Cherisse Moe

The Mal­ick Folk Per­form­ing Com­pa­ny has been work­ing as­sid­u­ous­ly to bring the in­dige­nous art form of folk mu­sic to the fore­front since 1979.With a long list of ac­co­lades to its name and no signs of slow­ing down, the lo­cal group, which re­ceived the 2004 Cha­co­nia Medal Sil­ver for its out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tion in the field of cul­ture, is now gear­ing up to stage yet an­oth­er ex­cit­ing pro­duc­tion, ti­tled, Nos­tal­gic & Fu­tur­is­tic Ex­pres­sions, at the Queen's Hall, St Ann's, on No­vem­ber 6.Sec­re­tary/pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer, Jem­ma Jor­dan said the pro­duc­tion, di­rect­ed by Louis Mc Williams and Nor­van Fuller­ton, promised to be one to re­mem­ber and fea­tured some of the na­tion's bright­est stars, in­clud­ing the Shiv Shak­ti Dance Com­pa­ny, the Ly­di­an Singers, Los Alum­nos de San Juan and African dance en­sem­ble, Wasa Foli."The pro­duc­tion high­lights Mal­ick through the years so its nos­tal­gic in that it show­cas­es the se­nior mem­bers and fu­tur­is­tic be­cause we have a ju­nior com­pa­ny," she ex­plained."We are go­ing to give them a taste of our in­dige­nous cul­ture in T&T in a very the­atri­cal pro­duc­tion with beau­ti­ful mu­sic and dance."

Recog­ni­tion

With Ja­maican and Amer­i­can gen­res such as dance­hall and hip hop the mu­sic of choice among the na­tion's youth, Jor­dan said lo­cal gen­res like folk mu­sic was not gain­ing the recog­ni­tion it de­served.And while the per­form­ing com­pa­ny-which holds the record for be­ing the on­ly folk group to win the Prime Min­is­ter's Best Vil­lage Tro­phy Com­pe­ti­tion on ten oc­ca­sions-was do­ing its part to keep the tra­di­tion alive, Jor­dan stat­ed that the time had come to do more."A peo­ple with­out a cul­ture is like a peo­ple with­out a soul," she as­sert­ed."We feel that it's im­por­tant that our young peo­ple know our cul­ture and take pride in what is our own. They must know what we cre­at­ed as a re­sult of us be­ing colonised. They must know where we came from in or­der to know where they are go­ing."

Runs deep

Hav­ing toured ex­ten­sive­ly with the mu­sic group over the years through­out the US, Cana­da, Ger­many, Italy, Brazil and the Caribbean, Jor­dan's love for coun­try runs deep.She said her main goal re­mained putting T&T on the glob­al map and help­ing to pre­serve the coun­try's dy­ing cul­ture.Al­so an in­te­gral part of Car­ni­val for the past 21 years, the Diego Mar­tin res­i­dent who has worked as an an­nounc­er for lo­cal events such as Di­manche Gras and The Na­tion­al Steel­band Panora­ma, as well in­ter­na­tion­al­ly for New York's Labour Day Cel­e­bra­tions, dis­closed that the group was on a "re­cruit­ment dri­ve" to at­tract new mem­bers.She not­ed that in­ter­est­ed in­di­vid­u­als should be "com­mit­ted and ded­i­cat­ed," have an in­ter­est in the per­form­ing arts and "be pre­pared to work hard."

More In­fo

The pro­duc­tion-Nos­tal­gic & Fu­tur­is­tic Ex­pres­sions starts prompt­ly at 4:30pm on No­vem­ber 6 at Queen's Hall, St Ann's. Adult ad­mis­sion is $100 and $50 for chil­dren 12 and un­der.