Carisa Lee

Late so­ca star Dex­ter “Blaxx” Stew­art, who died last March from COVID-19 com­pli­ca­tions, was award­ed one of three Down­town Cul­tur­al Lega­cy Awards at the launch of the Down­town Car­ni­val 2023, which has as its theme, Red City. His nephew Qua­cy James re­ceived the award on his be­half at Wood­ford Square, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day.

“Blaxx sac­ri­ficed a lot, put in a lot of hard work through­out the years and kept it con­sis­tent and his lega­cy will live on may his soul rest in peace,” James said.

Port-of-Spain May­or Joel Mar­tinez said Blaxx’s death was a loss to the city as he al­ways per­formed at their events and de­liv­ered up­lift­ing mu­sic.

Al­so pay­ing trib­ute to the late so­ca icon was fel­low award re­cip­i­ent Fay Ann Lyons-Al­varez who said: “Blaxx we love you. Can I get a round of ap­plause for Black Stal­in, can I get a round of ap­plause for Ex­plain­er and every oth­er artiste that ded­i­cat­ed their lives and their en­tire en­er­gy and soul and tal­ent to mak­ing Trinidad and To­ba­go one of the most di­verse cul­tur­al places on earth.”

Lyons-Al­varez said T&T’s tal­ent is loved around the world and she pledged to con­tin­ue to car­ry this coun­try to every part of the world that she vis­its. She was not sched­uled to per­form at the launch but did part of her 2023 song, Stage Is Yuh Name af­ter the crowd in­sist­ed.

For the first time in the Down­town Cul­tur­al Lega­cy Awards his­to­ry, a non-artiste was ho­n­oured. An­nounc­er and tele­vi­sion pre­sen­ter Jem­ma Jor­dan was recog­nised for her con­tri­bu­tions to Car­ni­val events.

Mar­tinez de­scribed Jor­dan as the “voice of Port-of-Spain,” and said she has been the an­nounc­er for Down­town Car­ni­val for many years.

“We thought it best af­ter so many years of great ser­vice to re­al­ly ho­n­our her this af­ter­noon and let her know that we love her and feel priv­i­leged to have had her over the years,” he said.

Among those in at­ten­dance at the launch was Machel Mon­tano, who was giv­en the keys to the city in Ju­ly last year, Bun­ji Gar­lin, who was there to sup­port his wife.

There were per­for­mances by Nes­sa Prep­py, Ding Dong, Mi­cal Te­ja, Tri­ni So­ca Boyz, Ben­jai and Ted­dyson John.

Fri­day’s launch start­ed at 2 pm at Memo­r­i­al Park with tra­di­tion­al mas char­ac­ters, mu­sic trucks and pa­trons parad­ing down Fred­er­ick Street to Wood­ford Square for the of­fi­cial cer­e­mo­ny.