Kimmi Potts showcasing and preserving Tobago's culture

It is six days before the opening night of the 35th edition of the Tobago Heritage Festival and Kimmi Potts is over the moon.

Potts, the Tobago Festivals Commission’s Limited’s (TFCL’s) technical production officer, has been putting in long hours on the job within recent weeks, fine-tuning logistics, co-ordinating schedules and energising her team.

And although the pace has been hectic and even overwhelming at times, she’s not complaining.

“While I enjoyed the two years of the alternative virtual heritage festival (owing to the covid19 pandemic), I am very excited to feel the people’s energy once more,” an exuberant Potts, 32, told WMN.

“The heritage festival, by design, is a communal experience that is second to none and so I am ready and eager to immerse myself in the experience once again. I am ready to see both young and old coming together to perform.”

Titled Reflect, Rebirth, Rejoice – Reigniting the Flames of our Legacy, this year’s heritage festival is a truncated version of the usual two-week cultural extravaganza. It features just five community presentations: Plymouth, Moriah, Charlotteville, Pembroke and Les Coteaux.

The launch takes place at the Shaw Park Cultural Complex from 8pm, on July 22.

Potts said she is looking forward to seeing the presentations which she believes best exemplifies Tobago’s cultural identity. These include Pembroke’s Salaka Feast, Moriah’s Ole Time Wedding and the popular Miss Tobago Heritage Personality competition.

Of the competition, she recalled, “I fell in love with the display of culture through the eyes of pageantry when I was six years old. This prompted me not only to enter the competition, but also to become the first Canaan/Bon Accord delegate to be crowned Miss Heritage Personality in 2009.”

She said she has been a consistent cast member in the festival’s opening night’s gala since 2010 and has performed as a dancer in the Salaka Feast since the age of 13.

Potts, who will be dancing during Friday night’s ceremony, said, “I am happy to be performing again and just genuinely excited to feel the pulse of the people.”

She is equally ecstatic about Tobago hosting its inaugural Carnival from October 28-30, 2022.

“I’m looking forward to being witness to the island coming alive with art, fashion, festivities and seeing Tobago’s identity redefined on the Carnival circuit.”

Potts joked about immersing herself in what she called the “rituals of Carnival” – power naps, “safe” revelling, carpooling, make-up and unique festival wear.

She expressed confidence the Carnival will be a success.

“Indeed, it will be a demonstration that Tobago is the greatest little island on the planet.”

At the festivals commission, Potts is responsible for the technical management and co-ordination of signature events and activities on the island’s cultural and festival calendar “from concept to production.”

For this year’s heritage festival, she leads the production and stage management team for the Heritage Calypso Monarch competition and is also the liaison between the Miss Tobago Heritage Personality planning committee and the commission.

“While I may have specific roles and functions for those events, for the other events I will be serving as support officer for the rest of the events unit team.”

As part of her responsibilities, Potts, alongside the events unit, created the proposal and budget for the heritage festival calypso competition.

The events unit is responsible for ensuring that each competitor is booked for their band rehearsals in preparation for the final night show. They are also responsible for ensuring that judging packages are not tampered with.

“Though it’s a competition my sole responsibility is the give my audience a quality show. I cannot control how the competitors preform. However, I make sure that when our show starts there aren’t any technical hiccups on my end and even if there are that they are resolved in a seamless manner.”

Potts said while the job is both time-consuming and demanding, it is not a burden.

During events like the heritage festival, for example, she works from 8 am to 4:15 pm on most days.

She later visits the communities from about 6 pm to assist participants depending on the type of help needed. On occasion, her team has also had to overnight in these villages to ensure the rehearsals run smoothly.

Potts has always been involved in Tobago’s culture, mostly through dance and theatre.

She attended the Dorothy Moses preschool and later, Bon Accord and Signal Hill Government Primary schools, where she performed in school events and in church.

During that time, she specialised in ballet and folk and traditional genres at the former Tobago Academy of the Performing Arts.

At Signal Hill Government, Potts also sang calypso but did not like to compete. After completing Signal Hill Secondary, she enrolled at the St Augustine campus of the UWI where she began her formal career in dance at 21. There, she obtained a Certificate in Dance and Dance Education in 2014 and a BA in Dance, four years later.

During that time Potts grew professionally as a dance practitioner, arts educator/facilitator, festivals manager and multi-cultural entertainer. This enabled her to launch her own entertainment company Indus3 Management in 2019.

Referred to as ‘Kimmi The Plug,’ by virtue of her connectedness to the Tobago cultural landscape, Potts is also the public relations officer of DXL (D’ Xtraordinary Lifestyle) Promotions, an NGO which focuses on charity and community development through the use of entertainment and leisure activities.

Over the years, the Bon Accord native has won several cultural pageants throughout Tobago, including Miss May Fair Queen and Little Miss African Princess, in which she once portrayed an Ashanti prince.

She is also a fixture in the heritage presentations of the Pembroke Folk and Cultural Performers and the Canaan/Bon Accord Village Council.

Although she continues to juggle performing with her responsibilities at the festivals commission, Potts is at a loss as to which she prefers.

“I know that as long as I am able to contribute to the preservation of our culture and the creation of an amazing experience, I am happy. Performing for me is therapy because it is where I feel most at ease and authentic. But being able to play an integral role off the stage is also deeply satisfying.”

She believes entities such as the commission and the Tobago Performing Arts Company (TPAC) are critical in preserving Tobago’s culture, especially in the areas of capacity-building, knowledge transfer and the showcasing and monetising the island’s indigenous artforms.

“I believe that the goal of these entities is to effectively combine the fundamental elements of festivals with tenets of business and commerce with the intent to legitimise many of our traditional events and cultural activities. They can use culture as a tool to deliver an immersive and mystic experience.”

Although she applauded the work of cultural stalwart Rawle Titus, the Tobago Writers Guild and others who have begun documenting and archiving the island’s culture, Potts believes much more needs to be done.

She regards Titus’ book, Wake People Wake and the Tobago Writers Guild’s Tobago in Print as collector’s items for Caribbean people, especially those interested in West-Indian literature and traditions.

“While these players are doing their part, I believe the necessary resources need to now be invested for aggressive archiving.”

Potts said there is a wealth of untouched, unspoiled and undiscovered cultural history that must be preserved for this generation and those to come.

“We need to start producing literature for all age groups. For example, children should be able to buy colouring books and story books not only about Anansi stories, but books on legends like Gang Gang Sarah and the Silk Cotton Tree, the fair maids in Black Rock, corn man and the tambrin in Canaan, Henry James and the congo bell.”

She feels the island also needs to start researching, recording and producing folk songs village by village because each has its own distinct musical repertoire. Dances must also be codified and captured to ensure movement remain authentic and claim ownership.

“While I love seeing a good stage play, it’s time we start producing films and animations. Tobago can be the hub for entertaining and educating folk and cultural movies in the Caribbean.”

Reflecting on the Tobago House of Assembly’s plans in the 2023 budget presentation for developing the island’s creative sector, Potts welcomed the decision to lend technical assistance to schools in their visual and performing arts programmes and to communities to help with village productions.

“Don’t misunderstand me. These communities usually have excellent actors and directors, but they lack proper technical training.”

Using the TPAC’s recent Dr Lester Efebo Wilkinson play, Bitter Cassava, as an example, Potts said investments can be made for regional and international tours of the production. Such ventures will also promote Tobago’s talents, she believes.

“I strongly believe that TPAC has the potential to become the face of Tobago in the creative arts sector.”

Potts also hailed the decision to use the Shaw Park Complex, the island’s premier cultural space, as a training hub for practitioners in the performing arts.

“Capacity building is clearly lacking in our sector, and by constructing performance and training spaces in Shaw Park for the various disciplines, we will be able to improve the quality and standard of the sector’s offerings.”

She was especially pleased with the plans to establish a steel pan academy on the island and market Tobago as a filmmaker’s paradise.

“While I think this is a brilliant idea that I strongly support, I would like to see the same thing done for Tobago’s very own frame drum instrument, the tambrin. I would like us to establish a tambrin academy where both local and internal people can come to learn how to make, play and maintain the instrument.”