ISM’s Zesser Movement aims to engage youth

As a way to reconnect with young people, the International Soca Monarch (ISM) has introduced a segment called The Zesser Movement to the five-hour show. Simon Baptiste, creative director of ISM, told Newsday on Monday The Zesser Movement will be a 12-minute segment featuring Jahllano, K-Lion, Rebel Sixx, Plumpy Boss, Prince Swanny and Trinidad Killa. He sees zesser music as local dancehall.

“They refer to the movement as the Zesser Movement. I’m not the best one to explain what that means. I can only tell you what I and the majority of the public view it as local dancehall.”

Through ISM’s educational platforms, the organisers noticed that young people expressed more interested in local dancehall than soca.

“It doesn’t make sense to turn our back on our youths. That’s not the thing we want to do. We want to be able to embrace our youth and demonstrate that there is still a connection that exists. We know there has been a disconnect that’s been developing with our youth. We simply want to create bridges...We know there has to be some changes in how we approach this, but part of it is to demonstrate to them (youth) that we recognise there is this movement happening.”

For those perturbed that there’s a dancehall segment during a soca show, Baptiste said: “Dancehall has been showcased in Soca Monarch before. We’ve had Beanie Man (and) Bounty Killer...over the years we’ve had Jamaican dancehall artists included in our show.” He said in the past, featuring high-profile dancehall artists could have been a way to generate sales. However, featuring performers in The Zesser Movement is ISM’s way of engaging young people.

“Because the show is so youth-based, the idea is that you try to engage the youth...My assumption is that they did it because they want to give the youth something that they were into. We didn’t go out and hire Jamaican dancehall artists. What we wanted to do instead was give our young local dancehall artists an opportunity.”

Baptiste said the ISM team got advice from industry professionals and feedback from fans to choose the performers.

There are three other segments scheduled for Soca Monarch outside of the competition.

The first segment is the introduction segment which is a nod to all the Groovy and Power Monarchs.