A Tent for Mr Biswas goes live on Friday

KIONNA HALL

Mr Biswas is moving to a calypso tent.

A Tent for Mr Biswas is a virtual event hosted by the Friends of Mr Biswas committee and will feature calypso music from the 1940s and 1950s.

It will also feature experts on calypso music and West Indian literature who will discuss the history and concepts of calypso tents, and VS Naipaul’s work on February 25. The event will air live on Gayelle TV.

Contributors include Errol Fabien, professors emeriti Kenneth Ramchand and Gordon Rohlehr, Zeno Constance and creative director Victor Edwards.

Ramchand, who is chairman of the group Friends of Mr Biswas (named after Naipaul's masterpiece A House for Mr Biswas), said the initiative is a collaborative effort with the Mr Biswas team.

“It’s Carnival time and we decided that we should put on something that’s both Carnival and VS Naipaul,” he said in a telephone interview with Newsday.

Ramchand said he is looking forward to the event because he wishes he could go back to the calypso-tent period. He said he believes Miguel Street, one of Naipaul’s most popular books, is an extended calypso and Miguel Street itself a calypso tent.

The "tent" segments include Loitering With-in Tent, All Ah Dem MC, Naipaul Say Dat How and Kaiso Kaiso with Constance, which features calypsoes from the World War II period, in which Miguel Street was set.

Fabie, owner of Gayelle TV, said he found out about the show a week ago and is excited to present A Tent for Mr Biswas.

“Naipaul’s work is an emblem of Trinidad and Tobago in its entirety and we’re just trying to place Naipaul’s work in the area of Carnival and calypso in particular,” he said.

MC Tony Deyal is looking forward to the diverse panel.

“I’m actually looking forward to hearing Errol as part of it. It will be a great combination,” he said.

The event will be live from 7.30 pm-9 pm and can be viewed on Zoom and Gayelle platforms.

The Zoom meeting ID is 892 4647 6222 and the passcode is 293188.