Schools love-up calypso

THE Trinbago Unified Calypso Organisation (TUCO) closed off its successful Taking Calypso To The Schools Tour 2018, at the Pleasantville Secondary School (PSS), last Friday.

In doing so, TUCO’s South/Central Zone which birthed the concept, achieved one of the objectives of engendering a love for the indigenous art form among the youth population.

After years of the narrative that the art form is dying, and young people’s taste is for different genres of music, project co-ordinator Ato Osei was buoyed by the response of the youths as TUCO took the project to schools and libraries in the south during during October/November.

“This project has confirmed the great love for calypso by the youth in society. It has also emphasised the value of our music as a positive vehicle of socialisation and the grave injustice being done by denying our society its enriching quality,” Osei said at the end of the show held at the Patrick Manning Conference Centre at Pleasantville.

What was eye-opening for the calypso body was the feedback from the young audiences who said they could not love what they did not have an appreciation for, alluding to the lack of airplay and exposure to calypso music. However, when Osei was done, engaging them in a discussion on music appreciation and music exposure, and the calypsonians gave live interactive performances, the students were won over.

From poetry offered by Kasi Senghor linking poetry and calypso, to vintage from the Terry Marcell (Di Masso) performing Emancipation, the students showed their appreciation. Calypso brothers, young Rivaldo London, runner-up to the Junior Calypso Monarch competition and his brother Ronaldo, demonstrated to the audience not much younger than them, that calypso is not only for old people.

Rivaldo had the audience singing along as he performed, No Valdo No! Ronaldo, delivering another outstanding performance of his insightful song, Tomorrow, was equally impressive and was rewarded with tumultuous applause.

Mistah Shak (Selvon Noel) brought the energy level to a crescendo with his usual style as he had the entire hall doing background vocals to his acoustic version of Shadow’s Dingolay. It was Gary Cordner, however, who brought a spontaneous explosion of calypso appreciation as students sang and danced to his patriotic offering Red White and Black.

TUCO South Central Zone’s chairman Steve Pascall (Ras Kommanda) also engaged students in a performance of Education by the Mighty Sparrow and urged them to hold on to their cultural art form.

It was an engaging session as students were afforded the opportunity to comment on performances and were rewarded for their knowledge of calypso and for their participation. Host Melissa Williams, who is also a calypsonian, commended the students for their energy, attentiveness and love for the art form

She was high in praise for the Ministry of Community Development Culture and the Arts and well as the staff of Nalis for their support. She thanked all principals who had the foresight to accommodate the series, students and all participating artistes.

The new series will kick off in January 2019 and Kommanda said they want to take it to many schools as possible throughout the country.

“This is an important initiative and we have some people who are interested in buying in, in the project. We are hoping that the Ministry of Education and culture could see what is going on and partner with us,” Kommanda said.

At PSS, principal Philip Allard thanked the organisation for choosing his school for one their workshops.