Features
Corey Connelly
WHO says persistence doesn’t pay off?
Ask Shamika Denoon and she’ll tell you that her victory in the Tobago Heritage Monarch competition on July 29 was the culmination of years of hard work, sacrifice, dedication and determination.
“I worked in the vineyard, but I’ve always stayed true to my craft and my culture,” a beaming Denoon, 39, told WMN.
“I’ve worked hard over the years to get to this point. So the win, for me, is like a stepping stone for bigger things to come.”
Denoon aims to win the National Calypso Monarch title at next year’s Dimanche Gras show.
She has reached the semifinals of the competition at Skinner Park, San Fernando, on five occasions, but has never advanced to the Big Yard.
The calypsonian said the title of hereditary monarch has given her extra incentive to make that dream a reality.
“We were lost for two years with the pandemic and I’m looking forward to Carnival 2023. So the stepping stone now is to look at Dimanche Gras. Everyone is going to bring their A-game. So that’s going to be a boost and motivation for me to push even harder.”
At the Shaw Park Cultural Complex, Denoon was a runaway favorite.
She delivered an impassioned version of Sheldon Reid’s composition Reignite D Flames, a stirring calypso about reclaiming Tobago’s heritage after the pandemic.
The mother-of-three, who celebrates her 10th anniversary singing Calypso competitively later this year, said the song resonated with her.
“It is a reminder that shows us as a people who we are, because in order to know where we are going, we must know where we come from.
“So that flame within us, that aspect of our culture, our uniqueness, we have to keep our customs and norms, revive it and keep them.
Denoon said that although Covid19 brought death and hardship, traditions will never die.
“We can always go back to traditions. This is why I mentioned in the calypso going back to the tradition of fire above and fire below (for cooking). You don’t have to go out of your way to buy bread, spend money you don’t have.
“If we practice our traditions, we will succeed because that is the fire within us. If we rekindle it, we will succeed as a people. We just have to help each other and together we will rise through the hard times.”
Denoon said the calypso was also a clarion call for parents to teach their children about heritage.
The Bon Accord resident credited Jesse Taylor, a cultural officer with the THA Division of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transportation, for providing the material for the song.
She described Taylor as an ambassador for Tobago’s culture, saying he has always been one of her biggest cheerleaders.
“He was telling me off all the time, telling me I had to sing and give it my all.”
She said that throughout her career she has always made a point of consulting the island’s cultural icons for material for her work.
“For me it is important to get it from the very people who have been instrumental in developing Tobago’s heritage.”
Outside of her performance at the Calypso competition, audiences caught glimpses of Denoon’s talent at other events at the festival.
During the Emancipation Day street parade, she showed an imposing ancestral part as the procession made its way to Store Bay Heritage Park, Crown Point.
Denoon also described portraying one of the queens at the Junior Miss Tobago Heritage pageant that same evening.
Her powerful vocals on the Ella Andall classic Bring Down The Power heralded the launch of Pembroke’s heritage Salaka Feast on 27 July.
A dancer, choreographer, playwright, designer and carnival troupe leader, Denoon cut her teeth performing at Bon Accord Government Primary School.
She said her late teacher, renowned Tobago musicologist Michael Duncan. and his wife Cheryl quickly recognized her talent and nurtured it.
Duncan, whom she considered a mentor and friend, died Wednesday.
“He has done a lot for my cultural development. Before I sang on the night of the heritage pageant, he and his wife called me and said they knew I could do it because I had my pulse on the culture.”
Denoon recalls that Duncan, who was also one of the leads on the local soap opera Turn of the Tide in the 1980s, introduced her as a backup singer in calypso tents when she attended Scarborough High School.
“Before I was a solo singer in the calypso tents, I was a supporter. So I was the lead vocalist on a lot of his arrangements. His death has left a great void.”
Denoon recalled a scenario where her talents were put to the test.
“I remember one music festival we were late for and Mr Duncan said he needed someone who could act and also be a vocalist so the other kids could feed off the energy. Automatically, he just chose me .”
She said that under Duncan’s tutelage, she became a cultural ambassador for Tobago at the age of 11, having participated in cultural exchanges in Guyana, Canada and other parts of the world.
At Scarborough Secondary, Denoon was also a founding member of what was then known as the Youth Quake Folk Performers.
The group was created during a teachers’ strike in the middle of preparations for a Best Village competition.
“We were so enthusiastic about the performance and we weren’t getting the support from the teachers. So we decided to form our own little group to prepare for the competition and teach the younger ones to come.”
Denoon joked that since those years she has never left the stage.
“I’m involved in 99.99 percent of the cultural activities in Tobago, from January to December.”
Saying she has dedicated her calypso legacy win to Duncan, Denoon said people who have excelled in their respective fields should be honored while they are still alive and can appreciate it.
“They should smell their roses before they pass.”
Although the title of monarch of calypso has eluded her, Denoon continues to make her mark on the culture.
She has won calypso monarch competitions in Laventille, La Horquetta and San Juan as well as T&T Idols. It also won the Tobago Junior Band of the Year title in 2012.
Denoon said the late Tobago musician Sherwin Cunningham, Calypso Rose (McCartha Lewis), Ella Andall, David Rudder and Tigress (Joanne Rowley) have hugely influenced her work.
She also admires the work of Singing Sandra (Sandra Des Vignes Millington), Leslie-Ann Ellis and Giselle Fraser Washington, who came second in this year’s heritage monarch competition.
Denoon said Assistant Secretary at the Division of Tourism, Culture, Antiquities and Transport Megan Morrison has always supported her career.
Asked how she coped during the pandemic, Denoon said she experienced “a serious tanabana”.
Her work in the dance group Sisters in Culture, which she founded a few years ago in Canaan/Bon Accord, was especially touching.
“I am also a dancer and choreographer and during the pandemic I could not teach, I could not perform. I couldn’t do anything, so it affected me a lot because the stage has always been my life.
“I longed for that performance space because when I perform, I express who I am and my feelings.”
However, the self-proclaimed “carnival kid”, who also has her own mas band Vogue Promotions, said she launched a jewelery business during the lockdown.
“Covid came right after Carnival 2020. So I was seeing all this fabric and beads and it was haunting me. Even though I was closed, I said I can’t be stagnant. I have to find something to do. So from that, I took all my beads and clothes and started a jewelry business.”
She said business has been booming.
“I used that lockout as a platform to further improve my skills. because I’m very good with my hands.”
Now that personal events have resumed, Denoon is looking to the future with renewed hope.
She was overwhelmed by the youth participation in the heritage festival.
“I was just amazed. There were performers in Pembroke who were between two and five years old dancing. They were in evidence, loyal and dedicated. So I was happy to see young people playing a role in their legacy.”
The October Carnival, Denoon believes, could not have come at a better time.
“I am very passionate about October because it would give us the recognition to show what Tobago has and can do.”
She said Tobago is fast becoming the events capital of the region.
“So if we can strengthen it from the carnival aspect, we will target domestic tourism, the Caribbean diaspora and even that international space so that we can be known. of great importance to the culture of Tobago.”
Meanwhile, Denoon is busy preparing for her performances in the best village pageant. She is participating in the African devotional and local union categories on August 17 and 18, respectively.
“Tobago brought their A game this year. We are in many categories.”
