken by the Jamat Al Muslimeen, led by Imam Yasin Abubakr. Antoine aimed to document the T&T Regiment’s role in “detonating” the attempted Coup. He outlined the political and economic context and provided an excellent overview of the regiment’s history. However, it would have been more informative to discuss… Read More »‘ATTACK WITH FULL FORCE’, by Ancil Wayne Antoine/Anthony Pantaleon

Reading Time 1 minsJuly 24, 2024 Not since 1968 has the potential of dire problems in the Democratic Convention been more volatile. Though coronation is in the air, there’s still the potential for an upsurge. In getting to the heart of the issue, we present three viewpoints, Kanene Holder’s “Bigger Than Biden,” and Camonghne Felix’s “Uncommitted Voters are Not Apathetic: The Democratic Party is“, both written before Biden’s withdrawal from the ‘The Presidential Derby,’ and “Duff Mitchell’s “Peeping Below the Surface of Biden’s Decision,” written after Biden withdrew from the race. The heart of the matter is whether Biden–like the… Read More »introduction/BDN Editors