Coral King & Glenville Ash­by

In its cel­e­bra­tion of the rich cul­tur­al her­itage of the Caribbean and the Di­as­po­ra, the Sun­shine Awards be­fit­ting­ly marked the pass­ing of Prime Min­is­ter David Thomp­son of Bar­ba­dos, and so­ca artist Ar­row of Montser­rat–two of its dis­tin­guished sons. In a solemn mo­ment that af­firmed its mot­to, One Caribbean, One Fam­i­ly, at the 22nd an­nu­al Sun­shine Awards in New York City, there was a col­lec­tive mourn­ing. The award cer­e­mo­ny, which has be­come a Big Ap­ple sta­ple, fea­tured Dancin Africa of Bar­ba­dos, with its ex­plo­sive style and tech­ni­cal artistry in tra­di­tion­al and con­tem­po­rary African, Caribbean and folk danc­ing. That the group opened the show proved pro­pi­tious, as the dance troupe went on to cap­ture the award for Tra­di­tion­al Dance.

Known for show­cas­ing and ho­n­our­ing the en­deav­ours of or­gan­i­sa­tions and peo­ple who have im­pact­ed the lives of the Caribbean peo­ples and African Amer­i­cans, the Sun­shine Awards con­tin­ued the tra­di­tion as it marked the100th An­niver­sary of the Na­tion­al Ur­ban League (NUL), a renowned civ­il rights or­gan­i­sa­tion that con­tin­ues to as­sid­u­ous­ly fight for racial equal­i­ty, eco­nom­ic em­pow­er­ment and po­lit­i­cal rights. The Sun­shine Awards al­so paid trib­ute to Haiti, re­mind­ing the world that that the road to re­cov­ery was far from com­plete. Yves Joseph of Tabou Com­bo, one of Haiti's most fa­mous groups, and pop­u­lar­ly called the am­bas­sadors of Kom­pa, was pre­sent­ed with the 2010 Sun­shine Award in recog­ni­tion of his re­lief ef­forts in his home­land.

"Haiti is not poor. Haiti is im­pov­er­ished but Haiti will nev­er die," he said, as he ac­cept­ed his award. In an evening of en­ter­tain­ment and re­flec­tion host­ed by Gil Fi­garo, Er­rol Fa­bi­en, and Nik­ki Cros­by, there was a sense of deep ap­pre­ci­a­tion for the cul­tur­al con­tri­bu­tion of a broad genre of artists. Famoro Dioubate's of Guinea cap­ti­vat­ed the au­di­ence with his bal­a­fon, a tru­ly unique in­stru­ment. He went on to re­ceive the 2010 Sun­shine Award for African mu­sic. T&T's chut­ney queen, Dru­patee Per­sad elec­tri­fied with an­oth­er of her sig­na­ture per­for­mances, and was lat­er pre­sent­ed with the Sun­shine Award for her peren­ni­al con­tri­bu­tion to chut­ney mu­sic. Oth­er awardees for con­tri­bu­tion to the per­form­ing arts were Dor­brene O'Marde of An­tigua, Son­ny Blacks of

Eng­land, and Ramiro Craw­ford of Cos­ta Ri­ca. Two Trin­bag­o­ni­ans, Al­fred "Sacks" May­ers of­ten de­scribed as one of the steel­band pi­o­neers of the 1940's, and Nor­man Dar­way Adams, were in­duct­ed in­to the 2010 Hall of Fame for their con­tri­bu­tion to steel­band mu­sic. Adams was not in at­ten­dance, and "Sacks," with the au­di­ence glued to his every word, re­lat­ed an un­for­get­table ex­change with his fa­ther, who like many par­ents then, as­so­ci­at­ed the steel pan with hooli­gan­ism. "Is that what I make you for, to beat pan?" he re­called his fa­ther say­ing. But "Sacks" by then was unswerv­ing in his pas­sion, hon­ing his skills and de­ter­mined to re­alise his vi­sion for the then bur­geon­ing art form to gain re­spectabil­i­ty. Oth­er in­ductees in­clud­ed Trin­bag­on­ian ca­lyp­son­ian and co­me­di­an Bill Trot­man, as well as Guyana's Dave Mar­tins and the Tradewinds.