Mayor Bill de Blasio of New York City at Grace Jerk Festival, Roy Wilkins Park, Queens on Sunday, July 19. He told the 20,000 fans of his Jerk Sandwich. On right is Kaci Fennell, Miss Universe Jamaica who gave demos about preparing great Jamaican dishes. New Yorkers saw Kaci earlier this year at EVERYBODY’S Mother’s Day Concert.

The mayor was accompanied by his wife Chrilane McCray who did not participate in the cooking demo.

President Obama(2015)  and President Ronald Reagan (1982)

Historic Caribbean Trips

From Wednesday, April 7 to Thursday April 8, 1982, President Ronald Reagan visited Jamaica. And now, almost to the exact date 33 years later, Barack Obama is the 2nd sitting US president to visit Jamaica and a woman, Portia Simpson-Miller, the Prime Minister of Jamaica, welcomed him.  President Obama also met with other CARICOM leaders, including another female, Prime MinisterKamla Persad-Bissessar of Trinidad & Tobago. How times have changed! 
There are many more contrasts between the trips of President Barack Obama and President Reagan. EVERYBODY’S Magazine focuses on them in its April/May edition. (About to print)
Flying with President Reagan, First Lady Nancy Reagan and the White House Press in April 1982 was EVERYBODY’S editor/publisher, Herman Hall.
His vivid eyewitness account of Reagan’s visit to Jamaica and Barbados created a demand for the May 1982 edition. Today, a treasured copy is in the Ronald Reagan Library.
Hall’s historic article of the 1982 presidential visit is reproduced in EVERYBODY’S April/May 2015 edition. You may order it in a few days from www.everybodymag.com.
“I urge everyone to read Hall’s 1982 article. You will find it informative, educational and entertaining,” says B. Wilson, a Caribbean historian. “You will get an understanding of tensions in the Caribbean of 1982 as Grenada charted its independent course. The article provides an excellent snapshot of the region and provides a lens through which to view the growth and maturity of the region.”
What was served at the dinner in honor of Ronald and Nancy Reagan that Wednesday evening? Was it a State Dinner? What music and whose music played? Did Michael Manley attend the dinner? What gifts did Governor-General Sir Florizel Glasspole and President Reagan exchange?
The edition will be released around April 20. For more info call (718) 941-1979.

Lyrikal, International Soca Superstar hot from T&T Carnival

Kaci Fennell, Miss Universe Jamaica

Chucky Gordon, 2014 and 2015 National Calypso Monarch

The hottest calypso and soca stars including Lyrikal and Chucky Gordon together with Andrea Wright (Delcita) and Kaci Fennell, Miss Universe Jamaica will be serenading moms at this years Mother’s Day Saturday Concert.

The spectacular concert is at  Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts, Brooklyn College, NY on Saturday, May 9 beginning at 8pm.

The superstars honoring moms are:

Lyrikal

Chucky Gordon

Nikki Crosby (Go Granny)

Becket

Biggie Irie

Delcita

Kaci Fennell, Miss Universe Jamaica

The Batingua Dancers

Joshua Boyce

The Sunshine Band

Here are communications between JFK International Airport tower personnel and airlines landing and taking off during the minutes when a Caribbean Airlines jet that had just landed allegedly did not follow three instructions from JFK Tower to stop. The result was the sudden abort take off a Jet Blue plane as it moved down the runway to avoid a collision with the Caribbean Airlines plane. The near fatal collision occurred last Saturday night.

Caribbean Airlines owned by Trinidad & Tobago has removed the pilot and copilot from duties pending outcome of investigations by the US Federal Aviation Administration and the Trinidad & Tobago Civil Aviation Authority.

Caribbean Airlines is a replacement of BWIA. Since its establishment, Caribbean Airlines has had accidents. One of its jets crashed in Guyana. Unlike BWIA, its communication and marketing personnel are considered aloof by many in Caribbean Communities abroad.

Remembering April 4, 1968

Celebrating January 15

By Herman Hall, Editor & Publisher, EVERYBODY’S, the Caribbean-American Magazine

I vividly remember the night of April 4, 1968 and the morning after, Friday, April 5th.

First, let me briefly describe my life during that era. In 1968, I was a young and new immigrant with no relatives in the US. My two adventurous friends, Cecil and Cadore, came to NY before me and encouraged me to join them. I came on a student visa. Life was rough. I was determined not to violate my immigrant status, in any event I desired to seek a better education, so I attended school. My night job provided me $40 per week after taxes. $8 paid my weekly rent; about $23 for weekly school fees and about $9 left for food, transportation and other needs. I think subway tokens were 10 or 15 cents. I was not yet a big eater so one meal per day and orange juice then about 15 cents for a quarter gallon was enough to take me thru the week.

My biggest problem was my plastic factory job and missing Grenada.  Brooklyn had many plastic factories. It was a 4pm to 12midnight shift with 20 minutes for dinner  and two five minutes break.  For 7.5 hours I had to stand, keep up with the machine door which opened every 20-second. Some machines opened every 15 seconds. It was boring and the plastic was hot as fire when it came from the mold.

The Civil Rights movement was at its climax. To me, the Caribbean people in NY I got to know saw themselves as different to African-Americans. They felt the civil rights struggles was an African-American problem and not a problem for Caribbean immigrants in the US. It was a time when West Indian wives and other West Indian women  came to the US to work as domestic servants for white families. It was the easiest avenue for a woman to get her Green Card or Permanent Visa. Upon getting it she sent for her husband, children and parents.

West Indian women working for white folks in the suburbs of Westchester and Long Island by listening to their bosses  regard the civil rights struggle as purely a Black-American-white American issue.

However, what they did not know was people such as Harry Belafonte, Cecily Tyson, union boss Peter Ottley were of Caribbean heritage and part of the civil rights movement.

Older generations and their children were involved in the civil rights movement. Many were veterans of Marcus Garvey organization and experienced what life was really like in other states.

At 4pm on the afternoon of April 4, 1968, I arrived at the factory located near Broadway in Brooklyn located between Bedford-Stuyvesant and Williamsburg neighborhoods. By 8pm, I sensed something was wrong. The African-American foreman who hailed from South Carolina was not observing us work. He was on the phone with his boss. He looked perplexed.  News did not spread or confirm as easily as today.

Finally around 9pm, he asked everyone to turn off their machine, announced Martin Luther King had been shot and killed, we should hurry to our homes before riots break out.

I lived in Bushwick. Every morning I took the J train at the East New York station then switched to the always crowed A train for Manhattan. The A train was quiet that Friday morning. I saw tears from many as they read newspapers.

Minor riots did occur in Harlem and on Fulton Street in Bedford Stuyvesant but the riots were not major in comparison to what occurred in other parts of the US.

Every 4th and 5th of April, I reminiscent of the chilling days in 1968 and about how Governor Nelson Rockefeller provided his personal plane to transport civil rights leaders in the NY area to King’s funeral in the South.

Years later, the late Percy Sutton, a former Borough President of Manhattan and Malcolm X lawyer, introduced me to Mrs. Coretta Scott King at a luncheon in Manhattan.

“Coretta, I want to introduce you to this young man. He used to work for me at WLIB but he is a big shot now; he has his own magazine,” Sutton amusingly told Mrs. King.

Mrs. King asked if I had a copy. Fortunately, I had one; moreover it was an edition showing photos of the annual March in Washington, DC led by Steve Wonder and others asking January 15 Martin Luther King birthday be declared a national holiday. She was thrilled.

She chatted with  me for about five minutes and invited me to Atlanta.

“Make sure you come to Atlanta for Martin’s birthday next year,” she reminded me.

Trinidad calypsonians at New York Village Vanguard in the 1940s

For the last 27 years T&T’s National Action Cultural Committee, the cultural arm of the National Joint Action Committee, has been hosting an Annual ‘Top 20’ Stars of Gold Calypso and Calypso of the Year Award Ceremony. Gilman Figaro, Chairman/Founder of the The Sunshine Awards, gave the feature address: Excerpts

CALYPSO
A Place in the Present for the Past
By Gil Figaro

     At the very onset, let me congratulate the National Action Cultural Committee and its leadership for embarking upon this noble initiative of preserving calypso music in its traditional form and for bringing artists into closer contact with the people of Trinidad and Tobago and by extension the world for the past 27 years. In other words, this organization’s recognition of the cultural diversity that pervades its musical forms, not only frames the society of Trinidad and Tobago but also underscores the power of the blending of various cultures and its significance to teaching, learning and human development. I stand before you tonight as a beneficiary of this tripartite result or outcome.
I was introduced to calypso and the calypso tent around the age of 7 or 8 by my uncle, Daniel Emanuel Jardine Gilchrist known to calypso aficionados or enthusiasts as the “Young Killer.” Through him I met some of my heroes and teachers – namely, the Mighty Sparrow, the Mighty Chalkdust, Terror, Bomber and the Mighty Duke. Of course, over the years there have been many others too numerous to mention. It is with deep pride, that as I reflect on my years from pre-adolescence to adulthood that these very calypsonians by their research, their mediation of disputes, their delving into history, their documenting of events, their re-narrations of the colloquial idioms and their ensuring that our African traditions remain alive, have all been instrumental to my learning, education and development. Like the Mighty Sparrow, I am proud to say that in the face of British colonial education, that “If I was bright, I woulda be a damn fool.”
The impact of calypso and the calypsonian has far-reaching implications and is not surprising that researchers and historians alike continue to write about the art form and its artists, many of whom may lack formal education as we know it, yet have made and continue to make significant contributions to our culture. And so my goal tonight is to reiterate that there is a place in the present for the past.
My point, brothers and sisters, is that while many of our veterans did not attend college or university, their compositions, their lyrics, cognitive processes, insights, and melodies have led us to believe otherwise. Their social and political commentaries have helped to shape and expand my understanding and ability to engage in dialog in many circles.
In short, they have contributed significantly to increasing my cultural literacy and equipping me with an arsenal of worldviews that has become commonplace in my daily existence.
I often describe our calypsonians as ‘incubators of knowledge’ because they have educated us using their tools of varied skills, craftsmanship and talent. We therefore owe a great deal to these pedagogical heroes who have used their performing venues as classrooms. We should not forget them even if some are waiting to welcome us elsewhere.
Social commentaries like the Mighty Sparrow’s “Education is Essential,” Duke’s “How Many More Must Die,” (How poignant a title when we relate it to the social breakdown and murder rate in our communities, not to mention the spate of police killings in the US), Christo’s “Don’t try to Live like the Morgan’s,” Chalkdust’s “Black Inventions” and Funny’s “Read a Book” should not only be viewed or enjoyed as advice or counseling in song but should be appreciated in the context of human development and empowerment. Truly, the power of the veteran calypsonians must not be taken lightly but should be contextualized as harbingers of knowledge for the upcoming generation. I am therefore appealing to the veterans to continue to forge ahead with the traditional art form of calypso to ensure that the past transcends the present thereby ensuring a future.
We must also credit the veteran calypsonian with a keen understanding of the fabric of his/her society and the ability to recognize the gap between rich and poor – a gap that reaffirmed his role as the voice and ears of the masses. I am sure that you can recall, as recently as the 1960s calypso was not considered an integral part of the performing arts to the extent that it was not played by radio stations during the Lenten season. The performing artist was perceived as the individual who played the piano or the violin at Queens Hall in Port of Spain for the upper echelon in society.
The same can be said of the very powerful and informative political commentaries from the veteran calypsonian. The calypsonian can set the stage for a democratic society like ours. Gypsy proved it with his “Captain the Ship is sinking,” Chalkdust with his “Driver can’t drive” and the Lord Kitchener with his “Not a Damn Seat For them.” The politician plays a significant role in the affairs of citizens through the crafting of laws, policies and the structuring of society – sometimes creating gaps between rich and poor and favoritism among the citizenry. In stark contrast, the calypsonian often point out these inequities and social ills through his compositions. In other words, the calypsonian, like a journalist can inform, persuade and influence political outcomes.
Moreover, his or her compositions serve to pull the feathers of the wings of politicians to enable him to “fly an ordinary pitch” to use the words of Shakespeare. I often ponder upon this reality asking myself that after playing all these roles, why becoming a calypsonian was not viewed as a respectable pursuit. Is it because of the lower class, African roots of calypso, or is it because the calypsonian is often right?
Let’s take a look at another area of the calypso genre that our heroes have mastered which has also contributed to my development – the humor in calypso. Humor is an integral part of our cultural fabric. One might even venture to say that Caribbean societies will cease to exist if there is no humor. Humor to our Caribbean society is therapeutic. Medical researchers are even reporting that laughter is important for one’s good health and well-being…. Remember Chalkie’s calypso “You Got to Learn to Laugh.”
Many veteran calypsonians have integrated humor into their compositions, often making it the most important ingredient. I often describe their humor as “creative humor.” Calypsoes like Lord Pyscho’s “My Memory,” Spoiler’s “Himself Talking to Himself,” Lord Nelson’s “Lying Competition,” Dougla’s “Lazy Man” and Young Killer’s “Black Woman named Miss White” are all calypsos that reflect a high level of creative humor and were appreciated by all audiences. It is this creative humor of the calypsonian that finds its way back into the society, where, as part of the socialization process, it frames our personalities and contributes to our national identity. Many foreigners therefore cannot understand why we laugh at events and things that make them cry and why we are so joyful in areas where others find gloom.
Stay with me on this journey and let’s reflect on the calypsonian as an entertainer and the calypso art form as entertainment. There is no doubt that some veteran calypsonians have mastered the art of entertaining others and the public using skills and techniques, language and body movements that leave audiences wanting more and wishing that the performances never end. Actions and emotions to underscore the message from the lyrics clearly define the calypsonian as an entertainer and not just someone who sings calypsoes.
The Mighty Sparrow, Super Blue, David Rudder, Black Stalin, Brigo and Calypso Rose are among those who have thrilled many audiences to the fullest repeatedly answering calls for encores. So my brothers and sisters, in many respects, calypso is much more than humorous political and social commentaries – in fact it is an art form that persuades, informs, educates, motivates, uplifts and entertains.
All these characteristics of the calypso art form superbly performed by the calypsonian helped to persuade and educate me as a young man here in Trinidad and Tobago so that I could embark upon an adult life with the capacity to appreciate other aspects of the performing arts. The joys and excitement of calypso often replaced my need, as a young man in Trinidad, to listen to other forms of music. So powerful is the art form of calypso that it has given birth to other genres: soca; chutney soca; soca parang; and the performers of these new art forms are benefiting from the sacrifices the calypsonians of yesteryear have made throughout their careers.     This illustrates that there is a place in the present for the past.
It is this appreciation for the art form and a strong desire to make a difference in people’s lives that gave me the impetus to found Calypso for Africa in 1984 and write and produce the music track “Now Is the Time” with Joe Brown and Ralph MacDonald. A recording that included 72 calypsonians spanning four generations. The objective of that project was to assist our brothers and sisters in Ethiopia, Africa.
Following that historic Project, I founded the SUNSHINE Awards to recognize excellence in calypso and steelband music and pay tribute to the pioneers and great contributors. Let me be clear – an undertaking such as this cannot be accomplished single-handedly.
I have had tremendous support from individuals who shared the same passion for our indigenous art form – the calypso and steelband music…
The establishment of the SUNSHINE Awards did not occur without challenges. We had many “naysayers” including the various Caribbean Consulates (including my own) in New York City that clearly voiced their  opinion saying – the idea was not going to work – calypso has no track record. There were also our brothers and sisters from other Caribbean countries describing it as a “Trini Thing.” There was the lack of trust in the idea from sponsors, in the Caribbean and New York and the shortage of financial resources – were other barriers to which we were privy.
No doubt, there were times I thought of shelving the idea but felt that I owed this to my uncle, my culture and myself. Moreover, my uncle indicated that once I had Chalkdust in my corner that I would never fail and he was indeed clairvoyant in that regard. …
Tonight, I can proudly tell you that through the years, the SUNSHINE Awards Program has expanded in scope and breadth extending its canopy of awards to America, Africa, Central America, South America and India….
You should also know that following the death of Nelson Mandela, we requested [and got] approval from his family and The Nelson Mandela Foundation to name a SUNSHINE Award in his honor as a tribute and to keep the focus of his works and contribution to our world in the forefront of our minds. …
In conclusion, I note that this special event tonight, coincides with the centenary of the first vocal recoding of a calypso, “Iron Duke in the Land” performed by Julien Whiterose. We should note also that history has recorded that carnival over the years has become the hallmark of the Trinidad and Tobago society. Some historians and researchers still argue that there would have been no carnival without calypso music and the calypsonian.
If we accept that argument then we must accept that calypso is the cornerstone of the rich history and beauty of our society and has been very instrumental in setting the stage for cultural diversity. In that case we, the calypso promoters and calypso lovers must ensure that the cornerstone be not removed and that indeed there is a place in the present for calypso music….
My brothers and sisters, you and I are indeed blessed beneficiaries of the beautiful art form of calypso music – an art form that must be preserved with its heritage for future generations. Let us all embark upon a personal assignment joining hands and hearts with the National Action Cultural Committee and other like-minded cultural organizations to ensure that there is a place in the present for traditional calypso music and the calypsonian.