Ca­lyp­so icon Dr Hol­lis Liv­er­pool bet­ter, known as Chalk­dust, says he was dis­missed as a pri­ma­ry school teacher from Nel­son Street Boys’ Gov­ern­ment school for teach­ing ca­lyp­so in school.

He said he nev­er gave up with his love for ca­lyp­so and he con­tin­ued with the art­form. He said this is some­thing many peo­ple were not aware of but it is true.

Chalk­dust, who re­ceived the Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go (ORTT), the na­tion’s high­est award last month, made this dis­clo­sure at San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion on Wednes­day where Pink Pan­ther, al­so called Er­ic Tay­lor and him­self were ho­n­oured.

Chalk­dust re­called be­ing asked by the per­ma­nent sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion to make an ap­pli­ca­tion to the min­istry if he want­ed to teach and sing ca­lyp­so in school. He said he nev­er ad­here to the re­quest un­til this day.

He said it was the first time he made this dis­clo­sure to show how peo­ple have to strug­gle to achieve what they want.

Chalk­dust, who is al­so an As­so­ciate Pro­fes­sor of His­to­ry at Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go (UTT), said re­ceiv­ing the ORTT award was a big strug­gle and “to­day every­one is hap­py for a cul­tur­al icon, an award which was long over­due to him.”

He added that peo­ple in T&T is not ap­pre­ci­at­ed for their ef­forts in pro­mot­ing and grow­ing the cul­ture.

He re­called that he and Dr Roy Cape were in Swe­den and were promised a house and oth­er ben­e­fits if they want­ed to live and work, but in Trinidad is a strug­gle.

Chalk­dust said he wrote ca­lyp­soes for many ca­lyp­so­ni­ans and it is on­ly Pink Pan­ther who was hon­est to ad­mit that he (Chalk­dust) wrote the ca­lyp­soes that won him the Monarch Ti­tle.

He com­mend­ed Pink Pan­ther for his hon­esty and grat­i­tude, some­thing oth­ers should do.

The ac­claimed ca­lyp­son­ian al­so vis­it­ed schools at Va­len­cia and Guaico Pres­by­ter­ian where he sang Christ­mas Morn­ing and lis­tened to live steel pan mu­sic pro­vid­ed by 2019 Ju­nior Panora­ma Cham­pi­ons.

Pink Pan­ther in ad­di­tion to be­ing ho­n­oured had the Monte Cristo Park Band Stand at George Street, San­gre Grande, named af­ter him.

Chair­man of San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion Ter­ry Ron­don com­mend­ed Chalk­dust, Pink Pan­ther and Dr Roy Cape for their ster­ling con­tri­bu­tion to the art form and their di­rect in­volve­ment in pass­ing on their knowl­edge to young peo­ple.

Al­so in at­ten­dance were MP for To­co and par­lia­men­tary sec­re­tary in the Min­istry of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Glen­da Jen­nings-Smith and coun­cil­lors of San­gre Grande Re­gion­al Cor­po­ra­tion.