Foreword from His Worship The Mayor
If Trinidad and Tobago is considered the Land of Calypso, then it is without a doubt that San Fernando is its beating heart and Calypso Fiesta its soul. A venerable proving ground, Calypso Fiesta at Skinner Park is recognized as the true test of a calypsonian’s metal.
Year after year for more than half a century, citizens have flocked to San Fernando on that Saturday to appreciate and agitate calypsonians, with either cheers or jeers. But the long history of San Fernando’s role in the development of Calypso is almost seemingly lost to the march of time.
With the redevelopment and modernization of Skinner Park, I believe it is important that we anchor the history of this pivotal and central carnival event.
“Calypso Fiesta at Skinner Park, The Gateway to Trinidad and Tobago Calypso Monarch,” takes the reader on a journey across time, to visit events and initiatives critical to the identity of both our City and the Art form that set us apart throughout the Caribbean.
There has been a National cry that echoes the sentiment of diversification of our economy and as ardent supporter and member of the Arts and Culture Fraternity, I believe it’s is time that we as a nation seriously consider the development of the entertainment industry. “Calypso Fiesta at Skinner Park, The Gateway to Trinidad and Tobago Calypso Monarch,” provides to the reader a clear historical context to one of our major musical exports and the city in which it blossomed.
With this in mind, it is my ardent desire that we use the knowledge and wisdom earned from the 1950s to the new millennium to better chart a way forward by recognizing where we’ve been and where we can reach.
His Worship The Mayor
Alderman Junia Regrello
About the Author, Dr. Rudolph Ottley
Dr. Rudolph Ottley is a certified Human Resource Specialist, a Cultural activist, Researcher/Archivist, Academic, Assistant Professor at the University of Trinidad and Tobago and Owner/Manager of the world’s only all female Calypso Tent the Divas Calypso Cabaret International.
In the cultural sphere Dr. Ottley has been responsible for the renewed awareness and acceptance of ‘Women in Calypso’. Over the last four decades Rudolph devoted a considerable amount of his time and resources in highlighting the contributions of women to the evolution of the Calypso genre by relentlessly researching the role of women in Trinidad’s cultural history after emancipation.
Resulting from Rudolph’s initial research findings he published his first book in 1992 that was aptly entitled “Women In calypso…part (1)”. Rudolph Ottley’s first publication (1992)
That premier publication fuelled Rudolph’s relentless pursuit in search of the reasons for the changing narrative of the women in Calypso from a centrality in the Barrack Yards to one of marginalization in the commercialized Calypso tents in the 1920s and beyond.
Not only did Rudolph find solace in his research of women in Calypso, he also lectured on the theme at major institutions at home and abroad. In addition, Rudolph then transferred his theoretical perspectives and archival information into the formation and practicality of his research by creating the Divas Calypso Cabaret International the world’s only all female Calypso tent in 2004.
It was evident from the local cultural landscape in Trinidad in 2004 that a limited amount of female Calypsonians were given the opportunity to perform in the Calypso Tents during this country’s Carnival season. For example in 2004 the average total of female Calypsonians in the seven Calypso tents in Trinidad was two female Calypsonians each and zero in some instances, except for the Divas Calypso Cabaret international where twenty female Calypsonians were employed for Carnival 2004.
The evidence has shown that between the years 2004 to 2020 the average total of female Calypsonians in the Calypso Tents in Trinidad increased from two to ten or in some instances half of the cast in some Calypso tents are female Calypsonians, apart from the Divas where the entire cast continues to be all females
Given the substantial increase in the number of female Calypsonians in the Calypso tents such a fact positively impacted on the Soca genre where female soca artiste also witnessed an increase in their acceptance in the soca shows of the day thus resulting in shows such as ‘the Divas versus the Gladiators’, ‘the battle of the sexes’ and ‘Ladies night out’ shows that highlighted the female soca artiste and female Calypsonians during the period 2004 to 2019. Before 2004 most of the Carnival shows in Trinidad’s Carnival mainly featured male Calypso and Soca practitioners.
As a result of the establishment and success of the Divas Calypso Cabaret International from 2004 one can factually state that such an initiative has certainly redounded to the increased visibility of female Calypsonians and female Soca artiste on the Carnival and cultural ecology in Trinidad and Tobago.
Rudolph’s continued quest to showcase and promote female Calypsonians in Trinidad and Tobago was not limited to publications and the annual Carnival experiences he also initiated developmental and training sessions for female Calypsonians in areas such as communication on stage; personal grooming for the stage; interviewing skills and techniques; calypso writing workshops assertiveness training and relationship building skills.
Rudolph successfully concretized his research and elevation of women in Calypso by completing his dissertation in 2015 on the same theme and in 2016 published his seminal work that is appropriately entitled “Ambataila Women: The untold story of Women in Calypso from Chanterelle to Calypsonian 1838-2014”.
If an individual is to be credited for his or her contributions to the enhancement, visibility, the positive profiling of female Calypsonians and Soca artiste in the world, undoubtedly that individual most deserving of such an honor, without doubt or fear of contradiction is Dr. Rudolph Ottley, may good sense prevail and his value to ensuring the accuracy of our cultural history be recognized at this time, less we forget as is so often the case in our nation.
Thanks for your blog, nice to read. Do not stop.