Kaiso House to present BarackHard!

Reigning National Calypso Monarch (2020) and recently-crowned Regional Queen of Queens Terri Lyons will join the cast of Kaiso House for the 2023 season titled BarackHard!

Also making a debut at the tent's BarackHard! is former International Soca Monarch (ISM) Groovy soca winner (2015) Olatunji Yearwood.

What exactly is BarackHard!?

"That’s the alternative hybrid Carnival-theatre-meets-calypso-tent experience being crafted at the Kaiso House calypso tent," a media release said.

The tent opens at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain, on January 27 with a cast of 24 artistes.

Regular cast members are all retuning for season 2023. Among them are longstanding veterans Brother Valentino (Anthony Emrold Phillip), Brother Mudada (Allan Fortune), Poser (Sylvester Lockhart), Calypso Kerr (Carlston Kerr), Bunny B (Neville Brown), Brown Boy (Knolly Brown), Twiggy (Ann Marie Parks-Kojo), Black Sage (Phillip Murray), Lady Aeisha (Elizabeth George) and Marvellous Marva (Marva Joseph).

Former National Calypso Monarch winners Karene Asche (2011), Duane O’Connor (2012) and Chuck Gordon (Roderick Gordon) (2014 and 2015) will lead the young crop of performers that includes 2022 Diamond Jubilee Independence Calypso Monarch Snakey (Heaven Charles), Rondell Donawa, Aaron Duncan, and Tazyah O’Connor, among others, the release said.

Together, they will bring to life a fully-immersive, poignant, powerful and funny audience experience, creative director Abeo Jackson promises in the release.

Jackson says BarackHard!, an interpolation of the barrack yard birthplace of calypso, is another manifestation of the space that birthed the ritual. It represents, she says, “a collective defiance of systems that have we tie up like market crab.”

She said, “In the midst of all that is hard and painful and seemingly irreparable, here still toils the warrior, the griot, the neighbour, the friend, the makers of ancestral magic, the instigators and architects of creative and cultural revolution, the weavers of joy,”

Evolution of tent culture

It’s a renewed mindset that is fully endorsed by Kaiso House’s new hierarchy. Newly-installed tent manager Gordon and assistant manager Donawa have engaged Jackson’s creative mind to help chart a meaningful direction forward, the release said.

Twiggy and Calypso Kerr complete the tent’s management board while gifted young composer/musician Kern Sumerville serves as the tent’s new bandleader

Notably, Kaiso House lost three of its stalwarts in cultural icons Brother Resistance (Lutalo Masimba), Singing Sandra (Sandra Des Vignes-Millington) and Explainer (Winston Henry) during the covid-19 pandemic.

“We knew we had the opportunity to bring meaningful change to the calypso tent landscape and that is why we have asked Abeo to script, connect and direct the show through adding various theatre elements,” Gordon said.

Jackson congruently contends the role of the creative is even more important in this new post-pandemic era. Nationals are searching for a new direction in the face of “unreconciled and still entrenched colonial and capitalist legacy,” Jackson added.

“This is a time that demands us to endeavour to find new ways of languaging our lived experiences and re-imagining our own reparations. We the artistes, creatives and artisans must take a
hard stance against the perpetuation of self-deprecating narratives,” Jackson said.

That change comes with listening to new voices while appreciating the works of those who have paved the way towards the current path, Jackson said.

She said, “Joy is our weapon. Positive affirmations of our strength and beauty our new obeah. Our griots and storytellers, seasoned and new, our first and last line of leadership and defence against tyranny. The re-imagining of the revolution has begun. We have wuk to do. And we coming hard in the new BarackHard!

Kaiso House BarackHard! 2023 Cast

Brother Valentino (Anthony Emrold Phillip)

Brother Mudada (Alan Fortune)

Marvellous Marva (Marva Joseph)

Poser (Sylvester Lockhart)

Brown Boy (Knolly Brown)

Bunny B (Neville Brown)

Calypso Kerr (Carlston Kerr)

Twiggy (Ann Marie Parks-Kojo)

Karene Asche

Snakey (Heaven Charles)

Sister Ava (Ruth Ava Shallow)

Black Sage (Phillip Murray)

Young Poser (Vivian Lockhart)

Chuck Gordon (Roderick Gordon)

Rondell Donawa

Duane O’Connor

Lady Aeisha (Elizabeth George)

Aaron Duncan

Olatunji Yearwood

Terri Lyons

Tazyah O’Connor