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Contents No. 152 • July/August 2018

68 46

52 EMBARK

16 Wish you were here Balandra Bay, Trinidad

19 Datebook

Events around the Caribbean in July and August, from Emancipation commemorations to St Lucia’s Chocolate Heritage Month

26 Word of Mouth

32 Cookup

Good to goat From homestyle stews to spicy curries, goat is a popular Caribbean favourite — but how do diners and chefs feel about a more upscale version? Franka Philip investigates IMMERSE

40 Panorama

A new generation of mothers-to-be are opting for natural birthing centres like Trinidad’s Mamatoto

turn of the tide The sometimes submerged forces of history and culture that connect the islands of the Caribbean archipelago are the guiding theme of an exhibition that opened in Los Angeles last year, and has now moved to New York City.

Presenting a portfolio of artists from Relational Undercurrents

32 Bookshelf and playlist

46 snapshot

Barbados’s AnimeKon is one of the Caribbean’s biggest festivals of comics and animation

28 Be well

This month’s reading and listening picks

34 screenshots

A Q&A with Matthew Smith, director of a new Walter Rodney documentary 8

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Welcome to the evolution Few people can boast such a big dose of musical DNA. It’s no surprise, then, that Nailah Blackman — granddaughter of the late Ras Short I — barely out of her teens, is one of

the hottest new musical talents in Trinidad and Tobago, with her sights set on an international career. Laura Dowrich-Phillips learns about Blackman’s breakthrough at Carnival 2017, and her ambitions to push soca — the musical genre invented by her grandfather — to a new stage of evolution ARRIVE

52 round trip

Head for heights There’s nothing like the thrill of a higher perspective, far above the ground — from ziplining to rockclimbing to floating in a hot-air balloon. Get ready to soar

60 neighbourhood

Charlestown, Nevis The capital of St Kitts’s sister isle boasts historic architecture, museums, and proximity to one of the Caribbean’s most famous beaches

CaribbeanBeat CaribbeanBeat An MEP publication

62 escape

Clearing the trail Dominica’s Waitukubuli National Trail is the jewel in the Nature Isle’s ecotourism crown. 2017’s Hurricane Maria devastated the trail — along with the rest of Dominica — but now an unusual breed of “voluntourists” are helping restore it. Paul Crask meets two of them ENGAGE

66 Discover

Eye on the sky For five decades, one of the world’s most important radio telescopes, gathering essential information about outer space, has operated from Puerto Rico’s Arecibo, at the heart of the Caribbean, writes Erline Andrews

68 Inspire

OK to be proud Six years ago, the tragic suicide of a teenager motivated the launch of an initiative to support young LGBTQ people in Trinidad and Tobago. Bridget van Dongen reports on the Silver Lining Foundation, and how they work to protect the vulnerable

Editor Nicholas Laughlin General manager Halcyon Salazar Design artists Kevon Webster & Bridget van Dongen Web editor Caroline Taylor Editorial assistant Shelly-Ann Inniss

Business Development Manager, Tobago and International Evelyn Chung T: (868) 684 4409 E: evelyn@meppublishers.com

Business Development Representative, Trinidad Mark-Jason Ramesar T: (868) 775 6110 E: mark@meppublishers.com

Barbados Sales Representative Shelly-Ann Inniss T: (246) 232 5517 E: shelly@meppublishers.com

Media & Editorial Projects Ltd. 6 Prospect Avenue, Maraval, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago T: (868) 622 3821/5813/6138 • F: (868) 628 0639 E: caribbean-beat@meppublishers.com Website: www.meppublishers.com

Read and save issues of Caribbean Beat on your smartphone, tablet, computer, and favourite digital devices!

70 on this day

Long before bolt Usain Bolt may be Jamaica’s most famous Olympic medallist — but he was far from the first. James Ferguson looks back at the life of Arthur Wint and his extraordinary achievements both on and off the track

72 puzzles

Printed by Solo Printing Inc., Miami, Florida Caribbean Beat is published six times a year for Caribbean Airlines by Media & Editorial Projects Ltd. It is also available on subscription. Copyright © Caribbean Airlines 2018. All rights reserved. ISSN 1680–6158. No part of this magazine may be reproduced in any form whatsoever without the written permission of the publisher. MEP accepts no responsibility for content supplied by our advertisers. The views of the advertisers are theirs and do not represent MEP in any way.

Website: www.caribbean-airlines.com

Enjoy our crossword, sudoku, and other brain-teasers!

80 classic

A dip into Caribbean Beat’s archives: Dylan Kerrigan goes “looking for horn”

The Caribbean Airlines logo shows a hummingbird in flight. Native to the Caribbean, the hummingbird represents flight, travel, vibrancy, and colour. It encompasses the spirit of both the region and Caribbean Airlines.

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM

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Cover Across the Caribbean, “August holidays” mean a chance to kick back, relax with friends and family, and maybe head to the beach Photo Santypan/Istock. com

This issue’s contributors include: Erline Andrews (“Eye on the sky”, page 66) is an award-winning Trinidadian journalist. She is a regular contributor to Caribbean Beat and her work has also appeared in other publications in T&T and the US, including the Chicago Tribune and the Christian Science Monitor.

Born in Britain and resident in Dominica since 2005, Paul Crask (“Clearing the trail”, page 62) is an independent writer, photographer, and magazine publisher. He is the author of two Bradt travel guides and the creator of Dominica Traveller magazine: www.dominicatraveller.com Laura Dowrich-Phillips (“Welcome to the evolution”, page 46) is the content manager for Looptt.com, a news website and app based in Trinidad and Tobago.

Franka Philip (“Good to goat”, page 32) loves to find the story behind the story in the food industry. A journalist for more than twenty years, she has worked in print, online, and radio in Trinidad and at the BBC in London. At the start of 2018, Franka co-founded Trini Good Media, a website that hosts the podcast Talk ’Bout Us. Robert Edison Sandiford (“Welcome to the multiverse”, page 26) is a Canada-born Barbadian fiction writer, and co-founder of ArtsEtc, a periodical devoted to culture in Barbados.

Bridget van Dongen (“OK to be proud”, page 68) is a member of Caribbean Beat’s editorial team. Born in South Africa and formerly based in Zimbabwe, Britain, and Antigua, she’s now at home in Trinidad and Tobago.

Crown Point, Tobago Casino/Bar: 868 631-0044/0500 Jade Cafe: 868 6398361 WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM

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A MESSAGE From OUR CEO

We are halfway through 2018, and we have much good news to share with you. This year got off to a great start, and we have seen how prudent cost management, along with strong passenger demand and increased cargo business, resulted in enhanced revenue.

Our results for the first two quarters show revenue and earnings that are ahead of budget and which reflect a significant improvement over the same period in 2017. The first quarter, which traditionally is our most difficult, revealed increases on some of our top routes. What is even more encouraging are the strides we made in introducing products and services that have enhanced the customer experience.

So far, this year Caribbean Airlines has: • started service to Havana, Cuba, and the route continues to enjoy healthy load factors • introduced non-stop service from St Vincent and the Grenadines to JFK, New York • unveiled Caribbean Plus, a new a product which offers extra leg room within the economy cabin of the Boeing 737 jet aircraft • launched Caribbean Explorer, which gives travellers the ability to go to several islands on one affordable fare. Look out for this fantastic offer, which returns in September!

• initiated Webchat and WhatsApp Chat for business • activated Caribbean Miles online miles redemption

There are also many exciting developments on the way, such as FREE wireless inflight entertainment, which will allow you to stream movies, games, magazines, and more to your personal device via a browser. This service will be available from August.

Additionally, as part of our Festival to Festival campaign, Caribbean Airlines is the official airline partner for Carnival

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icemanphotos/shutterstock.com

Dear Caribbean Airlines passengers,

celebrations throughout the region, and we have rolled out airport activations in many of the destinations we serve to support this important initiative.

You can fly with us to enjoy Carnivals throughout the region in July and August: • Vincy Mas, St Vincent and the Grenadines: 2 July • St Lucia: 16 and 17 July • Crop Over, Barbados: 6 August • Antigua and Barbuda: 7 August • Spice Mas, Grenada: 13 and 14 August

In addition to the Carnivals, you can also take part in the Tobago Heritage Festival, running from mid July to early August, and a variety of music festivals and other events in bustling New York City, where Caribbean Airlines offers multiple daily services to Terminal 4 at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

Our network also includes flights from the Caribbean to south Florida — specifically, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami. The entire family can have fun at world-famous theme parks and resorts.

The shopping scene is awesome, with an array of malls and outlets which offer great value, and you can use Caribbean Airlines cargo services to safely and affordably ship your items.

We know the July/August vacation period is a special time for families to get much-needed relaxation, and with twenty destinations to choose from,

there is something for everyone.

For the fifth consecutive year, Caribbean Airlines is the Official Airline sponsor for the Caribbean Premier League 20/20 (CPLT20) Series, which takes place from 8 August to 16 September. It is our pleasure to connect cricket fans and teams throughout the Caribbean and North and South America to enjoy the excitement of this premier cricket league.

Please see our Datebook on page 19 for a full list of Carnivals, festivals, and other events in July and August.

Datebook is a standard feature of this magazine and the information is also available online at www.caribbeanbeat.com.

As 2018 unfolds, we will share the latest news and developments with you. At Caribbean Airlines, it is our privilege to serve you — thank you for choosing to fly with us!

Please visit our website at www. caribbean-airlines.com; become a fan by liking us on Facebook at www. facebook.com/caribbeanairlines; and follow us on Twitter @iflycaribbean.

Garvin Medera Chief Executive Officer

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datebook

Rodney Legall / Alamy Stock Photo

Your guide to Caribbean events in July and August, from CPL cricket across the islands to Emancipation commemorations

Crop Over celebrations in Barbados

Don’t miss . . .

Carnival July and August Across the Caribbean If there’s one celebration known to unite the region, it’s Carnival. It pushes us to celebrate both our similarities and our differences, explore creative self-expression, and see the world through a different lens. Almost every

Caribbean island has its own version, and all are unique — with a slew of Carnivals unfolding during the months of July and August. Get ready to wear out the soles of your shoes in St Lucia, Grenada, Barbados, Antigua, Sint Eustatius, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Nevis, Anguilla, Santiago de Cuba — plus Toronto’s Caribana and London’s Notting Hill Carnival, too. It’s time to wine!

WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM

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datebook

If you’re in . . .

St Lucia

Chocolate Heritage Month August

courtesy Downsound Entertainment Production

Whatever the question, chocolate is the answer. What keeps you young?

Chocolate. What’s starring in estate tours highlighting the history and tradition of a thriving industry dating back to the eighteenth century?

Chocolate. What makes your sweet tooth happy? Chocolate. There’s no doubt chocolate has a rich legacy. And St Lucia is harnessing it. The island’s native cocoa is a key ingredient in local spa treatments, culinary works of art, cosmetic production, and agriculture products. As St Lucia celebrates Chocolate Heritage Month this August, cocoa-related activities, specials and packages will all be on offer. You can get a close-up view of the bean-to-bar process at Jade Mountain’s Emerald Estate. And if you eat too much and want to work up a sweat, try polishing the cocoa beans by dancing on them at Morne Coubaril Estate, La Dauphine Estate, or Fond Doux Holiday Plantation.

Reggae Sumfest Venues around Montego Bay 15 to 21 July The success of Bob Marley and the Wailers back in the 1970s made reggae a worldwide phenomenon. And with a vital reggae and dancehall industry, the music never stops in Jamaica. Every year, thousands gather for festivals like Sumfest to reignite their love of the sound. A sea of smiling faces singing along with the performers fills the grounds at each venue. Fusions of reggae continue to happen also.

Remember the top song for summer 2017? The Puerto Rican reggaeton hit “Despacito” lasted sixteen weeks as

number one on the Billboard charts.

Genre-specific music festivals aren’t always authentic, but at Sumfest, a bona fide reggae- and dancehallcentric line-up is guaranteed. Sumfest celebrates its twenty-fifth anniversary this year, and continues to rock steady.

Beach parties, a reggae industry symposium, and other exciting preevents lead up to the climax on Friday and Saturday: two exciting nights aiming to rival top international music festivals. Lookout for celebrated Jamaican performers like Popcaan, Aidonia, Bounty Killer, Spice, Sizzla, Damian “Jr Gong” Marley, Maxi Priest, Cappleton, Beres Hammond, and many more.

Hans Geel /shutterstock.com

Jamaica

Tobago

THTI Golf Classic Magdalena Grand Beach and Golf Resort 14 and 15 July

Tyler Hendy/pexels.com

If you’re a sports enthusiast with a hearty appetite and a passion for culture, Tobago is the destination this July. The Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute (THTI)’s inaugural Golf Classic aims to be an annual fixture on the Caribbean golf calendar. You’ll have 20

WWW.CARIBBEAN-BEAT.COM

a weekend of golfing teamed up with an exciting showcase of local flair and innovation in culinary arts and hospitality.

And the tournament also coincides with the start of the two-week Tobago Heritage Festival: golfers and spectators can relish gourmet food, live culinary and mixology demos, product sampling, and plenty Tobagonian culture.

Event previews by Shelly-Ann Inniss

@eldoradorums

eldorado_rum

@eldoradorums

datebook

Jamming in July Dive Fest Barbados Venues around Barbados divefestbarbados.com Water awareness programmes, beach cleanups, lionfish hunting and tasting, as well as scuba dives all over the island: don’t miss out on your chance to discover what lies beneath Barbados’s beautiful seas!

[4 to 8 July]

Venues around Nevis nevismangofest.com UK Iron Chef Judy Joo, New York– based award-winning celebrity chef Seamus Mullen, and top Caribbean chef Michael Harrison of Barbados will join Nevisian colleagues to embrace an epic culinary challenge dedicated to the luscious mango [5 to 8 July]

courtesy bessguide.com

Nevis Mango and Food Festival

Bessfest: Taste of Trinidad and Tobago Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain bessguide.com From the sweet sounds of steelpan and tassa to the display of traditional moko jumbies, experience the blended pot of T&T’s diverse cuisine and culture with over fifty vendors [7 July]

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Bequia Fisherman’s Day

rj lerich/shutterstock.com

Venues around Bequia bequiatourism.com Fisher folk and spectators assemble before dawn, in hopes of having the biggest and heaviest catch by early afternoon. Cheer on the fishermen or simply savour a meal prepared with the catch of the day [7 July]

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datebook

Awesome August Emancipation Day courtesy cplt20 ltd 2018

Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago Bells of freedom will peal, and re-enactments will be performed at Emancipation parks and monuments, as the abolition of slavery is commemorated [1 August]

Cudjoe Head Fest

courtesy the emancipation committee of t&T

Montserrat visitmontserrat.com To celebrate its strong African heritage, Cudjoe Head village hosts a five-mile bike and road race, plus a cultural extravaganza showcasing masqueraders, local performers, and dance competitions [3 to 4 August]

Caribbean Premier League (CPL) Around the Caribbean cplt20.com Caribbean favourites alongside international cricket superstars play in one of the most exhilarating tournaments in world cricket [8 August to 16 September]

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Gianfranco Vivi/shutterstock.com

Kingston, Jamaica caribroadcastunion.org Highly relevant sessions for the regional media sector, along with the best media offerings from the Caribbean will be celebrated under the theme “Building Resilience to Climate Change: Business, Technology, and Content Options for Caribbean Media�

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WORD OF MOUTH

andrew browne photography courtesy animekon

Dispatches from our correspondents around the Caribbean and further afield

Welcome to the multiverse

Robert Edison Sandiford visits Barbados’s annual AnimeKon and finds everything from cosplay to sci-fi writers and video games

M

y fairy daughter is getting a henna tattoo, accompanied by a godsister witch, her black pointy hat a giveaway.

Catwoman and a member of Team Rocket slink by.

We point at their costumes, gawk as if they’re the real deal.

Soon I’ll be running into a number of Barbados Community College BFA students I’ve taught. Selling their own brand of chocolate chip cookies. Inviting patrons to test-drive their video game based on Caribbean mythology. Sketching under the banner of Bajan-based Beyond Comics.

Since its first edition, AnimeKon has sought a niche beyond

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Barbados’s calendar of events. Billed as “the Eastern Caribbean’s BEST pop-culture convention and the ultimate Geekcation,” it’s also an alternative showcase of regional talent in media arts.

AnimeKon was founded by Omar Kennedy and Melissa Young in 2010. Bigging-up indigenous creative industries was always part of their vision. “We wanted to bring the comic con experience to the Caribbean for people our age,” says Young, now thirty-four. She and Kennedy, who turns forty this August, knew that could be engineered in a top-class way by involving local costume and fashion designers, graphic artists, fine artists, makeup artists, and gaming developers. “Giving them all the opportunity to unleash their imagination, as well as to network.”

Held at Barbados’s premier conference facility, the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre, AnimeKon started out as a single day.

Second time out, it grew to two. This year, it’s officially four days, 16 to 19 August. Says Young: “The fans just wanted more.”

That includes a cosplay catamaran cruise aimed at “those eighteen to thirty” on the opening Thursday. The pop-up playground on the Friday is more family-oriented, with games like Quidditch. Saturday and Sunday anchor the festival, with exhibitors, competitions, gaming, Japanese maid cafés, panel discussions, fitness challenges, and an authors’ lounge.

Among past guest writers have been Grenadian Tobias Buckell and Barbadian Karen Lord. (In 2011, I joined them on a panel looking at Caribbean speculative fiction.) Comics creators Paris Cullins (of both DC and Marvel) and Randy Stradley (Dark Horse Comics) have stopped by to talk about art and the challenges of breaking into the industry. LeVar Burton (of both Star Trek: The Next Generation and Roots) headlined the inaugural con.

Actors, educators, performers — from St Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and elseworlds — all have come to share their enthusiasm for the pop-culture multiverse. The theme for 2018 is “World of Wonder.” “We’ve already revealed two of our guests: the actors Manu Bennet [Arrow, Spartacus] and Olivia Olson [Love Actually, Adventure Time]. We have three more guests to announce,” says Young, “one, we hope, from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.”

The headiness of the catamaran cruise aside, a highlight of the convention is the cosplay competition for all ages, on dry land. AnimeKon has hosted internationally renowned cosplayers Yaya Han, Hannah of Hanime’s Cosplay, and Knightmage.

I expect more than a few of my former charges will be walking around this year’s con as Black Panther, Deadpool, or Thanos.

There may even be a heartman, djablès, or baccou among them, which makes me smile. Now wouldn’t that be daring to disturb the pop-culture multiverse? n

For more information, visit animekonexpo.com

nadine eversley photography

be well

For centuries, Caribbean women delivered their babies with the help of traditional midwives.

Now a new generation of mothers are opting for natural birthing centres like Trinidad and Tobago’s Mamatoto, reports Shelly-Ann Inniss Photography courtesy Mamatoto 28

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Mother knows best

T

heir scent and the snug fit of your finger in their tiny hands tug at your heartstrings. Their bright eyes captivate and cast you into a spell of baby babble. But before you know it, mum and dad are reaching back for their infant, and you’re left longing.

Many adults enjoy the process of conceiving a baby. Better yet are the adoration and joy that consume you when you hold a newborn. But the journey to their

debut requires utmost prudence.

The twentieth century was a new era of medicine. Healthcare became more accessible, medical procedures rapidly advanced, and stricter health regulations were enforced. In the Caribbean, childbirth at home assisted by midwives — or granny midwives — became a rare event.

Hospital deliveries replaced them, with midwives working alongside physicians in maternity units.

But as much as hospitals provide a n en ha nced e x per ience, ma ny

mums-to-be still desire a more nurturing atmosphere that feels — and looks — like home. This ambiance, coupled with strong physical and emotional support, is said to make the birth process smoother.

Determined to be in control of their bodies and labour, today’s expectant mums create and engage in online support forums, and some seek alternatives.

Natural birthing centres shine like a beacon. They’ve also been instrumental in converting women who were once apprehensive about labour.

In Swahili, “mamatoto” means “mother baby.” The concept is that they function as one: whatever affects mum directly impacts baby. The Mothers and Midwives Alliance of Trinidad and Tobago — more commonly k now n as Ma matoto — are firm advocates of this philosophy.

Mamatoto is currently the only freestanding birthing centre in the English-speaking Caribbean, but they weren’t always alone. For over ten years, Barbados had a private facility called the Family Birthing Centre. Lacking support, it eventually closed in 2011. But this hasn’t deterred some Barbadians. A charity called Better Birthing in Bim, focused on creating positive change for childbirth, is aiming to launch a non-profit birthing centre with a focus on water births. Midwife and advocate Andrea Jordan admits they’re hoping to follow the Mamatoto model.

Mamatoto is an NGO focused on pr inciples of education and safety.

Owned and operated by midwives with

the assistance of doulas, they enlighten expectant mothers with the resources they need to make informed decisions about childbirth. Even if you don’t intend to use the centre for your birth, they impart information enabling you to ask appropriate questions at your doctor’s office or hospital visit. The centre offers free childbirth classes, prenatal yoga classes, breastfeeding support, postnatal support, a fathers’ group, and other programmes. Midwives and interns from around the world have also made this centre a stepping-stone in their career.

Pregnant women f ind a relaxed,

mums can eat, drink, walk around, and use the tub or shower during labour, too.

Additionally, the baby’s father and other loved ones are welcome in the labour rooms. Because birth centres are focused on the holistic relationship between mum and baby, there is no separation of child from mother after the delivery, either.

Babies are placed on mummy for that skin-to-skin connection, and breastfed almost immediately.

Bi r t h i ng cent res l i ke Ma matoto emphasise low to no use of medical inter vention, such as epidurals and enemas. “Medication affects your birth,

Whatever affects mum directly impacts baby.

Mamatoto are firm advocates of this philosophy comfortable “mother-friendly” environment. As you enter the Mamatoto foyer, you can’t help but feel settled. A tree of life mural covers the walls and bears the names of Mamatoto children. Blue droplets indicate water births, small red houses symbolise babies born on the way or in some instances in the Mamatoto driveway, and green leaves illustrate the over three hundred babies who’ve been delivered at the birthing centre. There are bedrooms with queen-size beds and light dimmers, a kitchen, a recreational area — it’s literally a home away from home, but with a few Jacuzzis. Expectant

mind, and hormones,” says co-founder Marilyn Stollmeyer. She adds, “If you aren’t numbed, you can feel the passage of the baby, consequently making the birth a little easier through your own movement.” And each freestanding birthing centre follows very strict criteria to ensure safety — therefore, expectant mums with multiple births (such as twins), or medical conditions that may be deemed high-risk, are referred to other medical centres for care.

According to Stollmeyer, mummiesto-be can rock on birth balls, have a nice massage, be calmed by the scent of aromatherapy oils, and if necessary transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) can be applied for pain management. A confidence boost from your doula and partner always helps, too.

No one knows your body better than you do. Education, empowerment, and support seem to be key. Once you’ve had a positive birthing centre experience, chances are you’ll prefer to have your future babies delivered at one. n

For more information, visit mamatoto.net 30

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bookshelf De Rightest Place

Madwoman

by Barbara Jenkins (Peepal Tree Press, 278 pp, ISBN 9781845234225)

by Shara McCallum (Peepal Tree Press, 72 pp, ISBN 9781845233396)

In her debut novel, Trinidadian author Barbara Jenkins banishes uptight associations of the rumshop as a creative wasteland.

The Belmont bar from which the novel takes its title is the home of jilted yet pluckily resourceful Indira Gabriel, a woman who measures out her resolve in selfhelp books, her mettle spiced with designer perfumes. Together with stoic, secretive Bostic, they run De Rightest Place from strength to strength, battling romantic contretemps, whistleblowing members of the clergy, greasy-palmed councillors, and entrepreneurial barbecue infringements. If it sounds like a simmering sancoche of a tale, that’s because soup is never far from De Rightest Place: in literal, steaming bowls, and in the figurative melange of picong, pastiche, and political peppering that is confidently stirred in Jenkins’s prose.

Indira’s surprising versatility as a narrator drives home this exquisitely orchestrated ode to Belmont.

“You think / I’m gristle, begging to be chewed? / No, my love: I’m bone.” The poem “Memory” from Shara McCallum’s powerful fifth collection, Madwoman, is a map for this firebrand-feminist body of work. In verse that layers strident girlhood over transgressive woman’s magic, the poet reveals stations of obsession; bittersweet education in Jamaica’s rich, revelatory setting; calcifying loss mixed with rapturous self-discovery. Of motherhood and mutability do these poems summon their multiple significances: they keep their own counsel, studying the clearly demarcated roles assigned to women, blasting them open to mine richer and stranger meanings. Winner of the 2018 OCM Bocas Prize for Poetry, Madwoman is a reading of womanhood as both mysterious codex and traceable vault: McCallum takes us, with an expeditioner’s bravery, to the origins of things. She shows us that the centre is female.

Mouths Don’t Speak

Ordinary Beast

by Katia D. Ulysse (Akashic Books, 224 pp, ISBN 9781617755927)

by Nicole Sealey (Ecco, 80 pp, ISBN 9780062688804)

“You’re not Haitian unless your umbilical stamp is buried under a tree in this country — this country. Who knows what you did with my grandchild’s lonbrit?”

Annette asks this of her daughter Jacqueline, in Katia D. Ulysse’s Mouths Don’t Speak, a novel that conjures the ever-present dead alongside those who survive in the face of calamities, be they natural disasters or man-made terrors.

The devastation of the 2010 Haiti earthquake is its own character in this tightly-plotted story, exacting deaths that extend even beyond the initial toll of a quarter million.

Ulysse dedicates herself to mapping these emotional deaths, these sunderings of human spirit from heart, as she peers into the fissuring domestic tableau of a HaitianAmerican family: Jacqueline, Kevin, and their threeyear-old daughter, Amber. The reading isn’t easy, but this tenderly heartbreaking novel resonates.

The Virgin Islands-born poet Nicole Sealey stuns, in movements of technical deftness, with her debut full-length collection, Ordinary Beast. Not content to merely master existing forms, Sealey forges her own, as in “candelabra with heads,” a poem of reversals, called an obverse, in which malign dread sidles up to bolstered selfpossession. Sealey’s verse chants down the empire of American whiteness, singing revolutionary anti-hymns, survival songs of the black body’s capacity both to regenerate and to reject colonial visitations of pain. Nor is form the sole accomplishment of Ordinary Beast: the multiple registers of these poems simultaneously convince and discomfit, drawing the reader into an uneasy, vagabond trust. See the second poem, “a violence”, for proof: “A body, I’ve read, can sustain / its own sick burning, its own hell, for hours. / It’s the mind. It’s the mind that cannot.”

Reviews by Shivanee Ramlochan, Bookshelf editor

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playlist From Trinidad . . . With Love jointpop (Northern Range Records) The renegades of Caribbean rock and roll after two decades are still telling stories from their Trinidad and Tobago perch above the din of the annual Carnival music. Gary Hector and the jointpop boys have fine-tuned the aesthetic of the jam band into a raucous sing-along of pleasant ditties that eschew the angst of their earlier Clash impersonation for a melding with the kind of singable melodies that Oasis

Believe Kellie Cadogan (self-released) Bajan songstress Kellie Cadogan oozes charm on this album, with songs that flirt with the sonic qualities of soul-jazz and gospel. This long-ingestation project includes half of the ten-song album composed by Cadogan, who, with these tunes, displays an ear for contemporary popular songcraft. You can make a range of comparisons: from the sound of a reborn Anita Baker to an intimate acoustic Ella Fitzgerald duet.

CooBago Jazz John Arnold (self-released) Tobagonian pianist John Arnold has a knack for writing music that finds its resonance in the heartbeat of Caribbean life. Songcraft more than execution is highlighted here on this nine-song album, with tunes running the gamut from modern piano jazz to contemporary jazz-influenced hip-hop. A longtime pinnacle of Tobago’s music scene and its jazz experience, Arnold continues with his approach of self-

Got a Light?

Jeremy Ledbetter Trio (Alma Records) Canadian keyboardist Jeremy Ledbetter is no stranger to island ears and aesthetics, having helmed the successful Caribbean Latin jazz ensemble CaneFire since 2005. With his new trio, featuring Larnell Lewis on drums and Rich Brown on bass — of Kittitian and Jamaican heritage, respectively — the West Indian cred is solid. Any fleeting ideas that Canada is a wasteland devoid of multiculturalism’s ethos of integration is abandoned on a first listen to this new album, featuring Ledbetter’s supple

would suggest. Rock music in the Caribbean is not an incongruity, but a signal to the many elements that musicians have at their fingertips to translate local life stories, observations, and obsessions into universally known soundscapes with access to many. The dry witticisms of singer Hector replete with simple rhyming couplets give the listener an idea of how we tackle controversies here, with mordant commentary honed by a keen eye towards the ironies of island life — calypso-style lyricism refined. This is love, Trinidad style.

Songwriting and performance aside, Believe acts as a calling card for a performer who can thrill with a voice that signifies more than just a tropical hotel lounge entertainer, but a singer in touch with a wider palette of sounds. The title tune hangs on a set of lyrics that reflect a positivity and faith that act as a kind of spiritual testimony.

The juxtaposition of these original songs — uplifting odes all — and twentieth-century jazz standards makes this album an interesting listen, and a pleasant reminder that Caribbean singers stride many worlds effortlessly. sufficiency in creating music that is an extension of the idea of the real Caribbean. Tobago sells itself as a laid-back paradise, the yin to Trinidad’s yang. That counterpoint to the energy of Trinidad’s music is reflected in the soft ostinato grooves of Arnold’s tunes — a repetition that isn’t boring, but that forces the ear to hear what is played on top of the groove. Funky piano and saxophone riffs help the listener discover the intended goal of the album: to define a cool Tobago sound in a sea of smooth jazz.

performance sharing space with that solid rhythm section. Lewis’s drums play inside and outside time signatures and showcase rhythm unhinged from the metronome-like quality of drum machines. It has to be so, as the nine tunes here echo the beat and harmonic sense of a rediscovered Caribbean transformed by virtuosity. The sound is hushed yet potent, the mood is languid yet dynamic. “Her New Wings”, sung by Eliana Cuevas, is perfection. This album is a revelation of possibilities.

Reviews by Nigel A. Campbell WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM

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screenshots

courtesy matthew smith

“I wanted the film to capture a moment in time”

Matthew Smith, director of The Past Is Not Our Future

You’re an academic, a published historian. Where did the idea to make a film come from?

I had never worked on a film as a filmmaker. The idea was sparked by a long-standing attachment to Walter Rodney’s life, which marked my early intellectual development. I believed the story could best be represented by a film.

What led you to focus on Walter Rodney’s three years as a student at Mona?

In the Caribbean, academics in the humanities — with good reason — lament student drift away from the arts towards the sciences. For me, having been educated in Jamaica, I am troubled by the separation younger people have from the stories of their predecessors.

People like Walter Rodney, when they are considered, appear larger than life, as if they were iconic from birth. So I wanted to explore how Rodney began, his undergraduate years, when — like so many then and now — he came to learn about the world and his place in it.

The film also distinguishes itself in terms of the formal approach to its subject. How did you decide on this strategy?

I was clear going in that I wanted the film to capture a moment in time without 34

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Almost four decades after his assassination in 1980, Walter Rodney remains one of the modern Caribbean’s most vital figures. Seeking to collapse the distinction between action and thought, Rodney was both a scholar who wrote such seminal books as How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (1972) and a radical activist intent on bringing socio-economic justice and multiracial democracy to his native Guyana and beyond.

An engaging new documentary, The Past Is Not Our Future: Walter Rodney’s Student Years — the phrase is from a Mervyn Morris poem — seeks to go beyond the mythic persona. Directed by Matthew Smith, professor of history at the Mona, Jamaica, campus of the University of the West Indies, it explores the time Rodney himself spent at Mona as an undergraduate reading history, in those heady early years of the 1960s. In this Q&A with Jonathan Ali, Smith explains the challenges of immersing viewers in the world of 1960s Jamaica.

the interruption of the present. I wanted audiences to be immersed in the world of the early 1960s Caribbean.

For this reason, I eschewed talking heads completely. All the interviews that are used are gently introduced and are more retrospective recollections of young Rodney and the time he came of age by people who knew him then, and less interpretations that consciously searched out connections between his younger self and the celebrated revolutionary he would later become.

The style in which the present-day footage of Mona campus is shot is also striking.

Gareth Cobran, director of photography for the film, thought through with me how to present the campus in a different way than it’s ever been represented. I wanted the sense of emptiness, of the camera floating like a spirit, hovering through the corridors that Rodney walked, over the campus itself, and in the library. That approach is intended to give the setting a sense of timelessness and invite reflections on continuity within change.

How challenging was it sourcing the archival material?

It was difficult. But fortunately we have good records at the UWI Mona library, and with patient and skilful digging we

were able to recover essays Rodney wrote over half a century ago that were largely forgotten. For the photographs we uncovered, they were sourced by going through every extant photograph of students we could find and looking for young Rodney in each. From this we found quite a few, which appear in the film.

Through all of your research, writing and filming, did you discover anything about Rodney that particularly struck you?

What was striking was how prolific he was during his undergraduate years.

He wrote a great deal, expressing his thoughts on politics, society, history, and the Caribbean itself in numerous student papers and even in national newspapers. We recovered a lot of this in research, but also became aware of other writings that have probably been lost to time. That high level of engagement was extraordinary. I was always aware that Rodney was a highly driven person, but I didn’t fully appreciate how deep this was until working on the film.

The Past Is Not Our Future: Walter Rodney’s Student Years Director: Matthew Smith Jamaica, 2017 45 minutes

cookup

Goat meat is a Caribbean favourite — usually served curried or stewed, home-style.

But could the humble goat ever go upscale? Franka Philip talks to the experts, from a chef to a farmer, and discovers there’s an appetite for goat products waiting to be satisfied

Good to goat Illustration by Shalini Seereeram

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ike most Caribbean foodies, I love a hearty goat curry, sumptuous stew goat, or a juicy goat roti. In fact, those are the only ways a lot of Caribbean people have ever eaten goat. Some years ago, I came across a few recipes for barbecued goat, roast leg of goat, and goat chops that got me extremely excited. So off I went to find a butcher in London who would sell me a leg of goat. I tried about five butchers, but they only sold goat already cut up. When I was about to give up, I found one who had the leg, but here’s the catch: I had to buy half of a goat.

What should I do? I’d already set my mind on having this great leg of goat, but half a goat was a bit much. Eventually, I called a few friends and convinced them to buy some of the goat meat from me.

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I lovingly seasoned the leg of goat with rosemary, garlic, smoked paprika, and other spices. Slow roasting goat brings out a more nuanced flavour profile. I thought it would be slightly gamey, but it wasn’t. It was very earthy and unbelievably rich for such a lean meat. Also, because it’s so lean, you have to baste the leg occasionally and roast the goat at a low temperature — about 150 degrees Fahrenheit or 300 Celsius — for a few hours. Since that time, I’ve longed to cook with different cuts of goat, but here in Trinidad the art of butchering goat is a rare one.

What got me thinking again about gourmet-style goat was a slew of articles in foreign food publications talking about a newfound appreciation for the meat and its increasing visibility on menus in more upscale restaurants. To see whether this was the case here — since foodie trends in the metropole don’t take long to hit the Caribbean — I had a chat with award-winning Trinidadian chef Khalid Mohammed, the owner of Chaud, a fine-dining restaurant in the Port of Spain suburb of St Ann’s.

“I used to have goat on my menu at Chaud,” Mohammed says. “If you go into a three-star Michelin restaurant now, you’ll get goat, but it’s not a Trinidad thing, it’s a trend that’s going on out there. It’s also big in Italian cuisine.

“Goat in Trinidad is like what beef clod was twenty years ago,” Mohammed goes on. A couple decades ago, the only beef most people would try cooking with was clod, so you braised it, curried it, or stewed it.

Mohammed once had a dish called Goat Dougla on the Chaud menu. Dougla is a term used to describe a person of mixed African and Indian heritage, so in Mohammed’s kitchen, the Goat Dougla recipe entailed marinating the goat as you would for curry, but cooking in a burned sugar–based stew that’s typical of Afro-Creole cooking in T&T. Mohammed also once owned a restaurant called Chaud Creole, where he experimented with a high-end menu using mainly local ingredients, including goat.

“I used to have a rack of goat on the Chaud Creole menu,” he recalls. “I had a local supplier doing rack of goat for me. The problem was that you couldn’t get it one week, and one day the eye of the rack was big, on another day it was small. It wasn’t consistent. But that’s definitely the way I was going a few years ago. I absolutely think goat should be more on our menus. I went to an Italian restaurant abroad and I saw goat ragout and goat ravioli,” he says with excitement.

“In the big picture, I think we should be very close to accepting goat in a variety of ways on our menus. Having said that, however, and based on my experience with Chaud Creole, I believe Trinis think there are certain foods that should be cheap. I’m not sure — especially these days — too many people would pay top dollar for a rack of goat. More people probably need to understand the cuts, and that you have prime cuts and off cuts — some are cheaper and some are more expensive. To get rack of goat and leg of goat now, there would have to be an artisan farmer who is breeding the goats specially and offering a consistent product to restaurants.”

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here’s a lot of goat in the local markets, but, surprisingly, not much of it is actually produced here. In T&T, local goat accounts for just about four per cent, with the rest coming from Australia.

Local goat is not produced on an industrial scale in Trinidad, and there is a demand for the meat at a particular price, says John Borely, head of Small Ruminant Research at T&T’s Ministry of Agriculture. In T&T, at the moment, imported goat from Australia retails for around US$4 a pound, while locally produced goat goes for about US$6 a pound. “People who run roti shops, or sell food on a commercial scale, go for the imported goat,” Borely says.

In Jamaica, where t he con su mpt ion of delicacies like curr y goat and mannish water (a soup that is reputed to have aphrodisiac qualities) is extremely high, local production accounts for fifteen per cent of the total goat consumed, says Kenneth King, president of the Small Ruminants Association of Jamaica. “The local goats are a traditional market in Jamaica. Goats come in very handy. If your child was born today, you’d kill a goat. If the child was christened, you’d kill a goat. When that child passes an exam, you’d kill a goat,” King explains.

“At every occasion, you have curry goat. The demand is really high.”

In other parts of the world, goats are more prized for their milk and cheese. Goat’s milk has been called a superfood by a lot of health and nutrition experts. One website, healthyfocus.org, says “Drinking goat’s milk will give you a healthy dose of the minerals and vitamins that your body needs.

It contains thirty-three per cent of your recommended daily value of calcium as well as large amounts of magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper, zinc, and selenium. It is also a great source of vitamins A, C, D, and B2 or Riboflavin.”

People with lactose intolerance often turn to goat’s milk as an alternative, but it’s expensive and, in some places, not consistently available. It’s easier to find goat’s cheese, a favourite for chefs, caterers, and home cooks. With that awareness, goat farmers are investing in milk herds to supply the increased demand for milk — not just for regular consumers, but for niche markets like artisan cheesemakers.

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In the Caribbean, goat farmers — being aware of the demand for products like goat’s cheese and milk — have been investing in dairy herds and looking at more opportunities for value-added products. King, who himself has a small herd in Falmouth, Jamaica, explained that more farmers are looking beyond curry goat and mannish water.

“Farmers realised that if you started using cuts, you get more value for the carcass. What they’ve also discovered is that the cheapest part of the goat chain is the meat,” he says. “The skin, for example, can be used for leather — very expensive leather. And the milk can be used for so many other products, like yogurts, cheeses, cosmetics, soap, and stuff like that. People are now looking more at intensive-type operations, thinking about how to maximise the value of the herds.”

King explains that the Jamaica government has been encouraging the growth of milking herds.

“Our native goats here are a good mixture of Nubians, Alpines, Boers — and those are primarily for meat purposes. The government is in the process of helping with breeds like the Saanen that will make an impact on improving the quantity of milk. That is being actively pursued. There are some Jamaicans who are making cheeses, yogurts, and things like that. It will be taking off, I’d say, in the next year or so, because the challenge now is the availability of milk. There’s not enough milk at the moment.”

What got me thinking again about gourmet-style goat was a slew of articles in foreign food publications talking about a newfound appreciation for the meat King is boosting his own herd with some Saanen goats, so he can bring his milk yield up to six litres per goat, from four litres at present. “I think in about a year’s time we will have twenty or thirty farmers who are making more of that value added from the milk,” he says. It’s the same in Trinidad, where some farmers are now able to supply small specialty groceries and supermarkets with milk.

So goat-rearing is on the up and up, and more people are getting involved as they see the benefits.

Whether it’s for high-end cuts of meat or dairy, the market is wide open — and this is yet another thing we can make distinctively Caribbean. n

Courtesy of the artist and David Castillo Gallery, Miami

Immerse

Panorama 40 Turn of

the tide

Snapshot 46

Welcome to the evolution

From The Fold series (2016, mixed media installation), by Adler Guerrier, from the exhibition Relational Undercurrents

panorama

Still from Water and Dreams (2014, digital video, 06:14), by David Gumbs

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Turn of the tide

Courtesy of the artist

A new exhibition of contemporary artists explores the “submarine” links among the islands of the Caribbean archipelago. A portfolio of artworks from Relational Undercurrents, now on view in New York City

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Courtesy of the artist and KADIST, Paris and San Francisco

he unity is submarine,” writes the Barbadian poet Kamau Brathwaite of the Caribbean archipelago — referring not to underwater topography but to the currents of history, language, culture, and memory that connect our far-flung arc of islands. It’s the defining concept behind Relational Undercurrents, a major exhibition of contemporary Caribbean artists, currently on view in New York City. As the curators write, unlike other recent shows which emphasise “the linguistic divisions, imperial histories, and contemporary conditions that separate the different areas in the Caribbean from each other,” Relational Undercurrents argues “that the visual arts are uniquely equipped to bridge the region’s language and cultural divides.” In other words, the focus is on what these artists from the breadth of the Caribbean have in common, while not ignoring or eliding what makes them different. It is, as the curators say, a decidedly “archipelagic approach” to a region of the world that is “notoriously hard to categorise.”

Unsurprisingly, given the title of the show, one recurring element in many of these works is the sea, which serves by turns and sometimes simultaneously as

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Courtesy of the artist

Above El Mundo desde abajo/Under View of the World (2015–16, cyanotype panel, 30 x 40 x 2 inches), by Juana Valdes Left Antillas (2013; concrete, steel, acrylic, enamel, and endemic native plants, 36 1/4 × 9 7/8 x 6 inches each), by Engel Leonardo

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Courtesy of the artist

Above From the series Circa No Future (2014, digital photograph, 22 1/2 x 30 inches), by Nadia Huggins

subject, source of imagery, theme, and even medium. “The sea itself has been known by many names,” the curators remind us, “including the North Sea, Sea of the Antilles, Sea of Venezuela, West Indian Sea, Great Western Ocean, Gulf of New Spain, and Gulf of Mexico” — a continuous body of water that changes with every shift of perspective, like Relational Undercurrents itself. The titles of the show’s four sections suggest certain preoccupations: “Conceptual Mappings”, “Perpetual Horizons”, “Landscape Ecologies”, “Representational Acts”. Charting our physical and imaginative worlds, seeking and exceeding our limits, learning to live sustainably Curated by Tatiana Flores, Relational Undercurrents: Contemporary Art in our small island places, asserting our presence of the Caribbean Archipelago ran at the Museum of Latin American Art and our right to be ourselves: whatever else divides in Los Angeles from September 2017 to March 2018. Including works by us, these imperatives connect us, relate us, through eighty artists with roots in Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Puerto tides that run deep in our past, our present, and the Rico, Curaçao, Aruba, Sint Maarten, St Martin, Martinique, Guadeloupe, unknown future. n Trinidad, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Barbados, and St Vincent, the exhibition

Opposite page The Waters of Kiskeya/ Quisqueya (2017, nine panels, mixed media on vellum, 72 x 108 inches), by Jean-Ulrick Désert

was part of the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time initiative. In June 2018, Relational Undercurrents moved to the Wallach Art Gallery at Columbia University in New York City, where it remains on view until 23 September. The catalogue, co-edited by Flores and scholar Michelle A. Stephens, is published by Duke University Press.

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Collection of the artist, courtesy of éspace d’art contemporain 14°N 61°W, Fort-de-France, Martinique

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snapshot

With music in her bloodline, T&T’s Nailah Blackman was almost destined for a career behind the microphone. She was the breakthrough performer of Carnival 2017, still a teenager — but, as she tells Laura Dowrich-Phillips, her ambitions go beyond soca, to another stage of musical evolution

O

ne of the most striking things about Nailah Blackman is her sense of style. In her videos, on stage, even on an ordinary day hanging out with friends or running errands, the twentyyear-old singer exudes a combination of star quality, youthful exuberance, and confident sexuality in her attire.

Fashion is a big deal for the rising star from Trinidad and Tobago, who learned to sew at a young age, and makes her own clothes. More than just determining her brand, fashion is one of the ways she plans to stamp her presence — and, by extension, that of T&T — on the international stage.

“We want to look like outsiders, outsiders want to look like us,” she says. “When I travel, I get so angry at Trinidad and Tobago — I love us, but it’s like we always want to be like somebody else. Why can’t we be like us? Let’s be Trinbagonian. So I want to work with people who are like-minded,” she explains — hence her support of T&T designers like the Brown Cotton label in her “O Lawd Oye” video.

Blackman is putting her money where her mouth is, too, with the launch of her own fashion line called Sokah — a line formerly owned by her mother, Abbi, the eldest of the fourteen children in the Blackman clan. So in between writing, recording,

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and performing, Blackman takes time to source materials and do sketches. She doesn’t yet have a date for the launch, but the first collection will be called Everything Is Connected. The line will consist of clothing which will be repurposed with new materials, namely denim, crocus, and mesh. “The whole concept of Sokah is Trinidad and Tobago, so my main colours are gold, red, black and white.”

“Sokah” is the original spelling of soca, the genre of music invented by her grandfather, the late Garfield Blackman — known as Lord Shorty before he found God and became Ras Shorty I. As he explained it, “so” represents the soul of calypso, while “kah” comes from the Hindi word for “divine.” Shorty’s aim was to unite the two major races in T&T — Afro- and Indo-Trinbagonians — through music.

Blackman took the genre back to its origins this past Carnival, when she launched her EP Sokah and its title track.

And the merchandising of the Sokah brand is just one cog in Blackman’s engine, which has gathered steam towards an international career since she burst out on the soca stage in 2017 with “Workout”, a duet with Kes the Band frontman Kees Dieffenthaller.

Formerly a neo-pop/alternative singer known on the underground open mic scene, Blackman participated in soca and calypso competitions in school, but hated them. When she decided to try her hand at soca again, she was discouraged by many producers, who felt it would destroy her sound.

But producer Anson Soverall, known professionally as Anson Pro, saw her potential. “Let’s do this,” he said. “I know exactly what to do to make you popular.” Under Anson’s guidance, Nailah became the breakout star of 2017, following up her collaboration with Kees with a string of singles: “Baila Mami”, “Badish” with Jamaican rising star Shenseea, and “O Lawd Oye”.

“Baila Mami”, on the Parallel riddim, was a strategic move to establish Nailah as a solo artist and get her name known. “I wanted to come out with a pop summer song, and Anson said, No, you need to come out with a local soca/dancehall/pop song

Photography by Ikenna Douglas @idouglasphoto Styled by RisAnne for Brown Cotton Caribbean @risystyle Make up by Kai Forde @simplii_beautifulll WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM

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that will make you international but local at the same time,” Blackman says.

“I took it hard at first, but I was like, Nailah you are trying to pay some rent, so I went back to the drawing board and asked myself, What do you want? I wanted people to know my name, so what’s better than having a song with a title that rhymes with your name?”

The song also signalled her intention to spread her wings across the Caribbean.

The lyrics include the term “yardie,” a Jamaican word which Blackman deliberately inserted to establish a connection to Jamaica, the first place she performed outside of T&T. Now she calls the land of reggae and dancehall her second home.

“I went back to the drawing board and asked myself, What do you want? I wanted people to know my name,” says Nailah Blackman

I

met up with Blackman in Kingston last April, where she was one of many soca stars in Jamaica for Carnival in Kingston.

Apart from fulfilling her Carnival obligations, she was hard at work filming a video with Tarrus Riley on Hellshire Beach for the remix of “Dangerous Boy”, and recording “Birthday Song” with Ding Dong, musician and dancer, which was released in May. She also laid down new tracks for T&T Carnival 2019 with Shenseea.

“She is a cool girl,” Blackman says of her Jamaican peer, “and our teams have the same vision. We have built each other. She

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built me in Jamaica, I built her in Trinidad. All around the world people know us as a duo. We met the first night she came to Trinidad in studio, and while we were shooting the video for ‘Badish’, people thought we knew each other before, because we just hit it off, it was such a good vibe,” says Blackman, who revealed plans for a joint tour one day, and more song collaborations.

When it comes to her music, Blackman is not afraid to infuse different sounds into her body of work. Her EP Sokah, which she launched on her twentieth birthday on 2 December, 2017, includes not just the reggae-flavoured “Dangerous Boy” but also “Oceans”, a nod to her acoustic past.

Afrobeat, pop, and Latin music are all tied into her music, which she nonetheless fiercely defends as “sokah.”

“My music is not soca, it is sokah, which is the evolution of soca music” she explains. “Soca is the evolution of calypso, and sokah is the evolution of soca. Even if it is not necessarily in the soca line, with the marriage of Indian and African rhythms, it will always be soca influenced,” she adds.

Since she burst onto the T&T music scene, Blackman has been greeted as a breath of fresh air, a beacon of hope for a country yearning to have a soca star go truly mainstream on

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the global stage. She has the passion, says Robin Foster, a producer who worked with Ras Shorty I and who sees the same drive in his granddaughter.

Of course, comparisons have been made to Rihanna, the mega star who was discovered in Barbados, and whose success has fuelled hopes of mainstream stardom in the hearts of countless Caribbean entertainers. “I don’t want to be like Rihanna,” declares Blackman, “but I want to be at her level,” making no bones about her ambitions.

To get there, she’s working non-stop. 2018 is her year of travel, and though she has been booked at numerous events across the Caribbean and the wider world, she is focused on clearing a path to global stardom. So far, she’s performed at South by Southwest, a major music festival in Texas, started her own Vevo account on YouTube, and recorded a track with Nigerian highlife singer Adekunle for a new album by DJ Walshy Fire.

Blackman is also working to officially launch her Sokah album online. Though all the tracks have been released, she’s still tweaking them to make the album international. “We want to make sure it has the ears that need to hear it, and we want it released in the right channels, so people can hear it

“I don’t rest, in terms of music. It is all about being consistent. We already have the formula, we are already making good music”

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in Africa, Latin America, Asia — that’s the plan,” she says, revealing that some of the channels have been established already.

Over lunch, producer Soverall and Blackman were hard at work planning her children’s show, Lahlahland, for which she’ll do kid-friendly versions of some of her songs. Even though she wanted to spend the day at a nearby waterfall, work took precedence. To achieve her goal, she knows, hard work and consistency are key.

“This is where my upbringing comes in a big way” she says. “When I was younger, my father had us living in boot camp. We had to wake up 5.30 every morning, pray, run a mile and a half, cross an ocean, because we needed to be fit and disciplined. And then we had to walk to school — he had a car, but he was, No, you have to walk to school,” she recalls, laughing.

“I don’t rest, in terms of music. It is all about being consistent. We already have the formula, we are already making good music. The problem with Trinidadian music, soca and other music that comes out of Trinidad, is that we are not consistent. We will release a song for Carnival and wait until next year to release another song, or we will start doing something amazing and just fall off. It comes down to consistency.”

And then, on cue, it’s back to work. n

M. Timothy O'Keefe / Alamy Stock Photo

ARRIVE

Round Trip 52 Head for heights

Neighbourhood 60 Charlestown, Nevis

Escape 62 Clearing the trail

A traditional Nevis cottage, painted in bright colours

round trip

Head for heights Birds do it, bees do it — fly high above the earth, that is. And for travellers who crave a higher perspective — and with a bit of nerve — the Caribbean offers more than a few ways to get off the ground and experience the thrill of elevation 52

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courtesy Rainforest Adventure St Maarten

Ziplining, Rockland Estate, Sint Maarten In November 2017, while Sint Maarten was still rebuilding after the infliction of Hurricane Irma, the Dutch territory’s newest tourist attraction managed to open on schedule. In the hills just northwest of Philipsburg, Rockland Estate is a new eco-adventure park, boasting the world’s steepest zipline. Dubbed the Flying Dutchman, dropping 1,050 feet from the tip of Sentry Hill, it’s not for the faint of heart. Visit www. rainforestadventure.com/pages/stmaarten for more information.

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They say there’s no other sensation like floating above the earth in a hot-air balloon, gently steered by the breeze. And there’s no better place to experience it than the Dominican Republic’s eastern resort town of Punta Cana. The hour-long sunrise ride over canefields and gentle hills offers panoramic views, a bird’s-eye perspective — and ends with a Champagne breakfast, to ease the return to solid ground.

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Carlos Gotay / getty

Hot air ballooning, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

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The Viñales Valley in Cuba’s western province of Pinar del Río is famous for its mogotes, sheer-sided limestone hills emerging abruptly from the valley floor like islands. They form a unique ecosystem, home to rare flora and fauna — and they’re a magnet for rockclimbers, drawn to Viñales’s spectacular cliffs and overhangs and equally spectacular views.

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Rock-climbing, Viñales Valley, Cuba

Microlighting, east coast, Barbados

Steve Grimshaw courtesy airsportsbarbados

It’s like flying in a hang glider with an engine. Microlight aircraft take off and touch down like any other plane, but give you the sensation of soaring like a bird, the wind in your face, the terrestrial world unfolding far below. Airsports Barbados’s dramatic tours depart from Grantley Adams International Airport, heading up the island’s east coast — over cliffs and bays, villages and hills.

Don’t forget your camera: you’ll want to preserve the memory of these views for a lifetime. Visit www.facebook. com/airsportsbarbados for more information.

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Negril’s Seven Mile Beach, at Jamaica’s western tip, is often ranked one of the world’s best.

It’s a favourite of well-heeled jetsetters and spring-breakers alike. When lounging on the beach loses its thrill, they head down to the cliffs of West End, equally famous for sunsetwatching and cliff-jumping. Rick’s Café may be the best known spot, with its thirty-five-foot cliff towering above glimmering turquoise water. For some daredevils, that’s not nearly high enough — hence the makeshift diving platform set in a treetop.

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Prisma by Dukas Presseagentur GmbH / Alamy Stock Photo

Cliff-diving, Negril, Jamaica

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EQRoy/shutterstock.com

neighbourhood

Charlestown, Nevis courtesy nevis culturama

The tiny capital of St Kitts’s sister isle is a favourite of history buffs, with more museums per capita than almost anywhere else — and a stone’s throw from one of the Caribbean’s best beaches Streetscape Charlestown’s relatively well-preserved historic architecture includes a number of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century buildings — such as the Old Customs House, Courthouse, and Library. A history of earthquakes influenced the traditional style of houses with a stone-walled lower storey and upper storey of lighter wood — less liable to collapse in a tremor. Extending just a couple of blocks in from Gallows Bay, the historic centre quickly gives way to more leafy residential districts, with Nevis Peak towering in the background.

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Head for the baths Nevis is a volcanic island, and the proof is plain to the touch at Bath Spring, on the outskirts of Charlestown. The waters of this natural volcanic hot spring are said to be therapeutic for ailments of all kinds, and visitors have flocked here since 1778, when the Bath Hotel was first opened, catering to sufferers from gout and rheumatism (some say it was the Caribbean’s very first luxury hotel). Though the stone structure is no longer used as a hotel, outdoor pools in the grounds still offer the prospect of a hot soak, when you need a break from the cool turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea.

Take a swim

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Stretching for four miles north of Charlestown, Pinney’s is Nevis’s most famous beach, home to the Four Seasons Resort and numerous rustic beach bars — the most celebrated of them being Sunshine’s, the preferred hangout for locals and tourists alike, including the jetsetting celebrities who favour the island’s low-key vibe. But beware Sunshine’s Killer Bee, the lethally delicious rum cocktail invented by proprietor Llewellyn “Sunshine” Caines.

History When Columbus sighted Nevis in 1493, it had been inhabited by Amerindian peoples for two thousand years. Though the Spanish claimed the island, they never established a settlement there — but they did capture and enslave much of the indigenous population, shipping them to the pearl beds of Venezuela.

Permanent European settlement finally came in 1628, under the English, who named their small town and its protecting fort after King Charles I. By the late seventeenth century, Nevis was one of the most productive and profitable West Indian colonies, thanks to the labour of enslaved Africans, with Charlestown even serving for a time as capital of the British Leewards.

An attempted invasion by the French in 1706 was repelled, but Nevis’s economy never fully recovered, and by the early nineteenth century sugar production was in near disarray.

After Emancipation, the formerly enslaved population quick established small farms across the island, the beginning of a society of relatively prosperous landowning farmers with a culture distinct from nearby St Kitts.

Nonetheless, in 1882 the two islands were joined into a single colony, finally achieving Independence just over a century later.

On the Charlestown waterfront, the Museum of Nevis History occupies the house long known as the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton — Founding Father of the United States, first Treasury Secretary under President George Washington, and most recently the subject of a smash Broadway musical.

Born here in 1757, Hamilton left Nevis when he was five — for St Croix and then ultimately New York — but locals haven’t forgotten the connection.

Now somewhat eclipsed by his near-contemporary, Horatio Nelson was long considered Nevis’s most famous historical figure. Posted to the island by the Royal Navy in 1784 — years before he was recognised as Britain’s foremost naval hero — Nelson fell in love with the young widow Fanny Nisbet. History buffs can visit Fig Tree Church, where they were married, as well as the Montpelier Great House, location of the wedding party, and the Horatio Nelson Museum, home to what’s been called the biggest collection of Nelson memorabilia outside the UK.

Get stamped Since 1980, Nevis has enjoyed its own independent Philatelic Bureau, headquartered in Charlestown, issuing postage stamps commemorating the island’s history and culture, alongside world events and personalities — avidly sought by collectors. A visit to the philatelic office is worth it for the history lessons conveyed through small colourful bits of paper — and the fine selection of first day covers, postcards, and other memorabilia.

Sergey Goryachev/shutterstock.com

EQRoy/shutterstock.com

History boys

Co-ordinates 17.13º N 62.62º W Sea level

St kitts

Nevis Charlestown

Caribbean Airlines operates daily flights to V.C. Bird International Airport in Antigua, with connections on other airlines to St Kitts and Nevis WWW.CARIBBEAN-AIRLINES.COM

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escape

Clearing the trail The immense task of rebuilding Dominica after 2017’s Hurricane Maria has required the efforts of thousands — including dedicated volunteers who travel to the island for a “holiday” spent in toil. Paul Crask meets two “voluntourists” helping to clear the island’s Waitukubuli National Trail, a key part of Dominica’s eco-tourism infrastructure Photography by Paul Crask

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he Old Logging Road is the beginning of segment eleven of the much-lauded fourteensegment Waitukubuli National Trail, Dominica’s two-hundred-kilometre joined-up hiking route.

Running from the south to the north of the island, the Waitukubuli trail takes in an abundance of natural and cultural heritage along the way. Starting beyond the high coffee and citrus farmlands of Syndicate — in the foothills of Morne Diablotin, Dominica’s highest volcanic peak — segment eleven passes through a rainforest habitat known for two endemic and endangered species of parrot, the Jaco and the Sisserou.

Last year, Hurricane Maria reduced the forest to sticks, but both foliage and parrots are slowly returning. The hiking trail, however, is still a mess of fallen trees, branches, and bush, and completely blocked from end to end. That’s why Richard and David are here.

Both men have travelled to Dominica from Britain. Early retirees, they allocate some of their free time back home to

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working on a range of local volunteer projects. David worked for and still maintains a relationship with the Surrey Wildlife Trust, and Richard spends a couple of days a week helping the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) as well as clearing trails in his local national parks in Hampshire.

“Having spent years as an accountant, in an office every day, and with all the pressures and decision-making challenges that went with it, there is something very appealing about being outdoors and taking instructions from someone else,” Richard says. “Cut this, clear that, hammer and nail this. It’s refreshing to my mind and spirit as well as all being for a very good cause.”

He smiles. “This is the first time either of us has ever volunteered outside of England, however. It’s hot here, isn’t it!”

The Boeri Lake Trail in the high montane forest of Dominica’s Morne Trois Pitons National Park is one of several iconic hiking routes now clear and recovering

Knowing just how challenging and expensive it can be to get to Dominica from Europe and North America, and then how shocking the aftermath of Hurricane Maria is on both the eye and the emotions, I am keen to meet some of the unique people who travel here on holiday with the sole purpose of helping this small island nation get back onto its feet — in particular, those who spend their vacation days deep in the jungle, covered in bugs and sweat, clearing the island’s hiking trails. That’s why I find myself today on this section of the Waitukubuli trail.

“I came here on holiday in 2008,” David tells me. “Everyone at home thought I was going to the Dominican Republic — they still do, in fact — but I loved the island, and spent a couple of fun

weeks exploring. Of course, it all looks very different now, and it’s very sad. But someone has to clear these hiking trails, and it’s satisfying knowing that I am doing a little to help that process.”

“We met an American who had been here before us, also clearing this stretch of trail,” Richard continues. “He was an amazing guy, and very dedicated to helping people in need. He filled his suitcase with tree saws and other tools and left them here for us all to use.”

Accompanying us, lugging chainsaws, fuel, and helmets, are Fabian and Anderson, two young Dominicans from the west coast villages of Mero and Colihaut, respectively. I ask them what they make of tourists who travel all the way here to work on clearing trails.

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“It’s refreshing to my mind and spirit as well as being for a very good cause,” says “voluntourist” Richard

“I think it’s great that they come here to help us do this,” Fabian says. “And we need all the help we can get. But, trust me, if I spend all that money on a holiday, I’m sitting by the pool with a cocktail. You know what I mean?” He flashes a grin with what seems to be a hint of embarrassment.

“Me too. I’m telling you,” Anderson nods in affirmation. “Yes, aye.”

I smile at this odd little scene, an example of what the destination marketing people in Dominica have branded “voluntourism.”

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ichard and David have bought into a package that includes flights, accommodation, three meals a day, three days touring the island, and the rest spent trail-clearing. They are staying at the Tamarind Tree Hotel on Dominica’s west coast at Macoucherie, where owners Annette and Nathan handle all the logistics for their voluntourism guests. A Forestry and Parks Division officer, sadly absent today, is supposed to accompany them on working days and provide guidance and information about the trail and the forest habitat. I do my best to fill in.

The skeleton of the Timberjack logging vehicle we pass is a feature of this trail, and a reminder that people once viewed Dominica’s vast swathes of forest as a resource to be exploited for their timber. The 1910 Forest Company even established a two-mile stretch of railway line between Brandy, where this segment eventually emerges, and the Indian River, where logs were transported to the coast. The company went bankrupt after just three years — Dominica has a history of fighting back — and the abandoned railway iron is rumoured to hold up a number of buildings in the west coast town of Portsmouth.

Huge trees have been knocked down across the trail. Most of them seem to be gommiers (Dacryodes excelsa), also known regionally as tabonuco or candlewood, because of the flammable gum-like sap that oozes from its bark. Towering thirty to forty metres high, they are a favourite food source for Dominica’s parrots, and are also the tree of choice for Kalinago canoe-builders.

Other fallen trees, and also parrot food, are the buttress-rooted chataniers, which have ripped open large scars in the earth where they crashed down in the unimaginable winds of the hurricane.

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Anderson and David get to work on a large fallen gommier about two hundred metres beyond the Timberjack, while Fabian and Richard scramble past to tackle a younger chatanier that has fallen a short distance ahead. A Jaco parrot squawks loudly overhead and lands in the thin emerging canopy of a broken but still-standing gommier. We all pause to look up, and it dawns on me that the parrot is really at the heart of what this effort is all about. Nature-loving people, both from the island and afar, have been affected by the devastation wreaked by the hurricane. Under increasingly malevolent skies, they are here in this broken forest, working together, trying to put things back together again. The parrot squawks loudly in approval, flaps its large wings and flies off into the mist.

Although “voluntourism” was conceived by suited people in an office, it is being implemented on the ground, in the mud and the rain, by private enterprises like the Tamarind Tree Hotel and generous and dedicated individuals like David and Richard, Fabian and Anderson. The marketing hyperbole echoes rather hollow and meaningless in the heavy rain that is now falling in sheets on this hurricane-ravaged hiking trail, but this incongruous team of two young Dominicans and two ageing Englishmen keep on cutting and clearing, regardless.

I am keen to meet some of the unique people who travel here on holiday with the sole purpose of helping this small island nation get back onto its feet And that has been the innate nature of this post-hurricane period: ordinary people who care, rolling up their shirtsleeves and — despite the odds that may be stacked against them — simply getting on with things.

We have all been riding huge waves of emotions since that fateful and terrifying night in September 2017, and I feel reassured that so long as there are people like this — with the strength and determination to do the work, and not just talk about it — we may overcome all the obstacles ahead of us after all, and eventually complete our journey to the end of this very long and exhausting trail. n

For information about the Tamarind Tree Hotel and its voluntourism packages, visit www.tamarindtreedominica.com

Daniel-Alvarez/shutterstock.com

ENGAGE

Discover 66 Eye on the sky

Inspire 68 OK to be proud

70 On This Day Long before Bolt Jamaican sprint champion Arthur Wint in his heyday

discover

Eye on the sky

For the past five decades, some of our most scientifically valuable information about outer space has come from an observatory at the heart of the Caribbean: the radio telescope at Arecibo in Puerto Rico. As Erline Andrews reports, 2017’s Hurricane Maria interrupted Arecibo’s research programme — but it remains one of the world’s leading centres for astronomy Photography by Dennis van de Water / Shutterstock.com

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he Phaethon asteroid — a giant, globe-shaped rock more than three and a half miles across at its centre — orbits the sun just like the eight planets in our solar system. First sighted in 1983, it occasionally crosses paths with Earth. Because of its size and proximity to us, Phaethon is categorised as a “potentially hazardous asteroid,” or PHA,

by NASA. If it ever hit the Earth, it could cause devastation beyond what we can imagine. And there are more than eight hundred other PHAs — that we know of.

Phaethon, named for the son of the god of the sun in Greek mythology, was last visible from Earth for a few days in midDecember last year, coming close enough to be seen even by amateurs’ telescopes.

More important, it was also picked up by one of Earth’s most powerful telescopes, a bowl one thousand feet across, nestled in a sinkhole in the forests of Puerto Rico.

The images of Phaethon captured at the Arecibo Observatory revealed that

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the space rock has what may be a large crater at its equator, and is bigger than astronomers first thought. This is important information that we almost didn’t get. The Arecibo telescope suffered minor damage from Hurricane Maria, which had devastated Puerto Rico months earlier.

The island was without electricity, and a shortage of diesel in the immediate aftermath meant there wasn’t enough fuel to operate the observatory’s generators, forcing a temporary shutdown of the telescope’s radar. It was back up and running just in time for Phaethon’s passage.

Arecibo’s radar operation is funded

by NASA’s Near-Earth Object Observations Programme, which is part of the Planetary Defense Coordination Office, founded in 2016 to monitor and plan for possible asteroid impacts. “We are not in any imminent danger from anything as big as, say, what killed off the dinosaurs,” says Yan Fernandez, an astronomy professor at the University of Central Florida.

“But there are plenty of things out there that are smaller than that. If they hit, there

is a potential for serious problems and serious casualties.”

“Being able to understand the dynamics and the properties of these asteroids is going to help us understand the risks and potentially what could be done to prevent it,” Fernandez continues. “If you need to push an asteroid out of the way so that it won’t collide with Earth, that requires knowing something about what is the shape of the asteroid, what is the density, what is the interior like, what is it like on its surface. These are the kinds of things that Arecibo helps you understand.”

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he Arecibo telescope has been around since 1963. It was the wo r l d ’s l a r g e s t s i n g l e - d i s h telescope until 2016, when that position was taken by the FAST (Five-hundredmetre Aperture Spherical radio Telescope) in China. It was at Arecibo that scientists first detected gravitational waves, thus confirming Einstein’s theory of relativity.

Physicists Russell Hulse and Joseph Taylor were awarded the 1993 Nobel Prize for their discovery. The first planets outside

our solar system — called exoplanets — were discovered at Arecibo in 1992.

Hundreds of scientists all over the world use data collected from the telescope to conduct research on outer space, and the Earth’s own upper atmosphere as well.

“Arecibo is a great place to do atmospheric science,” says Fernandez. “In a time when global climate change is happening, with the possibility of having more and stronger hurricanes coming in the future, having a much better idea about what the atmosphere is like is really important for understanding what the future might be like on planet Earth.”

And in case human beings one day have to look for another planet to live on, data from the observatory is used by the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico. The PHL maintains a Habitable Exoplanets Catalogue, which now has fifty-three candidates.

“We are trying to observe red dwarf stars,” says PHL director Abel Mendez, referring to stars that can’t be seen with the naked eye. “They are the most abundant type of stars. Many of the potentially

habitable worlds that have been found are around those stars.”

In 1974, a team of scientists sent what became known as the Arecibo Message from the observatory. It was coded in the form of radio waves, and had as its target a distant cluster of stars. The very

It was at Arecibo that scientists first detected gravitational waves, thus confirming Einstein’s theory of relativity. The first planets outside our solar system were discovered at Arecibo Opened in 1963, the radio telescope at Arecibo was the world’s largest for almost five decades

slim hope is that it could be picked up by intelligent life.

Today the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) movement continues in the form of SETI@Home, run by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley. The programme, started in 1999, uses millions of computer users all over the world to look for anything unusual in radio emissions coming from space. And the data are collected at Arecibo.

“SETI@Home has a history of catching the public’s imagination,” says director Eric Korpela. “When we first started out, we expected to get ten thousand people, and in the first two weeks two million people signed up. The question ‘Are we alone in the universe?’ is one of the most profound things that we can ask ourselves.”

Considering the telescope’s importance, it’s hard to imagine there’s been talk of shuttering it. The National Science Foundation, which provides most of the funding for the observatory, had been struggling for years to continue doing so.

In December, a three-way consortium led by the University of Central Florida won a competitive bidding process to take over the operation and part financing of the observatory for the next five years. After a transition period, the new management began on 1 April this year.

Professor Fernandez is UCF’s main representative at the observatory. The on-the-ground management of the observatory has not changed, nor has much else. “Our overarching goal,” Fernandez says of the management shift, “was for everyone to keep doing the great things they’d already been doing.”

Fernandez believes the Arecibo telescope — which also has a place in pop culture through key appearances in the movies Contact and GoldenEye and the TV show The X-Files — is worth the US$20 million cost of the management deal. Despite the size advantage of China’s FAST, Fernandez says, “Arecibo is the most powerful single dish telescope in the world.”

“Even though it’s a f ifty-year-old facility, the superlatives are still there,” he says. “There are capabilities there in terms of astronomy, planetary science, atmospheric science, and earth science that you just cannot do anywhere else in the world.” n

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inspire

OK to be proud Photography by Brandon Kalyan courtesy the Silver Lining Foundation

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n September 2011, Trinidad and Tobago was rocked by news of the suicide of sixteen-year-old George Kazanjian.

A student of one of T&T’s so-called “prestige” schools, his suicide brought to the forefront the problem of bullying — especially of LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, etc) young people.

The tragic event distressed many — and for one young university student named Jeremy Edwards, it was a call to action.

“When George’s story emerged in the media,” Edwards recalls, “I myself was contemplating suicide, because of the difficulties in dealing with my own sexual orientation and not having anyone to turn to.” At Kazanjian’s funeral, the priest told attendees to find someone they could talk to. “I did find someone,” says Edwards, “and it took me all of six months from that day to begin to turn around from my depressive state.”

During this time, Edwards reached out to Kazanjian’s family.

“I wanted to connect with them and let them know how their son’s tragedy gave me new life. I also knew in myself that I had had this great gift given to me, and I needed to now give back in George’s memory to those who needed similar support, love, and acceptance in dealing with their own battles.”

Edwards rallied together some fellow university students, and in February 2012 they launched the Silver Lining Foundation (SLF), intended to ensure that LGBTQ youth had a safe, secure, and reliable support system to help them navigate the difficulties of dealing with their sexual identity during their teenage years, at school and at home. The founding principle was that youth can mobilise other youth to create, facilitate, and sustain a strong peer support network. They encourage the development of safe environments where people can lean on each other for support.

When asked what he considers the group’s most significant achievement in six years of advocacy, Edwards names the creation of Safe Space: “one of the first campus-based/school-based, psychosocial peer support groups in the country. It really was a key moment in beginning to deliver on the care and support to LGBTQ youth that they so desperately needed,” he explains.

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Founded in 2012 after the tragic death of a young man, the Silver Lining Foundation is part of a growing movement supporting LGBTQ people in Trinidad and Tobago — with a special focus on providing support and safe spaces to vulnerable youth.

Bridget van Dongen finds out more A Safe Space is also the title of a short film produced by the foundation (screened at the 2015 Trinidad and Tobago Film Festival, and now available for viewing on SLF’s YouTube page), documenting both harsh realities and inspiring testimonies from local and international families and individuals dealing with issues faced by the LGBTQ community. It’s part of a series of activities designed to bring public awareness to issues which many would rather sweep under the carpet. Hence, also, the Silver Lining Foundation’s Day of Silence, organised annually since 2013. Held in April, it brings attention to anti-LGBTQ name-calling, bullying, and harassment faced by young people.

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ow serious is the situation in schools? One of the Silver Lining Foundation’s recent achievements was the publication of a School Climate Survey, charting bullying and gender-based violence in the T&T school system. Edwards explains the rationale: “In the first few months of starting SLF, I told the team during one of our meetings that twenty of us sitting around a table and sharing our stories . . . does not reflect in any way the reality of what is happening in all schools across the country. We needed to get out there and gather data to help us shape and direct our limited resources on critical interventions where they were needed most. It took us a few years to complete,” he adds, “but I am still so very proud that we were able to finally produce statistics that show, yes, LGBTQ children exist, LGBTQ bullying exists, and it is a problem that requires urgent attention as it threatens and impedes the right of each child to their education.”

As a direct result of the publication of the survey, the SLF is now in talks with T&T’s Ministry of Education, and creating training workshops designed to assist teachers in treating with matters of sexual identity and gender diversity in schools.

As advocates for young LGBTQ persons, the foundation believes it’s imperative they are visible at as many events as possible. In April 2018, at a protest outside Parliament in Port of Spain, I spoke to the SLF’s chief administrative officer Kennedy Maraj, gender affairs specialist Renelle White, and art and creative consultant Brandon Kalyan.

Silver Lining Foundation members and friends at their Easter 2018 family event in Port of Spain’s Queen’s Park Savannah

Kalyan told me he’d struggled with his gender identity and sexuality as a teenager. “I was bullied for being myself, but I want to show kids that it’s OK to be proud of who they are, and OK to be unapologetically gay, even in a homophobic society like Trinidad.”

As advocates for young LGBTQ persons, the Silver Lining Foundation believes it’s imperative they are visible at as many events as possible Maraj spoke about the SLF advocating for stronger families — for example, through a series of workshops for the families of LGBTQ people. “Our goal is to create a series of family-friendly events where whole families can come together in a supportive environment,” he said. So last Easter Sunday, the Silver Lining

Foundation hosted a family event at the Queen’s Park Savannah in Port of Spain. “Support from families is crucial for LGBTQ youth, but many families do not know how to handle it when their child reveals that they are gay.”

The SLF is also attempting to take their message outside Trinidad and Tobago. In 2013, they received international funding to launch a Caribbean youth LGBTQ movement. “The aim of this movement,” according to the SLF website, “is to assemble a coalition of young voices throughout the Caribbean, attempting to beget a generation of change in the region, as young people become empowered to stand up and demand what is rightfully theirs.”

It’s an admirable goal, and a brave one — especially in a society where homophobia is still widely seen as legitimate, and where LGBTQ people are still regularly put out of their homes for coming out. As one young person, Samantha, puts it: “Even though I came out at the age of sixteen to my parents, I still struggled with my identity. Getting involved with SLF has allowed me to accept myself as a member of the LGBTQ community, and their Safe Space has made me grow as a person.” n

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on this day

As a schoolboy athlete, years before his international success, who did Usain Bolt cite as an inspiration? Arthur Wint, Jamaica’s first Olympic medallist.

On the seventieth anniversary of Wint’s achievement, James Ferguson recalls his story, on and off the track Illustration by Rohan Mitchell

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ou’d have to be the sole inhabitant of the remotest of desert islands to have escaped the media hyperbole surrounding the Jamaican athlete Usain Bolt. His celebrity arguably reached its peak at the London Olympic Games in 2012 (where he won three gold medals), but by then he’d already set world records by finishing the 100 metres in 9.58 seconds and the 200 metres in 19.19 seconds back in 2009. The holder of eight Olympic golds over three successive Games, “Lightning Bolt” is widely considered the greatest sprinter in the sport’s history, capable of reaching a speed of 27.44 miles per hour.

Even after his retirement in 2017, this most charismatic of athletes has remained firmly in the celebrity spotlight, pictured with glamorous models, DJing

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Long before Bolt at the recent Commonwealth Games in Australia, and captaining a World XI football team against England in a Soccer Aid charity game in June. There are plans afoot to open fifteen Bolt-themed Tracks & Records restaurants across Britain, while fans can avail themselves of t-shirts, running shoes, and backpacks at the Usain Bolt Official Store. Never one to shun publicity, he has trademarked his famous lightning bolt pose and made public his ambition of playing for Manchester United. And, needless to say, rumours of an impending return from retirement continue to keep Bolt in the public eye.

Brash and ebullient, Usain Bolt straddles sport and showbiz, a contemporary cultural icon who has done much to magnify the positive side of athletics when it has been tainted by doping allegations.

He has also boosted the international profile of Jamaica, now rightly perceived as punching well above its weight in athletics, with a new generation inspired

by Bolt’s prowess.

But he in turn had a model to emulate, even though his unassuming precursor could hardly have been more different from Bolt’s glitzy persona. And this Jamaican sprinter was the first athlete from the island ever to win an Olympic gold medal, an achievement that took place at Wembley seventy years ago, on 5 August, 1948. His name was Arthur Wint, and his time of 46.2 seconds in the

400 metres final equalled the world record (and narrowly beat fellow Jamaican Herb McKenley, who took the silver). Fourteen years before Jamaican independence, Wint collected his gold medal to the sound of “God Save the King”.

A trailblazing athlete, Wint was also much more: an air force pilot during the Second World War, a medical doctor, and a diplomat on behalf of independent Jamaica. He was born on 25 May, 1920, in Manchester Parish, and educated at Calabar and Excelsior High Schools in Kingston, where he excelled at sprinting as well as high and long jump, winning the accolade of Jamaica Boy Athlete of the Year in 1937. The following year, he won a gold medal in the 800 metres at the Central American Games in Panama. Unusually tall at six feet four inches, his height together with his modest demeanour won him the nickname of the “Gentle Giant”.

Wint wanted to become a doctor, but the outbreak of war put his career on hold, and in 1942 he and his brothers Lloyd and Douglas joined the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan in Canada. Two years later he “won his wings,” and saw active service in Britain, flying Spitfires.

In 1947, Flying Officer Wint left the RAF, having won a scholarship to study medicine at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. It was at the end of his first year there that the capital was to host the first post-war Summer Olympics.

Arthur Wint is primarily remembered for his 400 metres gold, but he and his fellow Jamaicans came remarkably close to doubling that record

A

rthur Wint is primarily remembered for his 400 metres gold, but he and his fellow Jamaicans — a couple of whom had endured a twenty-four-day journey to the UK on a banana boat — came remarkably close to doubling that record.

Wint came second in the 800 metres and only a pulled muscle prevented him from catching his American opponent in the last leg of the 4 x 400 metres relay. The Jamaicans’ disappointment lasted just under four years. On 27 July, 1952, Wint, McKenley, George Rhodon, and Les Laing took the 4 x 400 gold medal at the Helsinki Olympics, in a world record time of three minutes, 3.9 seconds. Wint, meanwhile, also won a silver in the 800 metres, and McKenley came second in the 100- and 400-metre events.

The following year, Wint both qualified as a doctor and ran his last competitive

race, returning once more to Wembley.

His career in athletics was over, commemorated with an MBE from Queen Elizabeth II in 1954, but his career as a doctor in Jamaica was only just beginning. From 1955 to 1974 he worked as the only doctor in rural Hanover Parish, the smallest on the island, often offering free care to the poorest. Known to Prime Minister Michael Manley since 1941 (when Wint was defended in court by Manley’s father after a tragic accident, described

by Valerie Wint in her recent biography The Longer Run), he was appointed Jamaican High Commissioner in London in 1974, serving for four years.

Returning to Jamaica, Wint worked at Linstead Hospital as senior medical officer until retiring in 1985. He died in Kingston on 19 October, 1992 — fittingly,

that year’s Heroes Day. His memory has been honoured with many awards, a blue plaque in London, and the naming of Arthur Wint Drive in K ingston, the long thoroughfare that passes the National Stadium and the city’s other main sporting facilities.

In a 2003 interview, a young schoolboy named Usain Bolt cited Wint as an inspiration, but perhaps the most eloquent testament to his stature came from his friend Michael Manley: The single most important element t o t he i n f lue nc e of A r t hu r on my generation was the sense of Jamaica, the Caribbean, as a great centre of potential excellence. We were, comparatively speak ing, a tiny part of the world with a very small population, but here we were producing people who were running world records, Olympic records, who were taking on the best at the highest level and winning.

These words are as applicable today as then, as many young Jamaican athletes — galvanised by the success of Usain Bolt, Asafa Powell, and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce — look set to continue in a winning tradition founded seventy years ago. n

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puzzles 1

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Puerto Rico [9] Down 1 Calm [5] 2 Healthcare centres [6] 3 Americans call it soccer [8] 4 Blaze [4] 6 Expert on the past [9] 7 Streetcars [8] 9 First number [3] 14 Pull yourself up by it [9]

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Spot the Difference

by Gregory St Bernard There are 15 differences between these two pictures. How many can you spot?

Spot the Difference andswers Diver’s flippers have changed colour; pattern on diver’s trunks is different; some of the reeds on the left have been removed; bubbles from diver’s snorkel have been removed; pipe on diver’s snorkel is shorter; stars next to “selfie” fish on left have been removed; colours of “selfie” fish are swapped; “K” on diver’s pendant is replaced with “Y”; green fish’s eyes are repositioned; earrings are added to green fish; green fish’s skirt has changed colour; orange fish’s hat is smaller; orange fish’s tie is repositioned; orange fish’s left fin is repositioned; heart next to “instagramming” fish on right is removed.

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baby birth Broadway curry duet dynasty family flying goat gout Hamilton high historian honorary hot spring literature midwife mother

musical natural obligation prize recovery relay school silver soca stamp stew trail Usain verse view volunteer Waitukubuli Wint

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85% (2018 year-to-date: 30 March)

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Southbound

© 2018 Marvel

Northbound

Marvel Studios’ Black Panther

Paddington 2

T’Challa returns home to Wakanda to take his place as king, but when a powerful old enemy reappears, his mettle as king — and Black Panther — is tested.

Paddington takes on a series of odd jobs to buy the perfect present for his Aunt Lucy’s 100th birthday. But then the gift is stolen.

Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o • director: Ryan Coogler • action, adventure • PG-13 • 134 minutes

Ben Whishaw, Hugh Grant, Sally Hawkins • director: Paul King • family • PG • 103 minutes

AU GU ST

Southbound

© 2018 Marvel

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Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Infinity War

Ready Player One

With the powerful Thanos on the verge of raining destruction upon the universe, the Avengers and their super hero allies risk everything in the ultimate showdown of all time.

In the year 2045, the real world is a harsh place. The only time Wade Watts truly feels alive is when he escapes to the OASIS, an immersive virtual universe.

Robert Downey, Jr, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo • director: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo • action, adventure • PG-13 • 149 minutes

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classic

Looking for horn A dip into the magazine archives, from our July/August 2004 issue: Dylan Kerrigan on Trini drivers’ noisy but ingenious use of “horn” Illustration by James Hackett

T

he culture of a place — the way its people think about and do things — reveals itself in many ways. Sometimes like a silent language, or a secret handshake known only to those born into it; sometimes noisily, but no less mysterious to outsiders.

Take driving, for instance: the style, manners, and general attitude of drivers in different parts of the world — as they get from A to B on the same asphalt roads with the same traffic lights and road signs — couldn’t be more wide-ranging.

In Spain, for example, drivers speed up on sighting a pedestrian. Like waving a red flag at a bull, and regardless of your age and sex, stepping onto a zebra crossing in the land of lazy siestas is an incitement to speed. In England, conformist motorists suffer road rage should a fellow driver err from the rules, and are inclined to drive off a cliff if Highway Code rule 41B tells them to.

The Caribbean too has its own style. In fact, in Trinidad you’ll find an inventive people who’ve taken the car’s central warning device, the horn, and created an indigenous language.

There’s the two-tap “overtake” signal, useful on beach runs and in dealing with single-lane traffic moving too slowly. Akin to the verbal announcement “coming through!” used at fetes across the land, the “overtake” is as common on the road as rum is with Coke on a Friday night.

Of course, there’s also a slightly faster reciprocal two-tap “thank you” that many drivers deliver once they’re clean through — often modified to an even more grateful three-tap if the other car “ease yuh up” by moving over and slowing down.

And who can ignore the vexation blast? In a country where “bad drive” is almost a way of life, it receives a lot of airtime on the highway, and when things come to a standstill. There’s the taxi blocking up the traffic, the man driving the wrong way up your lane, the traffic light jumper, the numb nut who

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thinks he can get through a gap he obviously can’t — all regularly get the long, brutal horn, often supplemented by a few choice words.

The “cautious-winding-road” one-tap is extremely useful in the hills outside Port of Spain, and used by everyone up and down the country like pepper sauce — some like it with everything, others only when Tantie food really call for it. Should the beep ever sound out of control — an exaggerated long horn, low and loud — beware. This could be one of three things: a) a big truck coming fast round the corner, and the road ain’t big enough for the both of you; b) a nervous or over-cautious driver, probably driving slower than your granny and with a snaking line of traffic in the rear; or c) just some limeys playing the fool after too many Caribs — probably the most dangerous of the three possibilities.

For J’Ouvert on Carnival Monday morning there’s the nonstop, in-time-to-the-music horn, most useful when, through no fault of your own, a mud truck with hundreds of dirty revellers turns the corner to confront you. At these moments, while the foreigner fears for his life, locals usually know what to do. Keep tapping the horn and get it in time to the music; the mud men will soon pass, content that their call was acknowledged with some horn of your own.

From the vast dictionary of horn semantics — and we have only touched on a few examples — my personal favourite is the “salutation horn.” Sometimes it’s just a short hello, other times a rip-roaring, honkety-honk that scares the life out of old people and children, but lets your partner (and everyone else in the street) know that you and he are good friends, although by no means does this guarantee him a ride.

This horn language isn’t allowed by the road laws of every country, but in Trinidad it’s part of everyday life. Without it, in fact, the road system probably wouldn’t work. There, I’ve said it now: without a good horn, things break down. n