Calypso mural for Diego Martin wall

A 900-foot mural depicting the entire history of calypso will be started this Calypso History Month in Cemetery Street in Covigne, Diego Martin, as part of the historic Diego Martin – Home of Calypso Project launched in 2023.

The Upper Cemetery Street Residents Association (USCRA), the estates of a number of calypso legends and other Diego Martin stakeholders are collaborating with the Artists’ Coalition of TT (ACTT) in this groundbreaking project.

The project comes out of historical research showing Diego Martin’s bonafides as the birthplace of calypso along with a series of startling intersections between the new borough and calypso history, a media release said.

The first phase will be the start of the mural, which is to be completed by March/Carnival 2025.

The release said it will just be the first of many initiatives unveiled in the coming months and years to transform Diego Martin into an international calypso heritage destination.

The intention is for the first stage of painting (200 feet) to begin during Calypso History Month (October) to get student participation.

However, for the next phase, about 400 feet of wall must be prepared by being plastered and reinforced, alongside certain roadworks the Diego Martin Regional Corporation will need to do, the release said. This work should be started and completed by year-end so that the entire 900-foot wall can be completed on time.

The mural is intended to be a national and international tourist destination and will depict the entire history of the calypso tradition – from its roots in the Diego Martin plantations of the 1700s through its rise and evolution into a world music in the 20th century.

The mural will depict hundreds of TT’s greatest musical talents, among them Sparrow, Kitchener, David Rudder, Rose, SuperBlue, Shadow, Stalin, Machel, Spoiler, Attila, Tiger and more, in a timeline pageant of portraits in colour.

It will be painted by some of TT’s greatest painters and muralists, and will include schoolchildren, youth groups, elders and others. The entire community will be encouraged to “put a hand” in the process.

The mural also aims to transform the community of Covigne – particularly Cemetery Street –which has become desolate because of the dilapidated look of the unpainted wall which runs along almost its entire length. All residents of the neighbourhood have already given their permission for the historic mural to happen on their walls, the release said.

It said meetings with UN organisations have also been held to discuss the larger heritage implications of the project. It has been endorsed by past calypso monarch David Rudder, as well as the estates of both the Mighty Sparrow and the Lord Kitchener.

ACTT president Rubadiri Victor said in the release, “The aim of the Home of Calypso Project is to attract up to 100,000 unique domestic and overseas visitors to Diego Martin annually – as well as other forms of tourism. This project could change the fate and face of Diego for the better and release multi-million-dollar entrepreneurial multipliers in the community.

“It would also assist in the rehabilitation of the collapsing hillside communities and delinquent boys – from Patna, Bagatelle and Covigne, amongst others.

“Ultimately the ‘Home of calypso’ project could contribute toward generating and circulating millions of dollars in foreign exchange within Diego Martin, surrounding communities and TT as a whole.”

The reasons Diego Martin is being declared the home of calypso, Victor says, include the fact that the first six calypsonians mentioned in the historical record came from plantations in Diego Martin.

One in particular – the Begorrat plantation in Covigne – was seminally important to the establishment of the form. The first three calypsonians ever – Gros Jean (1790-1820), So So, and Papa Cochon (who also happened to be a legendary obeahman) – came from there.

The tomb of Gros Jean is at the corner of Covigne Road and Richardson Street, Diego Martin, at what was once the Begorrat family cemetery. Calypso was “born” in the Covigne caves beneath Begorrat’s great house. That calypso was born in a cave is an incredible creation myth, Victor said in the release. The network of caves is said to extend all the way to beaches including Macqueripe, where Begorrat was rumoured to have run contraband and illegal enslaved captives, the release said.

Many of calypso’s greatest kings have lived in the Diego Martin valley, including Sparrow, Kitchener, Chalkdust and Rudder. Sparrow and Kitch even constructed “palaces” there.

The first-ever crowned Calypso King (1939), the Growling Tiger, was born in Diego Martin. Other calypso legends who have called Diego Martin home include Brigo, Funny, Lord Superior, Denyse Plummer, Marcia Miranda, the duo Regeneration Now and brass bandleader Roy Cape. One of the greatest writers of calypso, Winsford Devine, also called Diego home, alongside contemporary voices like Kerwyn Du Bois and Maximus Dan, who were born there.

The largest archive of TT music and calypso also exists in Diego – the Shawn Randoo collection. Randoo is also an historian of the genre. This is important, as the two largest collections of TT and calypso music are both outside TT. The first is in Alaska with US historian and ex-judge Ray Funk, a TT culture aficionado. The second is in Canada, and was recently sold by TT-born, Toronto-based George Maharaj, the release said.

“That all of these important proponents of the calypso artform have come to reside in Diego Martin, in the shadow of the hills where calypso was born, is amazing spiritual choreography,” Victor said.

“Calypso is one of the ten root musical forms in the Western world, in a list that includes blues, rock, R&B, reggae, jazz, and more. The first calypso recording was done in 1912 – Mango Vert, by Lovey’s Band – making calypso one of the oldest recorded musics in the world, pre-dating jazz by five years.

“Calypso is also the mother-form for the musics of the Caribbean basin as far north as New Orleans all the way down to the South American mainland. Reggae evolved from calypso.

“Calypso also precipitated the rise of West African musics like hi-life and was instrumental in the re-routing of West African musics back to their ancestral roots. Calypso has profoundly influenced the trajectory of many forms of popular music from disco, dancehall and reggaeton to Afrobeat, and EDM, etc.

“At the heart of all this is the power and always evolving majesty of the thing called calypso.”

Join the Facebook page Diego Martin Home of Calypso to keep abreast and to contribute: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100090180610072

Anyone interested in the project can call or message 797-0949