Trinidad Newsday -- Dara Healy
...We need to understand that the pan is more than just music; it is about spirit. It is about the connection between Ifa/Orisa and the nurturing of our pan in those yards.
Noted playwright and cultural historian Rawle Gibbons has documented the links between the Orisa faith and the steelband; between Orisa drummers, practitioners of the belief system, and the innovators of the steelband. Despers is one of the bands with integral connections to African spirituality.
Like Despers, the ancestors who fought and died for our culture roam up and down the hill. Can you feel them? Their patience is infinite, so they wait for us to be ready, they wait for their respect. Until Despers goes back up the hill, until Laventille is fixed, until we properly confront our cultural space, they will restlessly wait. The rest is up to us now …
Dara Healy is a performance artist and founder of the NGO, the Indigenous Creative Arts Network – ICAN
Replies
There is absolutely nothing else in Trinidad and Tobago that identifies with a community and creates community pride through generations , as the steelband.
Think about that for a moment , and think of your connection with your local steelband.
Personally , everyone knows I love my Trinidad All Stars , but my feelings for the Marabella band Southern Marines are deeply ingrained in me and goes back to my youth.
And I know that people from Laventille and other communities feel the same way.
Sometimes we get so wrapped up in Pan Trinbago , Diaz , panorama and money we forget that simple fact , but it is definitely worth remembering.
This is a wonderful and valuable discussion to have. I wish some of the players would weigh in so that we can hear their side of the story. I agree with Lillian Sten that the damage began when that building was placed on that magical piece of land...the cast!
Despers' Yard, carved out of the hard rock hill, holding the space between the stars and the city lights.
The cool-night breeze mingling with the flow of music. Magic.
The first attack on this magic was not the surrounding violence, but the EU 'Performance Centre", which blocked the view and took up much-needed space. It seems to have been built with little, if any, consultation with anyone of experience in the field of pan music, much less with the ancestors.
Dara Healy has a valid argument, the healing of the community will start when it's 'beating heart' is returned to its rightful, ancestral place to hold the space between the stars and the city lights again. Right now it is on life-support, and that is not a sustainable solution.
This is so true , and as Bob Marley said "Who feels it , knows it".
Some seem to think the steelband is all about the music , and finding ways to make it profitable , but to some of us it is far , far more than that .
Which is why it should be unacceptable to do anything that can separate the steelband from the community.
To me , even taking the steelbands off the streets where they had and intimacy with their fans , and putting them on trucks and even on a stage has weakened the bond between steelband and community, resulting in the loss of community support we see today.
True dat Glenroy, putting them on trucks has done irreparable damage.
... but even VANESSA HEADLEY say that she want A RIG if her Steelband is coming on the road for Carnival; she say she players eh PUSHING NO PAN ON THE ROAD.
And Mighty Trini: Everybody tell me ah taking on TOO MUCH/But I say is only who feel it know the touch.
And Raf Robertson say: If it have 12 notes it is a MUSICAL INSTRUMENT!!!
Despers Management value all their players and supporters that's why they chose to relocate, that's a excellent decision.
Cleaning up the violence on the hill is not something that will come overnight, so Despers will have to continue looking at real estate
Cecil Hickson, What violence! I will always stay in my beloved Laventille whenever I am in Trinidad. If one does not want to go up the hill, that is one rights, but one should not use ones rights to label Laventile with violence.
I have no problem with Desperadoes rehearsing for panorama out of Laventille. From 2009 through 2018. The band "grossed" 1000 times X in assorted sales, which is good. However, my problem lies with the saying, "D STAGESIDE PLAYERS DOUGH WAR 2 PRACTICE UP DAY." I know that without players, there are no steel orchestras. However, that is where strong Management lies.
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