By Nelson A. King
Although the spread of
COVID-19 has mandated the
cancellation of the annual West
Indian American Day Carnival
Parade on Brooklyn’s Eastern
Parkway and the pre-dawn Caribbean
J’Ouvert celebration, the
Brooklyn-based Tropicalfete will,
on Sep. 11, celebrate carnival’s
core elements – calypso/soca,
steel pan and masquerade.
The cultural group will host
its Carnival Festival at the
Brooklyn Public Library Plaza,
corner of Flatbush Avenue and
Eastern Parkway.
“Different elements of the
carnival from different islands
will be showcased, such as the
clown from St. Kitts and others,”
said Tropicalfete in a statement
on Tuesday.
It said that the event will be
hosted by artist and educator
Tanisha Burke and award-winning,
multimedia journalist and
host Melissa Noel.
Tropicalfete’s Carnival Festival
will commence with pan
player/vocalist Kern Summerville
of the Trinidad and Tobago
Police Service Steel Orchestra
performing the US National
Anthem, accompanied by stiltwalking
moko jumbies wrapped
in American flags.
Summerville will also perform
a medley of songs commemorating
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Caribbean Life, S 22 EPTEMBER 10-16, 2021
the nearly 3,000
people who perished as the result
suicide attackers seizing US passenger
jets and crashing them
into lower Manhattan’s World
Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001,
Tropicalfete said.
It said a moment of silence
will follow, honoring the lives
lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
then five white doves will
be released into the air to symbolize
unity and healing.
Ricardo Greenaway, an
accomplished Brooklyn based
steel pan player, who has been
a teacher in Tropicalfete’s steel
pan program for more than 10
years, will be performing his
musical selections on a steel
pan donated to Tropicalfete by
Heather McCartney, director
of School & Family Programs
at Manhattan’s Joyce Theater
Foundation, Inc. She donated
the steel pan to Tropicalfete in
memory of her brother Charles
A. McCartney.
Tropicalfete’s Voices, an eightpiece
choir under the direction
of Daria Primus, will perform
selections by “two of Trinidad
and Tobago’s most esteemed artists”
– David Rudder (“Calypso
Music”) and Kes The Band
(“Hello”, written by lead singer
Kees Diffenthaller), Tropicalfete
said.
It said Brooklyn based Calypsonian
Mervyn “Dr. Whitty”
Carter will perform “Superman,”
which he wrote about the ongoing
challenges faced by Black
men, especially in the US.
Throughout the year, Tropicalfete
said its Stilt Walking
Unit, which presents Moko Jumbies,
clad in colorful costumes
and dancing to soca, has performed
at a wide variety of events
throughout the tri-state area.
Under the leadership of Caitlyn
Pierre, Roshamba Marcelle
and Charles Watts, Tropicalfete
said its Stilt-Walking Unit
will perform a special program
dubbed “The Colors of Life.”
Tropicalfete said a soca band,
comprising “some of New York’s
finest Caribbean musicians,”
will perform a medley of soca
hits accompanied by a cast of
traditional carnival characters,
including the Red Devil, the Jab
Jab and Dame Lorraine.
There will also be an Ole Mas
Tropicalfete past production at Herbert Von King Park Amphitheater.
Brittany Somerset, fi le
segment in which costumed
characters offer satirical commentaries
on current events or
popular personalities, Tropicalfete
said.
It said its Steel Pan Ensemble,
under the direction of Music
Educator, Ashley “Mystiq” Murray,
who has been playing pan
since she was 11 years old and
is a 2017 recipient of a Caribbean
American Impact Award,
presented by Caribbean Life
newspaper, “will command the
ensemble, performing several
music selections.”
The ensemble will be dressed
in costumes made and designed
by the Tropicalfete players themselves.
Tropicalfete hosts Carnival Fest
Immediately
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