Today is officially declared World Steel Cork Day (WSD) in the city of Port of Spain.
Port of Spain Deputy Mayor Hillan Morean made the designation on behalf of the capital’s mayor, Joel Martinez, during the filming of the WSD party on August 3 at Mille Fleurs, Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain.
The showcase, titled Just The Two of US-Celebrating 60 years of Independence, will be broadcast on the World Steelpan Thrust of Trinidad and Tobago Facebook page from 7:00 tonight. It features veteran pianist/arranger Leon “Smooth” Edwards, Akua Leith & The NSSO, Mark Loquan and Selwyn Tarradath. There is also a Tobago segment featuring a Moriah Wedding.
Dr Kim Johnson is this year’s featured speaker.
World Steelpan Day co-founder Bertel Gittens said the mayor’s statement takes Thrust’s vision for the annual August 11 celebration one step closer to creating a globally recognized day for the national instrument in the middle of Pan Trinbago’s Steelband month.
“World Steel Day is not about jumping high. It’s serious stuff. It calls for a day of global celebration and recognition as we share the steel pan, our national musical instrument of T&T, with all the nations of the world.
“We celebrate icons and we want to know more about them because it is not documented.
“We know what they stand for, what they stand for, how they live their lives, so we try to highlight all the remaining icons and find out more about them,” an impassioned Gittens told the Express via WhatsApp yesterday.
A dedication to the national instrument
Gittens said the idea for the WSD was born at the inauguration of Trinidad and Tobago’s World Steelpan Thrust in 2019 between him and fellow board members, music entrepreneur Simeon Sandiford and Steelpan Tuners Guild of Trinidad and Tobago Lenny Lera.
World Steelpan Thrust is a non-profit organization charged with creating and supporting opportunities for the sustainable development of steelpan in the fields of production, education, entertainment, therapy and other related services.
The day was marked with a hybrid part-virtual, part-live event at the 2020 Pan Trinbago car park, with Martin Daly, SC, delivering the function address.
In 2021, the celebration adopted the name Inner Pan-Demic and presented a fully virtual event with the Pro-Vice-Chancellor at the University of the West Indies, Brian Copeland, presenting the function address.
“Everyone came out and supported him immediately, from the Pan Trinbago president to the veteran pan players, it was overwhelming,” Gittens recalls.
Their August 3 recording was attended by Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts Randall Mitchell, Pan Trinbago president Beverly Ramsey-Moore, Trinbago Unified Calypsonians Organization president Ainsley King and National Carnival Commission chairman Winston “Gypsy” Peters.
Gittens said placing the celebration in the middle of Steelpan Month, between Emancipation and Independence Day, is “just the right time to honor an instrument that plays a central role in our annual celebrations.”
“This year we moved to Mille Fleurs. We had an official program. With the announcement of the Mayor of Port of Spain, we hope to capitalize on this and turn the day into something people will come for. Our goal is to make it a tourism product where people can come for Steelpan Month and really enjoy World Steelpan Day in Port of Spain,” Gittens said.
The Caribbean diaspora is already buzzing about World Steel Day, he said.
“Everything that comes out of Trinidad has a global audience and pan is no different. Seeing as we took the initiative by coming out of Trinidad, the T&T diaspora looks to us for entertainment because they miss coming home.
“Once we continue what we do in terms of celebrating icons, it will grow. Each show one and it will grow. All the people who come to T&T to play pan, we have created another platform that they can watch. It’s exciting times ahead,” Gittens concluded.
