Sto­ry and pic­tures by

In­nis Fran­cis

in­nis_fran­cis@ya­hoo.com

Af­ter a two-year ab­sence from out­door ac­tiv­i­ties, the Point Fortin Com­mu­ni­ty was treat­ed to an Eman­ci­pa­tion Day Cel­e­bra­tion and Con­cert at the John Cu­pid Mar­ket Square in Point Fortin.

Point Fortin May­or Saleema Thomas and the Point Fortin Ex­ec­u­tive host­ed the free event that at­tract­ed many to the venue on Eman­ci­pa­tion Day.

Thomas reaf­firmed the im­por­tance of the hol­i­day and the set­backs of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic and the im­por­tance of men­tal free­dom. Pa­trons ea­ger­ly sat in an­tic­i­pa­tion of the show’s cast of lo­cal acts that in­clud­ed songs, dance, and in­stru­men­tals.

Thomas said de­spite the abo­li­tion of slav­ery many years ago, peo­ple of T&T were for­tu­nate to be eman­ci­pat­ed but, as re­al­i­ty has it, we are still far from ac­com­plish­ing this giv­en some of the heinous crimes that are re­port­ed in dai­ly news­pa­pers.

Lady Adanna entertains in song.

innis francis

“Eman­ci­pa­tion is a cel­e­bra­tion of lib­er­a­tion and free­dom. Stand­ing here, with all of you…in this mo­ment, I have to ask, how many of us are re­al­ly free, when we con­tin­ue to see acts of hate in our so­ci­ety? Many of our cit­i­zens do live in fear…al­beit from in­ci­dents and sto­ries in our dai­ly news­pa­per, so­cial me­dia, and the like, which car­ry news of de­spair and vi­o­lence against our fel­low­men. Our bor­ough is not un­touched by sim­i­lar ills.” Many of the lo­cal tal­ents pro­ject­ed as­pects of the fore­fa­thers who were bur­dened by the shack­les of slav­ery and the ap­pre­ci­a­tion for their sac­ri­fices through tal­ent. Thomas said peo­ple should be re­spon­si­ble for their ac­tions and ap­ply the rule of free­dom; and be free to be ed­u­cat­ed, free to ex­press our­selves, free to elect lead­ers, free to love, and so many more free­doms that are en­shrined in our na­tion’s con­sti­tu­tion.

Xhaiden Darius dances stage side.

innis francis

She said: “I urge you to be pro­duc­tive...to con­tribute to the ad­vance­ment of our coun­try and to be tol­er­ant of peo­ple who are dif­fer­ent in size, class, creed, race, re­li­gion, or ori­en­ta­tion. Let’s share our love…lov­ing our­selves first, lov­ing our God, and lov­ing our fam­i­lies. We al­so must show love to every per­son we meet at our work­place, in do­ing busi­ness, in our places of wor­ship, or even the ran­dom per­son we may en­counter on the street, with a sim­ple good morn­ing, a smile, a word of com­pas­sion, or ex­er­cis­ing pa­tience. We hold the pow­er of chance to in­spire, so I urge you to use these tools of kin­ship.”

In keep­ing with the show’s eman­ci­pa­tion theme and as a show of grat­i­tude for the cul­ture and per­son­al growth of self and com­mu­ni­ty Thomas un­veiled a ban­ner in ho­n­our of the late John Glad­stone Cu­pid.

Cu­pid was a re­searcher, cul­tur­al econ­o­mist, his­to­ri­an, artist, dancer, and or­gan­is­er. She said he was a fight­er who fought re­lent­less­ly and pas­sion­ate­ly to pre­serve the unique tra­di­tions of all as­pects of our cul­ture.

A section of patrons at the function.

innis francis

Cap-de-ville dancer of the Cap-de-ville Folk Performers in action.

INNIS FRANCIS