Music

Black Stalin: Unplugged… [a birthday tribute] by Winthrop Holder

Reading Time 3 minsBig Drum Nation joins Winthrop Holder in celebrating brother Stalin’s intellectual and artistic genius. We encourage you to share your unique Black Stalin moment. [BDN editors] First published September 24, 2015 Black Stalin: Unplugged… by Winthrop R. Holder “I sing for the people… I sing any place but… Just don’t tell me what not to sing.”  – Black Stalin Few of our contemporary artists and thinkers capture, reflect and challenge the sensibilities of our time, like Black Stalin. While his calypsos have penetrated our spheres of existence, his spoken words, which are equally inventive and biting, have… Read More »Black Stalin: Unplugged… [a birthday tribute] by Winthrop Holder

Happy Earthday to Brother Bob Marley, the Trench Town Messiah – Martin P. Felix

Reading Time 2 mins2017-02-06 Martin P. Felix “Nathanael said to him, ‘Can anything good come out of Nazareth?‘ Philip said to him, ‘Come and see‘.“ — John 1:46. Like his biblical counterpart, Bob Marley took a socratic approach to unpack that recurring question loaded with upper class prejudice: “Can anything good come out of Trench Town?” and, with Philipian confidence, answered in the affirmative “…everyone see what’s taking place… / Another page in history.” And indeed it is. Bob Marley was born on this day, February 6, 72 years ago in rural Nine Miles, Saint Ann, Jamaica but later moved to Trench Town where he spent his formative… Read More »Happy Earthday to Brother Bob Marley, the Trench Town Messiah – Martin P. Felix

Vincy Mas in USA Launches with Big Win for New Artiste

Reading Time 3 minsNew Soca Artiste Wins big During Launch of Vincy Mas in USA By Maxwell Haywood Michelle ‘Hibiscus’ Hillocks created history by spectacularly winning both the New Song Competition, and the first ever New Break-out Artiste prize during the tenth staging of the launch of Vincy Mas in the USA. All this sensation took place on Saturday, May 7, 2016, at Bamboo Gardens in Brooklyn, New York, and was organized by Level Vibes, ably led by Ainsley Primus and Caiphas “Super Eyes” Cuffy. After the singing of the national anthem of both the United States and St Vincent… Read More »Vincy Mas in USA Launches with Big Win for New Artiste

Within Rum and Coca Cola “Gypsy in the Moonlight” book review

Reading Time 4 minsWithin Rum and Coca Cola By Duff Mitchell L. F.  Waldron’s Gypsy in the Moonlight, with its appeal to thoughts and feelings, is a fine piece of literary work. The author presents a sequence of events in a gently gripping tide of narrative that makes the reader anxious to find out what’s next. The story unfolds around the conflict between a mother and daughter as well as between American sailors and the community exemplified in an ex-policeman. Gypsy accounts for the American occupation of Trinidad and Tobago, beginning in 1942 with sailors stationed in Trinidad during World… Read More »Within Rum and Coca Cola “Gypsy in the Moonlight” book review

I Was Once Afraid of Black Stalin – Richard Grant

Reading Time 4 minsFirst Published March 30, 2016 Stalin first came to my attention when I was a high school student in Jamaica. My friends and I marveled at his ability to command the attention of an entire nation.  We understood that everyone listened to him very carefully, and reacted immediately to his words. So, when we heard about the Black Stalin, we were terrified because there was no doubt that a Black Trinidadian dictator would definitely be crueler than his European counterpart. Although I was still young, I was fully aware of the rivalry, and was confident Jamaica could not be outdone, because soon we… Read More »I Was Once Afraid of Black Stalin – Richard Grant

​RIP Phife Dawg “Trini Gladiator”

Reading Time 2 minsA Tribe Called Quest [ATCQ] is known for their optimistic, socially conscious brand of rap. Like with many other dynamic bands, we sometimes miss the tall standing trees amidst a group’s overall vibrant ecosystem. So when the news reached my family of the death of Malik Boyce Taylor, aka Phife Dawg, I reflected on Phife the person, his family, and what ATCQ would have been absent of this Trini yute from Queens. The son of highly acclaimed Trinidadian American poet Cheryl Boyce Taylor, Malik Isaac Boyce Taylor was born in New York City on November 20, 1970.… Read More »​RIP Phife Dawg “Trini Gladiator”

Carnival Documentary Premieres in Brooklyn

Reading Time 2 minsCaribbean Awareness Committee (NY) Presents: “Our Soul Turned  Inside Out!”  a NY premiere film screening “Our Soul Turned Inside Out,” a documentary film that examines traditional Carnival characters created in the 19th century crucible of slavery and emancipation and the psychic impulses behind them, will have its New York premiere on Friday, October 30, 7 pm at Medgar Evers College auditorium, 1650 Bedford Av. Brooklyn.  The film, which runs approximately one hour, focuses on traditional carnival characters – the Pierrot Granade, blue devils, stick-fighters and jab jabs – highlighting the depth of conflict, physical and verbal aggression, inherent in these contested… Read More »Carnival Documentary Premieres in Brooklyn

THE MORANT BAY REBELLION: OCTOBER 11, 1865

Reading Time 1 minsTHE MORANT BAY REBELLION: OCTOBER 11, 1865 War down a Monkland! War down a Morant! The two lines from a Jamaican folk song [cited above] recall the “war” – the so-called “Morant Bay Rebellion” which opened on 11 October 1865. The rebellion came just three decades following the Abolition of Slavery in Jamaica and the British West Indies. The Abolition brought an end to chattel slavery and inaugurated “wage slavery”. The Jamaican people sought “full free”; the island’s colonial Governor Edward John Eyre and his British overlords in London were militantly opposed. The Colonial Administration was very… Read More »THE MORANT BAY REBELLION: OCTOBER 11, 1865

Producer Dalton Narine’s Black Stalin Moment

Reading Time 1 minsProducer Dalton Narine’s Black Stalin Moment  By Dalton Narine First published September 24, 2015. I was working on the Mac several weeks ago when an email from a friend in Cayman [Islands] flew in. “Pan on D Avenue Live on TV,” it said. So I clicked the link, and the remainder of the night enthralled me like no other in recent memory. Each band played two songs, one of choice and a Black Stalin composition. So I figured the pan-affair was a huge hug and big-up to the resident bard. Well, I took it all in till 1.30 a.m.,… Read More »Producer Dalton Narine’s Black Stalin Moment