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Brother Resistance and other Artists Perform for Peace

One World Beat is delighted and proud to welcome back the East Port of Spain Council of Community Organizations for Festival 2006! In 2004, they organized a music extravaganza featuring 25 artists and bands and a variety of creative styles, from extempo, calypso, and rapso; to stage performances, "skits" and monologues; steelband to folk-dancing, and African to jazz.

This year's concert will be held on May 6th, from 3 to 6pm at the East Port of Spain Regional Complex, Laventille Youth Facility. The EPCCO, with an affilation of 14 member community-based and non-governmental organizations, will host a free concert in support of OWB 2006, helping to spread the message of hope, peace, and unity among all people.

The list of confirmed artists includes Brother Resistance, who also performed in 2004, and the Picton Folk Performers, as well as Laventille United cultural organizations (in 2004 this included the School of Performing Arts and the Laventille Cultural Company).

Brother Resistance is one of the founding members and the driving force of the new Caribbean music style called Rapso. It is an art form that many feel he invented. Brother Resistance himself insists that Rapso can be traced back to the oral traditions of Africa, when the Griot was the historian, counselor, and poet of the tribe. After the middle passage, on the sugar-cane plantation, the Griot's name was changed to Chantuelle.

The role played by this individual was transformed as well, and he became the voice that made the suffering of the slaves bearable. The evolution of the Chantuelle saw the emergence of the talkers of the early Carnival, the Midnite Robbers, the Pierrot Grenades and also the Calypsonian. The Rapso artist pairs the revitalisaton of the old Griot/Chantuelle traditions with the perspectives of our modern-day society.

The birth of the Network Rapso Riddum Band at the end of the 1970's--with its lead chantuelles, Brother Shortman and Brother Resistance-- heralded the new roots music from Trinidad and Tobago. The music now as defined by Brother Resistance is "the power of the word, in the riddum of the word." In essence, it is the poetry of Calypso blended with the African rhythms of Trinidad and Tobago. It is also referred to as the Rap of Soca. Paralleling the development of Rapso in Trinidad and Tobago has been Dub Poetry in Jamaica (the Poetry of Reggae) and African-American Rap music.

The East of Port of Spain Council of Community Organizations (EPCCO) was formed in the year 2000 to promote and strengthen urban and regional planning in Trinidad and Tobago, El Salvador, Cuba, and Canada. Their focus is on skills-building for community planning, challenges of and responses to urbanization and urban poverty, poverty reduction, the needs of women and youth, crime prevention, sustainable development, and mobilization of community-based organizations within the East Port of Spain area, with the goal of enhancing the quality of life for all in their region. For more information, contact Council President, Trevor McMeo, at trevameo@tstt.net.tt and ldadrc@tstt.net.tt.