Creative entities to get funding from Black Collar Creative Foundation

The Black Collar Creative Foundation will provide creative sector entities with financial assistance for their startups or special projects. The foundation’s patron is actress and producer Rhoma Akosua Spencer.

The foundation was launched on October 20 at the Central Bank Auditorium in honour of arts advocate and marketing strategist, Janine Charles-Farray, who passed away on October 1, 2022. Her mother, Marva de Freitas Charles said the foundation was dedicated to preserving Charles-Farray’s legacy and in thanksgiving for her life.

“In particular, for her work in the creative and arts sectors in Trinidad and Tobago. The purpose of the foundation is to assist creative sector entities with their startups or special projects, and provide support to firmly establish and sustain their ventures in the spirit of entrepreneurship.

“We don’t expect them to pay it back, because when you’re just starting a venture, you probably don’t have any money anyway. But we would hope if the venture is successful, they will remember us and contribute sometime in the future.

De Freitas Charles said the foundation’s primary funding would be obtained from angel contributors.

“Those are people who don’t expect anything in return but are giving because it’s the right thing to do. Funding will also be derived from fundraising activities and events put forward by the foundation. This means we have a lot of fundraising to do, and so we hope when we have our fundraising ventures we will see you and you will bring more people with you.”

She said the foundation was in the last stages of being registered and did not yet have a bank account. She asked people willing to contribute to hold their donation until this had been finalised.

She said the foundation would be managed and supported by a board of directors, and operational and evaluation committees. The directors would be Garnett Allen, Enrico de Freitas, and de Freitas.

De Freitas Charles paid tribute to her daughter, speaking of her early involvement with the arts as a teenager.

“When she was about 11 or 12, she assisted Eastman Associates who were bringing in a ballet company at Queen’s Hall. She went into Bishops at the age of 11 and was immediately placed in the conventional choir. She was a member of the inaugural Lydians board and became communications officer before being removed. Eventually she overcame that and made peace with the people who made the decision, agreeing to help them with the 2022 concert, which she didn’t live to see.

She said Charles-Farray helped all artists and made selfless contribution to the arts and culture.

“She was legendary and well-known. During the pandemic she single-handedly organised and gave out hampers and computers to artists in need. She took on the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts and they had to change documentation for some of the grants being offered.

“After she was ousted from the Lydians, she began singing with maestro Michael Hudlin. She wrote this play, Un Petit Nuit. She was a mas player and mas maker, a pierrot grenade, a parrandero, a video producer, an event producer, a Panorama commentator and blogger, a reviewer of cultural events, a calypsonian, sat on several boards including the Carnival Museum and the Caribbean School of Dancing, aspired to be the next Anne Hilton, and was the assistant to two Soca Monarchs.

“She was loud, you couldn’t miss her, she always said, you made a loud child. She was decisive, fearless, prayerful, exuberant, and a beloved child in whom I am well pleased.”

De Freitas Charles thanked those who came out to support the foundation and those who had given support when Charles-Farray passed, Charles-Farray’s teachers, and the people she had worked with over the years.

Spencer, in a recorded message, said she first met Charles-Farray when her mother had asked Spencer to speak to her about being confident in her size and skin colour.

“I was shocked because I was never asked to speak with anyone about body image and body positivity and that sort of thing. My acting and improvisational skills went into place, I had to find the right motivational words and phrases to allow this beautiful young lady to thrive in her skin. I can’t remember all I told her, but I know years later in 2016 Janine came to interview me for a Guardian newspaper and she reminded me of that. I don’t know if what I said to her worked, but who I saw in 2016 was a confident black woman, comfortable in her skin, in her body image. It did not even register that the person before you was big and did not fit into the normal scheme of things size-wise. I wondered if I had a hand in that.”

Spencer said she was pleased to be invited to be the patron of the foundation in memory of Charles Farray.

“Her legacy was as an arts advocate, marketing strategist, a singer of note. When I was asked to be the patron of the Black Collar Creative Foundation, it was a no-brainer to accept the mantle and take on the task. I’m hoping people will go out and let the public know, let our colleagues as artists know, of this new foundation that is founded on the basis of assisting and encouraging the work of creatives, allowing the start-up capital so they can create the work they want to put out there to the public.”

For this inaugural event, the foundation partnered with theatre company Chandelier Productions and contemporary music band One Vision, One Voice.

The band, led by musician/producer Akeil George and vocalist Alicia Barrie, performed covers of several popular hits, including Bob Marley’s Jamming, Ben E King’s Stand by Me, Chaka Khan’s Through the Fire, Tessanne Chin’s Hideaway, David Rudder’s Calypso Music and Olatunji Yearwood’s Engine Room. They encouraged the audience to clap and sing alone throughout the lively performance.

In a video recorded by Charles-Farray in July 2022, when Un Petit Nuit was initially staged during Chandelier Productions’ Theatre Night Out III, she explained how she wrote the play during a brainstorming session with the company’s members.

“We were contemplating a form of musical theatre, but we didn’t want a variety show with one song after the next with a loose storyline, so we thought what about if we do a musical with a smash-up of different musical songs. We thought that was a good idea, and then they asked if anyone had an idea for a story, and I said I had one, and it was a love story, so that’s how the idea of it came about it.”

She said she started writing it with the help of the others, with dialogue flowing, and within two-three hours there was a story.

“It’s so important for us to have a variety of stories available to the public. We have a lot of drama, comedy, heavy theatre. I’ve seen musical theatre done a lot but perhaps not with a modern twist, with a new young crew of young professionals coming up in the arts and being given an opportunity to work, as well as first-time writers like myself, spontaneous as it may have been. This foray into scriptwriting may be an opportunity to explore creating more stories of my own - familiar genres with an eccentric Trini twist.”

The play tells the story of a disastrous date night in Palmiste Park and the breakups, connections, and reconnections that happen between four couples. The play was lively and hilarious, a true Trini bacchanal which drew the audience in and had them laughing and awing along with the cast, as well as singing along to familiar musical numbers such as Ten Minutes Ago from Roger and Hammerstein’s Cinderella, Chicago’s El Tango de Roxanne and Cellophane and All I Ask of You from The Phantom of the Opera, among others.

It starred stellar performances by Adafih Padmore, Isaiah Alexander, Gabrielle Alleyne, Kristian Adams, Noelle Archer, Shennice Williams, Tahfari Leslie, and Carl Anthony Hines, with live musical accompaniment by Jessel Murray, Michael Hudlin, Mark De Leon, and Denzil Hudson.