Ken Ali

?Kurt Allen is a think­ing ca­lyp­son­ian and, quite pos­si­bly, the most so­cial­ly-con­scious monarch in re­cent times, apart from Chalk­dust and Gyp­sy. Allen's size and de­meanour be­lie the fact that he has been a ca­lyp­son­ian for 28 years. He was al­so a jour­nal­ist and does some play­writ­ing, in ad­di­tion to oth­er ac­tivist pur­suits. Allen sat down for an ex­clu­sive Sun­day Guardian in­ter­view.

?Q: The lyrics of your win­ning ca­lyp­so, Too Bright, point to frus­tra­tion with our na­tion­al lead­ers. What prompt­ed those strong lyrics?

A: The sen­ti­ments be­ing ex­pressed by the man in the street is what prompt­ed the lyrics. The lyrics ba­si­cal­ly re­flect what we see man­i­fest­ing in the so­ci­ety.

A po­et once said the peo­ple were ahead of their lead­ers. Is that the case in Trinidad and To­ba­go?

If the peo­ple are ahead of their lead­ers, then why do they con­tin­u­ous­ly choose lead­ers with whom they are dis­sat­is­fied? If that was the case, then the peo­ple should be held re­spon­si­ble and ac­count­able for cre­at­ing a vi­sion to treat with the so­cial chal­lenges fac­ing the na­tion and not blame or re­ly up­on the politi­cians for their sal­va­tion.

As a ca­lyp­son­ian, play­wright and for­mer jour­nal­ist, what do you think about the state of gov­er­nance in Trinidad and To­ba­go?

There is def­i­nite room for im­prove­ment and pub­lic ed­u­ca­tion, giv­en our po­lit­i­cal sys­tem. I be­lieve we can seek to raise po­lit­i­cal aware­ness among young peo­ple by ed­u­cat­ing them about the role and func­tion of gov­ern­ment and, by ex­ten­sion, good gov­er­nance. Young peo­ple who are ed­u­cat­ed about their civic re­spon­si­bil­i­ty mean­ing­ful­ly par­tic­i­pate in de­bates that re­late to good gov­er­nance.

Does the ca­lyp­son­ian still have the his­toric re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of cham­pi­oning the na­tion­al is­sues of the day?

Yes; most def­i­nite­ly. But I am not com­plete­ly con­vinced that the ca­lyp­son­ian is ful­ly aware of this re­spon­si­bil­i­ty and is ready and pre­pared to take up the chal­lenge to con­tin­ue the lega­cy of Li­on, Atil­la and Tiger.

Many peo­ple have com­ment­ed on the num­ber of so­cial­ly-con­scious ca­lyp­sos this year. Is the po­lit­i­cal ca­lyp­so en­joy­ing a re­nais­sance?

I see that more and more ca­lyp­so­ni­ans are slow­ly ven­tur­ing to tell it like it is. I re­mem­ber the days when Watch­man, Cro Cro, Chalk­dust and Sug­ar Aloes used po­lit­i­cal com­men­tary to at­tack and shake up both the gov­ern­ment and the op­po­si­tion. Po­lit­i­cal com­men­taries now are not as bit­ing and sting­ing, but we are see­ing a move­ment to­ward that di­rec­tion.

How much was the art form hurt by cer­tain ca­lyp­so­ni­ans be­ing bla­tant­ly po­lit­i­cal­ly par­ti­san and caus­tic against cer­tain eth­nic groups?

Once you are deal­ing with peo­ple, you are deal­ing with emo­tions and feel­ings. When­ev­er feel­ings are hurt, you can ex­pect a back­lash, as the nat­ur­al law of kar­ma–cause and ef­fect–takes shape. Whether or not the par­tic­u­lar artiste ma­li­cious­ly in­tend­ed to of­fend any par­tic­u­lar per­son, based on po­lit­i­cal af­fil­i­a­tion or eth­nic­i­ty, there is no doubt that this dark cloud over our art form placed some strain on its for­ward move­ment.

What, es­sen­tial­ly, has been your core mes­sage in ca­lyp­so?

My core mes­sage is that we, the peo­ple, must take re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for the choic­es we make in life. The coun­try, and by ex­ten­sion, our Caribbean civil­i­sa­tion, is for us to make and we have the pow­er to cre­ate a vi­sion for our fu­ture.

Do you think our lead­ers lis­ten to and are guid­ed by the wis­dom of our ca­lyp­so­ni­ans?

I be­lieve they lis­ten on some lev­el or the oth­er. I al­so be­lieve they no longer re­spect and fear the ca­lyp­son­ian, as they once did. It is easy to recog­nise that the ca­lyp­son­ian has soft­ened over the years and has com­pro­mised his in­tegri­ty, in many in­stances. The lead­ers them­selves have been able to use the ca­lyp­son­ian con­ve­nient­ly and then spit them out with­out protest. Ad­di­tion­al­ly, I think the com­posers can in­crease their chances of suc­cess by pay­ing greater fo­cus on in­for­ma­tion lit­er­a­cy. We will then be tak­en se­ri­ous­ly and giv­en the re­spect we de­serve.

Which artiste has im­pact­ed on your ca­reer the most?

The ca­lyp­so­ni­ans who have had the most im­pact on my ca­reer are Spar­row, Cro Cro, Stal­in, and Chalk­dust.

Is ca­lyp­so in safe hands?

The peo­ple who have ca­lyp­so in their hands must take per­son­al re­spon­si­bil­i­ty for its safe­ty and sus­tain­able de­vel­op­ment.

What does be­ing Ca­lyp­so Monarch mean to you?

It means that I am now of­fi­cial­ly man­dat­ed by the peo­ple to demon­strate the true and in­tend­ed role and re­spon­si­bil­i­ty of the ca­lyp­son­ian. I in­tend to take up this chal­lenge with both hands and pump a re­freshed breath of air in­to the bow­els of the art form.

What are your oth­er ma­jor ac­com­plish­ments dur­ing your 28-year ca­reer?

They are Stars of To­mor­row, 1992, Young King, 1993. So­ca Monarch, 1999.

You won those ti­tles?

Yes, I did.

What are your ca­lyp­so am­bi­tions?

To be con­sis­tent; al­ways aim for con­gru­ence and spark greater in­ter­est of par­tic­i­pa­tion in the art form from the youth.

What oth­er pro­fes­sion­al ac­tiv­i­ties are cur­rent­ly en­gag­ing your at­ten­tion?

I am the di­rec­tor of Caribbean Vizion, an or­gan­i­sa­tion that lob­bies for eco­nom­ic and cul­tur­al co-op­er­a­tion among Cari­com mem­ber states. We work close­ly with the Cari­com Sec­re­tari­at, UN­ESCO UN­Aids and gov­ern­ment agen­cies in de­vel­op­ing pro­grammes to cre­ate aware­ness on SCME, HIV/AIDS, and risky be­hav­iour among young peo­ple. My daugh­ter, Choc'late Allen, is the CEO, and spear­heads all of our projects.

Do you in­spire Choc'late, or does she in­spire you?

We both in­spire each oth­er, on dif­fer­ent is­sues. We are a fam­i­ly and de­pend up­on each oth­er. Al­so, my wife, Fa­bi­enne, has been a great source of strength to me. We have known each oth­er since we were 13 and 14 years old. She is a clas­sic ex­am­ple of "be­hind every suc­cess­ful man is a woman." I strong­ly be­lieve in fam­i­ly val­ues. The fam­i­ly struc­ture is im­por­tant to me. It has giv­en me a sense of bal­ance.

?Last bad­john stand­ing

Why do you de­scribe your­self as "the last bad­john of ca­lyp­so"?

In the ear­ly 1990s, Pre­tender and Ter­ror in­sist­ed that I adopt a so­bri­quet. But that was the time when artistes like David Rud­der and Machel Mon­tano were go­ing with­out so­bri­quets. I called my­self "the last bad­john of ca­lyp­so," be­cause that is what I am. I am a diehard; I give 100 per­cent to ca­lyp­so. I am the voice of so­cial con­scious­ness.

Who have been some of your prime sup­port­ers through the years?

Gar­net Hen­ry, John Phillip and El­son Nel­son have helped me great­ly. And Alvin Daniell has been my great­est sup­port­er of all. He has been there through­out my ca­reer.