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
David Mitchell “Play(s) One” for Black Stalin
Reading Time 1 minsDavid Mitchell “Play One” for Black Stalin First published September 24, 2015. Long before I was able to analyze the lyrics of Stalin, no Black Stalin, I had to deal with the image of the man. I had to see myself in him and not Michael Jackson. Long before I was strong enough to deal with the individuals in his stories, I had to deal with the blazing intellect inherent in the themes of the Kaiso. Born to two pan lovers on “Lavantie Hill”, I probably met Winston Spree Simon but was too young to understand his… Read More »David Mitchell “Play(s) One” for Black Stalin
List of Nominees/Inductees for Sunshine Awards Hall of Fame
Reading Time 7 minsBDN Interview Sunshine Founder Gil Figaro THE NOMINEES / INDUCTEES FOR THE SUNSHINE AWARDS Hall of Fame Frankie McIntosh – St. Vincent & the Grenadines Musician, Arranger, Producer and Teacher McIntosh, a national of St. Vincent and the Grenadines was introduced to music at the age of 3 by his father, saxophonist, Arthur McIntosh who founded the popular Melo Tones Orchestra Band in the 1950s in St. Vincent. By age 14, Frankie founded the Frankie McIntosh Orchestra which included some of his school mates. In 1968, Frankie migrated to the United States to pursue a degree in… Read More »List of Nominees/Inductees for Sunshine Awards Hall of Fame
BDN Interviews Sunshine Awards Founder Gil Figaro
Reading Time 2 minsBDN Interviews Sunshine Awards Founder Gil Figaro The SUNSHINE Awards will usher in its 27th annual event October 3, 2015 at the AXA Equitable Center , NYC. Founded and produced by Gilman Theophilus Figaro (Sr.), this Caribbean institution is endorsed by the (National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS), the organization that produces the Grammy Awards, and the United Nations. The New York Carib News regards the initiative as a “cultural bridge from the Caribbean to the world for the 21st century.” Big Drum Nation sat down with Mr. Figaro on the eve of this… Read More »BDN Interviews Sunshine Awards Founder Gil Figaro
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
Hurricane Janet, September 22, 1955
Reading Time 1 mins Sixty years later today Janet smolders in the Grenadian mind. “Janet”, the Hurricane, stands for fury and apocalyptic fire! Curiously, the word “hurricane” is derived from Harucan, the name of a Carib “Indian” god who shot calamitous winds. Poet Derek Walcott acknowledges the Carib deity in a poem entitled “Huracan”. Once branching light startles the hair of the coconuts, and on the villas’ asphalt roofs, rain resonates like pebbles in a pan, and only the skirts of surf waltz round the abandoned bandstand, and hear the telephone cables hallooing like fingers tapped over an Indian’s mouth, once the… Read More »Hurricane Janet, September 22, 1955