The Arctic Avenger strikes!

Mas lovers who were at the Savannah on Carnival Monday would have been amused by the  robber talk they were getting from the “very accented” Midnight Robber coming from —of all places, Alaska. Ray Funk is a regular visitor to TT Carnival for many years. He has played  Jouvert mas and this year he donned robber costume and took to the  streets of Port-of-Spain. Here he relates the experience.

I’m back in Alaska where a moose walked through our yard last week and [it was minus 20] a few days ago.  But it’s now a balmy ten above as I recall the warmth of my 2003 Carnival experiences in Trinidad and my first time as a Midnight Robber. I first came to love calypso several years ago, which resulted in my first trip to Trinidad. But once I saw Carnival for myself, couldn’t just watch and not play mas, first joining the Blue Devils of St Clair for Jouvert, and during the last few trips playing Jouvert with 3 Canal. But that wasn’t enough! I loved the fancy sailors and played in one of Jason Griffith’s last bands and then was a stoker with De Boss from Belmont in 2001. But I always wanted to play robber! Every year I had heard and seen Brian Honore and his crew, the Mystery Raiders, at Vie La Cou or Victoria Square on Carnival Sunday or on the Road on Carnival Tuesday.  I really liked the speeches, the costumes, the poses, and the whistles. Yes, this was for me.

The first time that midnight robbers really caught my attention was during one of my first trips to Carnival five or six years ago. Steve Stuempfle was in Trinidad with his wife Denise for the launch of his book, The Steelband Movement. Denise wanted to stop by her alma mater, Bishop Anstey, and while we waited I caught the school’s midnight robber competition.  I  was utterly enchanted with the impassioned speeches. I remember a couple of girls gave rather gruesome details regarding what they would do to their younger brothers, who no doubt drove them crazy.  I felt privileged to attend and  observe a part of Carnival that very few tourists get to see.

When tourists come during Carnival, they seem to just focus on the big events, such as the calypso tents, Panorama, Dimanche Gras, and Parade of the Bands. But for me, Carnival is not only that but so much more. It’s all the events that aren’t well-publicised, like the company calypso competitions (I once attended one of these at the Harvard Club and it was thoroughly delightful), school carnivals and competitions, and so many other things that are going on during Carnival.  It’s those events that let you feel the whole country is alive with Carnival. This year during the week before Carnival I just chanced upon the prisoners’ calypso competition, which was being held in Woodford Square. It was quite entertaining, even hilarious in spots, and very much a delightful part of Carnival. If you don’t catch those kinds of events you really miss the spirit of Carnival. 

But I digress. It’s time to blow my whistle and get back to Midnight Robbers. I’d been fascinated by the traditions associated with robbers and how they had infiltrated the Trinidad consciousness. I had read the article that the late Daniel Crowley wrote in the mid-Fifties when there were dozens of robbers out during Carnival and he recorded their speeches. America’s premier folklorist Alan Lomax [had] recorded a couple robber speeches in 1962 and one was issued on the excellent collection, entitled Caribbean Voyage: Trinidad Carnival Roots (Rounder 1725).  For an excellent review and copy of the speech go to http://www.mustrad.org.uk/reviews/trinidad.htm

I was intrigued by the ways that the midnight robber had continued to have a life. There’s the newspaper ads with the image of the robber threatening to disconnect utilities to a great science fiction novel by Canadian Nalo Hopkinson, daughter of leading Caribbean dramatist Slade Hopkinson, and more recently the two Terror of the Midnight Robber comic books by Trinidadian Chris Riley. Hopkinson’s Midnight Robber imagines a whole planet where carnival is the central focus and a young woman gets exiled to another planet filled with danger who must become a Midnight Robber Queen to survive and overcome the abuse she has suffered. Riley’s Terror of  the Midnight Robber comics (www.electro-arc.com) features his re-workings of the robber as a rescuing superhero set in Trinidad and the second issue has a story with a soucouyant.

But whatever literary uses, it was the robbers themselves that attracted my primary interest. So few photos survive of early Robber bands - in the great new book on Renegades  there is a rare glimpse of a 1946 batch of robbers, the Black Legion from Basilon Street. I had read about the robbers in Brian Honore’s article in TDR The Midnight Robber: Master of Metaphor, Baron of Bombast(http://mitpress.mit.edu/journals/DRAM/42-3/honore.html) I’d been accused of the latter, never the former. Brian had told me of Puggie Joseph who had gotten him into being a robber and whose legacy he tried to carry on. So I had boldly dared to go where no Alaskan had gone before and gotten permission -if I measured up - in terms of bombast to join the Mystery Raiders.

Early on I came up with my sobriquet, the Arctic Avenger. I also had the name of my yet-to-be-recruited mas band of Alaskan compatriots that I still hope to bring for 2005, the Mystic Marauders of the Midnight Sun. I had a name but not a costume. I started work on my costume a few months ago when I picked material and had pants and a tunic made here by a local tailor. My friend Elaine Ponchione who makes costumes for local theatre productions was recruited to make the cape and hat at the last minute. She did a great job but we didn’t have anything to make the hat stiff and so I folded it up in my suitcase and waited to complete things when I came down.

Later, Nassar Khan who has been helping with research on the cricket calypso project that Dmitri Subotsky and I had been doing for the last few years offered his help. He is the general manager at Samaroo’s and let me literally use his staff to help get my big hat all fixed up and extra decorations added to the cape at the last minute as a million folks were invading his store for the latest additions to their costumes. But I still wasn’t done. On Carnival Sunday morning just hours before my first appearance in Victoria Square, I was off to my friend Bobby Lee’s house where he was adding his own touches to some Minshall’s sailor costume. He helped me make the cape more elaborate and outline the flaming eyes on the thighs of my pants that my daughter had designed. Still not up to Trini standards but a fun costume never the less.

The first Sunday I assembled with the Mystery Raiders at Brian Honore’s house to meet the motley crew of extroverts. Brian himself, cultural activist and librarian, who has appeared in Rawle Gibbon’s Sing the Chorus and many other theatre productions, who had taken the mantle from Puggie Joseph to keep a rugged but right band of Mystery Raiders on the streets every year. With him was a hard core of robbers, Johnny Stollmeyer, a visual artist, the corbeau with his magnificent costume with the realistic moving feathers, Anthony Collymore, a teacher who is transformed each year into the Melancholy Marauder, Sitting Bull, a long time calypsonian from years ago who wanted to play robber and did for the first time this year, and Anand Phillip, the Virus Killer among others. Narrie Aproo who had often played robber but was playing fireman and Indian this year joined us for the meeting though this year he played Indian and fireman in a sailor band. The pioneer, Esau Millington, the Midnight Killer, was our mentor and gave us strength as he walked the streets and gave his speech.

At the first meeting, Brian played for us the music that we would feature on the road from our big sound truck, well ok, small cart - Andre Tanker’s latest, “Food Fight.” This great musician would die a few days later and we were proud to offer his music on the road for Carnival. At the meeting I first gave my speech and took suggestions on how to improve it and further prepare my costume. I had toiled over my speech to come up with doggerel bombast with just the right tone. Some people said I looked like Santa Claus - chubby, white beard, lives close to the North Pole, I had to play on that
 
I ain’t no Jolly Ho-Ho
Bringing pretty gifts from the North Po’
I ain’t no Santa Claus
I’m here to bring women menopause!
 
Then I thought I had to make a bold threat of devastation from the Frozen North   so I had a verse
 
Now a secret I will tell thee
The Alaskan Pipeline you will see
Is dug under the ocean and soon will be
Secretly sucking all the oil from La Trinity
No longer will it be quaintly known as the Land of Calypso
But soon only the southern home of the eagle and the Eskimo
 
While my robber speech was to be one of mirth and merriment, others in the band had more serious social commentary themes to address as the Virus Killer told of the ravages of aids and HIV and Brian himself echoed concern over the impending war and the blocking of Marli Street. A variety of styles and independent opinions were voiced in our small band. We were joined by students from Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma and Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut who had also come to play Robber. We took to the road on Carnival Monday with thunder and boisterousness and through the streets Monday and Tuesday we went, small but mighty. It was fun to give our speeches at various judging points. It was more fun to respond to various people on the streets that I knew or those who would call me over and ask for a bit of robber talk. It was fun to play off trading lines with other robbers. Too quickly it was over.

Now I have vowed to work with Brian to help research and document the rich history of Midnight Robbers. I am hoping to help him create an exhibit of art and artifacts on Robbers and maybe get Alaskan artists and a gallery up here interested in having a cross-cultural exhibit with traditional robbers and Alaskan re-visionings of Robbers. Maybe talk a band of Alaskans to join me in abandoning the cold cold Februarys for the warm and joy of Carnival in Trinidad and play robber. Maybe in a year or two or three, the Mystic Marauders of the Midnight Sun will be a reality bringing its own variety of chilling merriment and frozen mirth to Carnival! Already I am starting to think of my costume for next year and wondering what new speech I will give. So for a last time this year I proclaim,
 
Down, down I say surrender,
I am your worst fear, the Arctic Avenger
You cannot hide, you cannot run
From a Mystic Marauder of the Midnight Sun
You may be Trini to the bone
But tomorrow you’ll be my breakfast scone
 
Ray Funk can be reached at rfunk@ptialaska.net. He will shortly be reviving his Kaiso newsletter (http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/kaiso.htm)  and welcomes contact with anyone who wants to receive it by e-mail. Also, he is very interested to hear from anyone who has stories, speeches, recordings or photos of Midnight Robbers over the last several decades. More photos of the Arctic Avenger and the Mystery Raiders on Carnival Tuesday in the Savannah are at marlistreet.com.