The Clarke Fam­i­ly has is­sued an of­fi­cial state­ment on the pass­ing of Mas­ter Artist and na­tion­al icon, the late LeRoy Clarke.

The fam­i­ly of LeRoy Clarke, Chief Ifa’ Oje’ Won Yo­mi Abio­dun, wish­es to an­nounce that he has tran­si­tioned to the realm of the an­ces­tors. The Bel­mont-born Mas­ter Artist, au­thor, po­et, philoso­pher and na­tion­al icon passed away on the morn­ing of Tues­day, Ju­ly 27, at his Cas­cade home “Lega­cy House” af­ter a pe­ri­od of ill­ness.

Clarke’s artis­tic ca­reer, which spanned more than five decades, was filled with mem­o­rable events and ac­co­lades. He was the re­cip­i­ent of sev­er­al na­tion­al and com­mu­ni­ty awards, in­clud­ing the pres­ti­gious Sylvester Williams’ 2000, pre­sent­ed by The Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee of Trinidad and To­ba­go. In 2003, he was pro­claimed a Na­tion­al Icon by the Gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go. In that same year, he was a dis­tin­guished guest of The Pres­i­dent of The Re­pub­lic of Suri­name for Car­ifes­ta VI­II, and con­firmed as an Icon, a Na­tion­al Liv­ing Trea­sure by the Trinidad Hilton. He was fur­ther gar­land­ed by N.A.E.A.P, The Na­tion­al As­so­ci­a­tion for the Em­pow­er­ment of African Peo­ple, with the Achieve­ment of Ex­cel­lence Award.

The one achieve­ment that he al­lowed him­self to be de­fined by, how­ev­er, oc­curred in 2005 when he was award­ed the “Staff of El­der­ship” and giv­en the Chief­tain­cy Ti­tle of the Or­isha com­mu­ni­ty by the Ile’ Eko Shango/Os­hun Mil’osa (I.E.S.O.M.) dur­ing the sixth an­nu­al Shango/Os­hun Rain Fes­ti­val. Lat­er that year, he was made an Hon­orary Fel­low of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Trinidad and To­ba­go, and in De­cem­ber of 2008, he re­ceived an Hon­orary Doc­tor of Let­ters from the same uni­ver­si­ty.

Recog­nised as a Mas­ter Artist by the Na­tion­al Mu­se­um of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Clarke was known re­gion­al­ly and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly for his pro­lif­ic out­put and his sweep­ing, epic works that spoke to and for Caribbean peo­ple of African de­scent. He au­thored many pub­li­ca­tions, in­clud­ing a few lim­it­ed edi­tions, and of his many ex­hi­bi­tions over the decades, the most re­cent were “Eye Haiti” and “Sea­son’s Vi­cis­si­tudes”.

The pass­ing of such a ti­tan has left a gap in the cul­tur­al land­scape of Trinidad and To­ba­go, the Caribbean, and the di­as­po­ra. His fam­i­ly re­spect­ful­ly re­quests pri­va­cy as they, along with the many peo­ple whose lives he touched, cel­e­brate his life. A memo­r­i­al is planned for Au­gust and the pub­lic is en­cour­aged to share mem­o­ries and thoughts on the web­site leroyclarke.com.