"....Another way to track the spread of immigration from the West Indies in particular is to look at the growing prevalence of steelpan drum groups in the U.S....."
....Former Attorney General Eric Holder’s family emigrated from Barbados, before he became the first black man to hold the position. Former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s parents are from Jamaica. He too was the first black man to serve in that position. Barbados native Rihanna and Trinidad-born Nicki Minaj are running the pop charts. The president of Howard University, the nation’s most prestigious historically black university, is Trinidadian. President Obama’s origin tale also fits into this narrative.
Another way to track the spread of immigration from the West Indies in particular is to look at the growing prevalence of steelpan drum groups in the U.S., suggested William Howard, president of the West Indian Carnival Association, which organizes over 60 Carnival parties around the country every year.
“It’s the only instrument of this century,” Howard told me of the quintessential West Indian instrument, which came into its modern form in Trinidad and Tobago, in the early 1900s. “And right now, there are steel bands at Ivy League schools, they’ve got them at NYU, Rutgers and Northwestern; it’s just flourishing.”
By his estimate, there are currently over 3,000 steel pan bands across nation, from Washington state to Florida.
Another marker of a population that’s growing: the West Indian Carnival celebrations that Howard’s nonprofit helps to organize. “We just had the carnival here in New York, and now all of a sudden we have a Carnival in New Jersey, a Carnival coming up in Babylon, Long Island, and another Carnival coming up in Nassau,” he said, speaking during this month’s celebrations. “These Carnivals weren’t here five years ago, but all of a sudden we have Carnivals everywhere.”
Replies
It is good for us to boast of the spread of the steelpan to the Ivy League schools but let us not close our eyes to the hardships of the community steelband in and around our cities that is not funded.