Also ready for Carnival 2017, Pan Trinbago Inc will begin the preliminaries of the National Panorama competition, for Single Pan steelbands, on Wednesday, January 11. One new innovation for next year's Carnival is that the Single Pan bands are being judged in their respective panyards. Small, Medium and Conventional steel orchestras wile also be adjudicated in their panyards, in their respective regions, on February 3-7, and their score sheets will be opened at a special media conference on March 8.
RGP will stage its eagerly awaited Ladies Night Out � An All White Affair on Friday, February 10 at Hasley Crawford Stadium, Port-of-Spain. Some fabulous women are signed for this event but one of its highlights is the number of Soca Monarchs on the cast, including 2016 champion Voice, Bunji Garlin, Faye Ann Lyons, Iwer, Olatunji and Farmer Nappy. Also on the cast thus far are The Asylum Band, Rupee, Skinny Fabulous, Tobago's Adana, Orlando Octave, Swappi, Erphaan Alves, Ricardo Drue, Nicky Crosby, Mr Ellis, Blackie, Cassie and Salty.
The door prizes are other attractions in the package offered by RGP. For instance, the Best Dressed Lady In White will received $50,000 while her runners-up will take home $15,000 and $10,000, respectively. The male patrons have not been forgotten and the Best Dressed Man In White will win $10,000.
The following evening, February 11, the national stadium will again be the venue for another RGP event–Soca Connect, branded as "the World's Biggest Youth Soca Event.
Another RGP production–Chutney Brass– is scheduled for Guaracara Park, Pointe-a-Pierre, acclaimed as '"he Universe's Largest Indo Music Festival", on Saturday February 18. As in its previous installments, this show is expected to live up to its high standards if only because of its star-studded cast of artistes. On the bill are Raymond Ramnarine & Dil-Nadan; Ravi B, Nisha B & Karma; KI & The Band, featuring Nishard and Neval; Anil Bheem & The BMERZ; Sally Sagram & Extreme; Ricky Jai & The Jaimasterz; Gayatones; and D Rampersad Indie Art. It promises to be a special night for Ramnarine as he will be presented with the first Chutney Brass Lifetime Achievement Award.
On Carnival Sunday, February 25, RGP will host Breakfast in South from midnight, and rounds of its Carnival 2017 package with its Calypso Cool-Down, a Maracas Bake & Shark Inclusive, at Napa, Port-of-Spain, on the evenings of March 4-5. The March 4 do begins at 8 pm and the following evening things get cracking at 5.30 pm. Headliners include Relator and Kernal Roberts who will be doing a Road March tribute to his father, the late Lord Kitchener.
When Carnival is over, matters relating to our national festival do not end. At the moment, the Cultural Studies Section of the Department of Literary, Cultural and Communication Studies (UWI), St Augustine is requesting submissions for paper presentations for a one-day symposium on the Trinidad Carnival scheduled to take place on Friday, March 17, 2017. The symposium seeks to provide a platform for cross-disciplinary examinations of the myriad ways that the Carnival shapes, and is shaped by, its environment. Memory, Politics and Performance in the Trinidad Carnival Complex is the theme of the conference.
RGP takes centre stage after Carnival by presenting the 2017 edition of the Alternative International Comedy Festival, premiering on March 3 at Guaracara Park, Pointe-a-Pierre. It will be repeated on March 4 at the National Cricket Centre, Couva, and at Enchanted Gardens, New Grant on March 5. RGP will reprise the show the following weekend, on Friday, March 10 in Tobago; at Centre of Excellence, Macoya on March 11, and on March 12 at Centre Pointe Mall, Chaguanas.
Pan on the road this weekend
It is the weekend before the long Christmas weekend and the national instrument is in the spotlight. This evening, Newtown Playboys is holding its annual Pan & Parang Festival at its Pan Theatre, located at 64 Tragarete Road, Newtown, at 7 pm. The show's star-studded cast includes Scrunter, Baron, Relator, Ninja, Iwer, Poser, Marilyn Williams, Crazy, Mucho Tempo, Newtown Playboys and more. Admission is free.
Famous for its Pan on the Avenue, The Woodbrook/St James Community Association is having its Sixth Annual Christmas Parade with a difference on Sunday from 11 am. This year the parade route has been extended, beginning at bpTT Renegades panyard on Charlotte Street, Port-of-Spain and ending at Grorge Cabral Street, St James. Steelbands making the trek include PCS Nitrogen Silver Stars, Newtown Playboys and Western Stars Philharmonic. Also included in the parade are 50 Santa Claus and helpers on motorbikes, and a music truck carring vocalist Jason "Fridge" Seecharan and friends performing Christmas music.
From Renegades panyard, the parade will proceed south on Charlotte Street, around Piccadilly Greens, across Duke Street, through to Victoria Square along Ariapita Avenue, across De Verteuil Street, onto Damien Street, then onto Western Main Road, St James all the way to George Cabral Street.
The Birth of Christ in Cocorite
Long before I resided in Cocorite a few years ago, the area had a negative reputation, but a few of the dedicated residents–women like Anika Joseph and Nicolette Theodore-Riley–are making an effort to turn that around. Theodore-Riley has been holding an Emancipation pageant while Joseph, the managing director of Childrenz in Action, will host the first Christmas production � The Birth of Christ � next Wednesday evening, at Little Carib Theatre, Woodbrook.
Joseph told Pulse: "This recently formed organisation is focused on the empowerment of children within the community of Cocorite and environs between the ages of four to 18. Based on the theme of our show, we are aiming at increasing biblical awareness among the children of the community.
"Our goal is to provoke an understanding of various scriptures of the King James Version Bible as it pertains to the birth of Christ. This production also aims to illuminate the similarities, comparisons and consequences that have been associated with gang warfare through the medium of drama, song and dance, as quoted in biblical references."
More than 25 children are involved in this production, the youngest being just four and the eldest aged 16. Childrenz in Action has recruited them from areas like Waterhole, Cocorite; Powder Magazine, Phase 1, Cocorite; Four Roads, Diego Martin; Long Circular, St James; Carenage; and Malick, Barataria.
Just a few of the eager children involved in the production are Nakira Joaquim, Lasadie Thomas and Iackaysha Durrant (five years old); Rakeem Antoine (six); and Jamark Thompson (seven). If ever an event needed your support, this is it, as empowered children of Cocorite can only redound to the benefit of the community and its environs ion the future.