Search Results for: toussain

Reading Time 3 minsFebruary 28, 2023   “A Trini have a funny, funny way of forgetting, Their History to them like don’t mean nothing.” –Brother Valentino, “The Roaring 70s. Fifty-three years after the February 1970 Revolution, it is still under contention, as it should be. Was it merely a change in consciousness that shook the pillars of society, or was it a fluttering shadow snuffed out by the government of the day, never to rise? Was it a transformative event that lit a flame in our continuing quest to be truly free? Can the trigger be reduced to a singular… Read More »Special Issue Marking The 53rd Anniversary Of The 1970 February Revolution in Trinidad & Tobago–BDN Editors

Reading Time 4 minsSeptember 8, 2021 Monday, September 6, 2021, marked the 136th anniversary of the observance of the First Monday in September as Labor Day. The first Labor Day on September 7th 1885 was the culmination of a long and arduous road of struggle by workers of all races; struggle which included strikes, demonstrations, the Haymarket massacre of demonstrators in Chicago, and the struggle for an eight-hour workday. Congress in 1868 passed the Law and granted government employees the eight-hour day. From the humble beginning of the Knights of Labor to the founding of the AFL-CIO, the Labor Movement has had… Read More »The Labor Movement’s Tradition of Activism–Richard Dunn

Reading Time 8 minsMay 25, 2021 _________________________________________________________________________ Indeed, Kevin Pope was a boss lyricist who, by the sheer power of crisp and deft word choice and masterly rhyme scheme, brought his audiences into his scenes and compositions as participants… He didn’t sing to an audience but with them. The bard served as a vehicle that gave Voice to those on the margins. By recording the lives of ordinary folks in song, he not only validated them but may well have re-fashioned and extended lives—social realism at its best! __________________________________________________________________________   “Mussolini, you too brass face and bold/ Ah mean to claim our… Read More »Calypso In The Service of African Liberation: Kelvin (‘Mighty Duke’) Pope’s Contribution– Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 10 minsMay 25, 2020 “Mussolini you too brass face and bold/ Ah mean to claim our land that’s filled with gold…. We are going to fight until we get you in the grave.” “Advantage Mussolini”, – Roaring Lion, (1936) “The national flag is a lovely scene/ With beautiful colors red, gold and green/And a black star in the center/ Representing the freedom of Africa.” – “The Birth of Ghana,” Lord Kitchner (1957) “The race question is subsidiary to the class question in politics, and to think of imperialism in terms of race is disastrous. But to neglect the racial… Read More »Kelvin ‘Mighty Duke’ Pope: Calypso In The Service Of African Liberation–Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 5 minsPresented to the Annual Commemorative Emancipation Public Lecture Series of the Institute for People’s Enlightenment, UWI Open Campus, St. Georges, Grenada, July 2019. “I am not an African because I was born in Africa, But because Africa was born in me.” – Kwame Nkrumah Emancipation can be explained as an unfinished process of physical and psychological liberation of the enslaved persons of African descent, who had been forcefully taken by their European colonisers – mainly the British, French, Spanish and Dutch. Africans were forcibly taken from their homes especially along the western and central region of Africa,… Read More »In Tribute to our Heroic Ancestors – Editha (Nancy) Fergusson – Jacobs

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 9 mins[I of V] Big Drum Nation’s Introduction August 23, 2019 “The Caribbean may well have produced [a Socrates, Descartes or Spinoza], but I am not aware of any records of their thought.” – St Hope Earl McKenzie, The Loneliness of a Caribbean Philosopher. “I come from the land of the giants…/The land where these giants walk/Despite the stings and the arrows/When them boys walk, they cast a long shadow.” –3Canal, “Giants” “This is our symbol–Beauty famous in the slum/The hungry boy who/Tomorrow shall become/The country’s hero.” – Eric Roach, “The Flowering Rock.” I. Shadow and ‘Self-Acquired Knowledge.’  “You… Read More »The Allegory of the Dungeon: Not Black Socrates, But Shadow (Winston Bailey) Learning Under An Oak Tree – Winthrop R. Holder

Reading Time 1 minsDr. Winston Bailey, Shadow, aka The Bassman, journeyed home to the ancestors October 30, 2018. Shadow left us on the cusp of receiving a well-deserved Honorary Doctor of Letters from the University of the West Indies (St Augustine campus). Born in humble beginnings in Belmont Trinidad, Shadow grew up on his grandfather’s farm in Les Coteaux, Tobago. An occasional carpenter by trade, Shadow lived in some of the poorest areas of Port of Spain. The Bassman’s intimate familiarity with marginalization is graphically depicted in “Poverty is Hell”, one of the finest of social commentaries. The Bassman, who began singing calypso at 8 years… Read More »Rest In Power, Shadow — Martin P. Felix

Reading Time 3 mins11/26/2018 When, with a moving and evocative rendition of Shadow’s “One Love”, Count Robin and a host of artists including Ajala and Dr. Witty, brought down the curtains around midnight, the audience didn’t leave. Robin’s ability to invoke Shadow’s spirit while capturing the master’s persona, not just the broad-brimmed hat and all-black attire but his distinctive moves, left attendees speechless and motionless as if possessed by Shadow’s “Jumbies”… wanting more calypso.  And, as if in a Shadowesque trance, Yvette Rennie, president of the J’ouvert International; Dr. Lawrence Waldron, facilitator of the Shadowlingo blog; Raymond Luke, Chair, Sesame Flyers Int’l.; Donna Cox, T&T NY Consulate; Roger Toussaint, leader of… Read More »Brooklyn Celebrates the Life and Works of Shadow and De Fosto – Winthrop R. Holder