- NEWSDAY.CO.TT - A la Une - Hier 05:25

Bandleaders call for preservation of legacies of cultural icons

When Classix Productions bandleader Vanessa Forde told late mas bandleader Jason Griffith that her 2025 children’s band would honour him, he said, “At least somebody remembers I exist.” She told Newsday in a phone interview on July 1 that he felt so honoured by it. Her band’s 2025 presentation was called A Tribute to Great Masmen and honoured people like him. Griffith, a pioneer in traditional sailor mas, died on June 19 at 98. Even though there were tributes from dignitaries like President Christine Kangaloo, Forde believes there is an urgent need for more to be done to honour Trinidad and Tobago’s cultural icons across all spheres, as well as to preserve their legacies – starting with the redesign and relocation of the Charlotte Street, Port of Spain-based Carnival Museum. She also suggested the creation of a Carnival/mas textbook to aid in knowledge transfer to children. Mas is a part of Forde’s genetic make-up, and she remembers being a part of TT’s culture from a small child as her father often created a section in late legendary mas leader Harold Saldenah’s bands. Forde started making costumes as a teenager, produced her first band in 1982 and worked with children’s mas designers Like Richard Bartholomew. Quilting features heavily in her work. She created her own band in 2003 while as Griffith’s neighbour on Pelham Street, Port of Spain. Forde practices her own form of sailor mas preservation, ensuring that she keeps the sailor pants, uses braiding to complete the costumes and having each one of her masqueraders wear gloves and the same footwear. [caption id="attachment_1164454" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Bandleader Rosalind Gabriel, right, and Republic Bank's Karen Tom Yew work on a costume at the Zebapique Mas Camp in 2024. - Photo by Faith Ayoung[/caption] “I believe a costume is not just the clothing you wear. It is everything about the band. I pay attention to detail.” TT has not done enough succession planning to ensure that kind work is built upon, she said. “We are following others. We are the Mecca of Carnival, I don’t know why we feel we must be like Brazil. “If you have a band with proper costuming, it is not attractive to the young people, that band would largely have people (aged) 50 and over.” Forde hopes some younger people will be interested in continuing the traditions of sailor mas designers like Griffith. But she is doubtful because even though bands like Trinidad All Stars haves thousands of sailor masqueraders, it is largely a more mature demographic. She believes TT’s cultural legacy is treated in a cavalier and careless manner by many, including successive administrations. For example, she said, Piarco International Airport should have pan playing on its audio system, educational/historical material about the country and its cultural products as well as geographical information on places to visit. [caption id="attachment_1164453" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Vanessa Forde shows one of the costumes at her Belmont mas camp. - Photo by Jelani Beckles[/caption] “We don’t sell our country enough like Jamaica and those places where tourism is their priority. They do not prioritise us except at Carnival time.” Forde said for the “millions” spent on the Carnival museum it does not represent the culture and should be a more inviting space for people interested in learning about TT’s culture and its major developers. “Where it is there, you have no parking. It should be where buses would be able to park and you can have tourist buses, people outside selling toolum and tamarind balls – all of TT’s traditional delicacies. “I would like to see a history book that can be used in schools so that it is mandatory that students learn about their culture.” Forde hopes the new Minister of Culture and Community Development Michelle Benjamin will focus on children’s mas; what she calls “the real mas.” “Even on Carnival Saturday, they run the children off the stage because Panorama is Saturday night and they have to be off the stage by 3 pm to get the Savannah ready for Panorama. “The children are hustled and the beauty of mas is in the children’s mas. There are very few adult bands, with the expectations of Peter Minshall, Brian Mac Farlane and those who replicate their work, where you see the real mas.” She hopes children’s Carnival and traditional mas are preserved, as it makes TT’s festival unique and unlike others around the world. TT Carnival Bands Association founding member Rosalind Gabriel holds a similar view. She hopes Carnival Arts is introduced to primary schools so children can understand the history of the festival and the arts associated with it, thereby creating a nursery of creatives for the future, she told Newsday in WhatsApp messages. “We in TT have not been very interested in preserving our history, far less for the history of our mas and cultural icons.” She agreed with former National Carnival Commission chairman Winston “Gypsy” Peters that Trinidadians are always ready to “tear down” what others built. He made these statements when interviewed about Griffith's death. “I must add, those of us who are devoted to the culture do it for the love of the artform. In my case, it’s mas and our national festival, without giving much thought to the preservation of the legacy we create while being active in the field of culture that we choose.” Gabriel believes TT’s children should know great mas icons like George Bailey, Saldenah, Irwin McWilliams, Griffith and Wayne Berkely, to name a few. “We work in the moment and hope that somewhere, sometime, someone will remember us,” Gabriel said.   The post Bandleaders call for preservation of legacies of cultural icons appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.