bigdrumnation

Reading Time 1 minsAugust 1, 2021 “Wat a devilment a Englan! Dem face war an brave de worse, But me wonderin how dem gwine stan Colonizin in reverse.” Louise Bennett-Coverley, “Colonization In Reverse. Referencing August 1, 1838, as the actual Emancipation Day, compels reflections on the impulse to freedom throughout the region. Yet, while that passion burned within the soul as it existed in Africa from whence the enslaved people came, its first realization outside of Africa was Haiti. In “Happy Emancipation Day 2021!” Martin Felix underscores that the Haitian Revolution of 1804 “birthed the first post-slavery independent Black Republic,” thus inspiring and… Read More »Emancipate Ourselves on Emancipation Day!

Reading Time 3 minsJuly 28, 2021 As if taking cues from the Trump era, the Biden-Harris administration has renewed US restrictions on Cuba when humanity should be doing the opposite – extending international solidarity in this time of a global Covid pandemic. This moment, however, provides a teachable opportunity in which we can reflect on the significance of the Cuban Revolution to humanity, especially to the people of Latin America and the Caribbean. Monday, July 26, 2021, was the 68th anniversary of the glorious Cuban 1953 movement that sounded the death knell against the corrupt dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista, the… Read More »Latin America and the Caribbean and Cuba’s July 26th Movement — Winston Simmonds

Reading Time 4 minsJuly 19, 2021 I am not sure if I ever read a book in Creole/Kreyol while growing up in Haiti in the 1970s. All the books that I read were in French. Kreyol was a language spoken in the markets and the streets or during a football game.  In Haiti, people viewed those who spoke French as “well educated.” The ones speaking Kreyol were considered “uneducated.” I learned to speak Creole at home and in my neighborhood. Then, in what seemed like the good old days, children would gather to play and listen to stories told in Kreyol… Read More »AN INSPIRATIONAL AND UNIVERSAL STORY FOR THE YOUNG-Ketlie Camille

Reading Time 2 minsJuly 19, 2021 “Everybody give praise Rally, rally ‘round the West Indies Now and forever Rally, rally ‘round the West Indies Now and forevermore.” David Rudder, “Rally Round the West Indies,” 1987 Imagine one book that engenders community pride causes Granny and Daddy to reminisce with joyful tears and pushes readers to jump out of their chairs dancing and singing to the music pounding silently in their heads. How can that be? History of West Indies Cricket Through Calypsoes does it all. The author, Nasser Khan, taps two significant passions of the Caribbean; cricket, and calypso; and… Read More »CRICKET CALYPSOES: FUELING MEMORY! — Carlyle G. Leach

Reading Time 1 minsJuly 19, 2021 BDM is pleased to share comments on two incredible books for young readers and the young at heart. In “An Inspirational and Universal Story for the Young,” Ketlie Camille reviews Olympic Hero: Lennox Kilgour’s Story by Joanne Kilgour Dowdy. This children’s book tells the story of the author’s father’s glorious march to the 1952 Helsinki Olympics. Camille draws life lessons from the beautifully illustrated book, which she read in English, and Kreyol–the language she learned while growing up in Haiti. Kilgour Dowdy’s Olympic Hero is probably the first children’s book translated from English into Haitian Kreyol. (The Kreyol version of the review will… Read More »‘Olympic Hero: Lennox Kilgour’s Story’ and History of West Indies Cricket Through Calypsoes: Two Memorable Books For The Young

Reading Time 2 mins                                                                                                  July 7 – 9, 2021   The month of July provides the opportunity to salute two outstanding octogenarian Caribbean cultural icons, the Birdie and brother Val. Big Drum Nation features back-to-back releases on these two prolific and popular proponents of socially conscious Caribbean music. While today, July 7th,… Read More »Saluting Brother Valentino/Emrold Phillip at 80!–BDN Editors

Reading Time

Reading Time

Reading Time 3 minsJune 17, 2021 The Oil refineries in Curaçao in the early 1940s played a significant role in steelpan coming to Antigua; that was where Antiguan workers met their Trinidadian counterparts. On one occasion, the Ship taking them back to Antigua stopped to refuel in Trinidad, and that was where they first heard the sound of Steel Pan, met the men who played them and saw the steel oil drums used to make them. Upon returning to Antigua, they set out trying to make the steel pans they heard in Trinidad. Point, a neighborhood along the coast where… Read More »Iron Band-Steel Pan Wadadli Style– Iyaba Mandingo

Reading Time 1 minsJune 17, 2021 (Update) “Every heart, every soul, is a drum… here’s your sanctuary.” David Rudder, Song of the Earth Kim Johnson’s The Illustrated Story of Pan captures and reveals so much of the Caribbean‘s essence by prompting our dangerous memory, its activation, and reclamation. By fashioning a haven for deep meditation on “the transformation of a drum into a melody maker,” the book compels cultural retrieval, not just in Trinidad and Tobago, pan’s birthplace, but in pan communities throughout the world. Against the backdrop of panjumbies adding to Johnson’s story, in this post, “Iron Band-Steel Pan Wadadli Style,” Iyaba Mandingo initiates a discussion on the Antiguan… Read More »Recapturing The (True) Spirit Of The ‘Pan Pioneers’*