Ali­cia Llanos

The daugh­ter of the late Lord Kitch­en­er, Quwe­nia Roberts, is ap­peal­ing to the Gov­ern­ment to con­tin­ue de­vel­op­ing and pro­mot­ing all forms of lo­cal artis­tic cul­ture. Roberts was speak­ing yes­ter­day at the re­nam­ing cer­e­mo­ny of the pub­lic au­di­to­ri­um of the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my of Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA) to the Lord Kitch­en­er (Ald­wyn Roberts) Au­di­to­ri­um. She joined her moth­er, Va­lerie Green, the in­spi­ra­tion be­hind Kitch­en­er's song - Sug­ar Bum Bum - and broth­er Ker­nal Roberts to give re­marks at the cer­e­mo­ny.

She con­grat­u­lat­ed the Gov­ern­ment for tak­ing steps to ho­n­our T&T's cul­tur­al pi­o­neers but urged them to con­tin­ue de­vel­op­ing and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly pro­mot­ing the coun­tries rich source of artis­tic tal­ent. Roberts said her fam­i­ly was grate­ful the Gov­ern­ment had ho­n­oured her fa­ther and hoped to see his fel­low ca­lyp­so­ni­ans be­ing recog­nised in a sim­i­lar fash­ion. Ker­nal said he too was hap­py to see the Gov­ern­ment tak­ing steps to­wards the de­vel­op­ment of lo­cal cul­ture, while com­mem­o­rat­ing those who pi­o­neered both mu­sic and vi­su­al art.

Along with the Kitch­en­er's fam­i­ly, the cer­e­mo­ny was at­tend­ed by oth­er mu­si­cal icons, which in­clud­ed the Mighty Spar­row, Ca­lyp­so Rose, Broth­er Re­sis­tance, the Orig­i­nal De Fos­to Him­self and Ewart Ser­rant. De Fos­to and Ser­rant both paid mu­si­cal trib­ute to Kitch­en­er, per­form­ing some of his well known songs. Ho­n­our­ing Kitch­en­er's con­tri­bu­tion to the de­vel­op­ment of steel­pan as a mu­si­cal art form recog­nised glob­al­ly, the Na­tion­al Steel Sym­pho­ny Or­ches­tra per­formed. In recog­ni­tion of Kitch­en­er as a na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al mu­si­cal icon, his fam­i­ly pro­vid­ed mem­o­ra­bil­ia to the Lord Kitch­en­er Rain­o­ra­ma ex­hi­bi­tion, which would be tak­ing place at NA­PA over the next few weeks.