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Newsday reporter
Reigning Calypso National Monarch (2020) and recently crowned Queens Regional Queen Terri Lyons will be joining the cast of Kaiso House for the 2023 season titled BarackHard!
Also making a debut in the tent BarackHard! is former Soca Monarch (ISM) Groovy soca winner (2015) Olatunji Yearwood.
What exactly is BarackHard!?
“This is the alternative hybrid carnival-theatre-meets-calypso-tent experience created in the Kaiso House calypso tent,” a media release said.
The marquee opens at Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain, on January 27 with a cast of 24 artists.
Regular cast members are all being renewed for the 2023 season. Among them are veterans Brother Valentino (Anthony Emrold Phillip), Brother Mudada (Allan Fortune), Poser (Sylvester Lockhart), Calypso Kerr (Carlston Kerr), Bunny B ( Neville Brown), Brown Boy (Knolly Brown), Twiggy (Ann Marie Parks-Kojo), Black Sage (Phillip Murray), Lady Aeisha (Elizabeth George) and Marvelous Marva (Marva Joseph).
Former National Calypso Monarch winners Karene Asche (2011), Duane O’Connor (2012) and Chuck Gordon (Roderick Gordon) (2014 and 2015) will lead the new group of performers that includes 2022 Diamond Jubilee Independence CalypsoHeaven Snakey, Rondell Donawa, Aaron Duncan and Tazyah O’Connor, among others, the release said.
Together, they will bring to life a completely immersive, moving, powerful and funny audience experience, promises creative director Abeo Jackson in the release.
Jackson says BarackHard!, a cross-country mash-up of Calypso’s barracks yard, is another manifestation of the space that birthed the ritual. It represents, she says, “a collective challenge to the systems that have bound us as market crabs.”
She said: “In the midst of all that is difficult, painful and seemingly irreparable, here still toils the warrior, the griot, the neighbor, the friend, the creators of ancestral magic, the instigators and architects of the creative and cultural revolution, the weavers of joy ,”
The evolution of tent culture
It is a renewed mentality that is fully supported by the new hierarchy of Kaiso House. Newly installed marquee manager Gordon and assistant manager Donawa have engaged Jackson’s creative mind to help chart a meaningful direction forward, the release said.
Twiggy and Calypso Kerr complete the marquee board while talented young songwriter/musician Kern Sumerville serves as the new marquee bandleader
Notably, Kaiso House lost three of its supporters in cultural icons Brother Resistance (Lutalo Masimba), Singing Sandra (Sandra Des Vignes-Millington) and Explainer (Winston Henry) during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“We knew we had the opportunity to bring significant change to the calypso tent landscape, and that’s why we asked Abeo to write, connect and direct the show while adding various theatrical elements,” said Gordon.
Jackson congruently claims that the role of the creator is even more important in this new post-pandemic era. Citizens are looking for a new direction in the face of “the irreconcilable and still entrenched colonial and capitalist legacy,” Jackson added.
“This is a time that requires us to try to find new ways to talk about our lived experiences and re-imagine our reparations. We artists, makers and crafters need to get one
TOUGH stand against perpetuating self-deprecating narratives,” Jackson said.
That change comes with hearing new voices appreciating the works of those who paved the way to the current path, Jackson said.
She said: “Joy is our weapon. Positive affirmations of our strength and beauty our new obeah. Our griots and storytellers, seasoned and young, our first and last line of leadership and defense against tyranny. The re-imagining of the revolution has begun. We have wuk to do. And we come TOUGH on the new BarackHard!
Kaiso House BarackHard! 2023 Cast
Brother Valentino (Anthony Emrold Phillip)
Brother Mudada (Alan Fortune)
Wonderful Marva (Marva Joseph)
Poser (Sylvester Lockhart)
Brown Boy (Knolly Brown)
Rabbit B (Neville Brown)
Calypso Kerr (Carlston Kerr)
Twiggy (Ann Marie Parks-Kojo)
Karen Asche
Snakey (Heaven Charles)
Sister Ava (Ruth Ava Shallow)
Black Sage (Phillip Murray)
Young Poser (Vivian Lockhart)
Chuck Gordon (Roderick Gordon)
Rondell Donawa
Duane O’Connor
Lady Aeisha (Elizabeth George)
Aaron Duncan
Olatunji Yearwood
Terry Lyons
Tazyah O’Connor
