Beryl’s home no more

It is very ironic that the home of Trinidad and Tobago’s Queen of Dance, the late Beryl McBurnie, was demolished in September, National Patriotism Month.

A big black and yellow construction rig now sits where a home dance studio, with mirrors along the wall, used to be. Dexter John, a St James resident and the new owner of Mc- Burnie’s property, has plans to begin building a home for his family on the site in June of 2017.

However, he is open to anyone who may be interested in negotiating with him for the land.

On whether he felt sad for breaking down the home of a national icon, John stated, “Yea, but anyone could have bought the property and do it over and put up an apartment or a grocery...

I don’t think I will build right now because there might be a lot of discrepancies of who might want to make an offer right now.” When asked if the belongings of McBurnie were taken out, John stated, “there were some cultural books and pictures of her there still.” Sharing his views on the situation, Rubadiri Victor, cultural activist and president of the Artists’ Coalition of Trinidad and Tobago, explained the financial difficulties that the Little Carib Theatre was experiencing was known publicly. With managing the two properties, both The Little Carib Theatre and McBurnie’s house, they were unable to pay many of the debts they had. Victor explained the Coalition brought proposals before the last People’s Partnership administration to provide the LCT with $1 million to refurbish the house and the theatre. When plans for the granting of the funds were denied, the LCT had to seek ways to fund its maintenance and selling the property became the answer.

Though residents in the area remember the house being empty for about 20 years, it still surprised many that the house was actually sold.

Victor said he felt the sale was done in some sort of secrecy and that the people of the coalition, who were a part of the attempt to save the house, were not even notified.

Victor commented that maintaining McBurnie’s home as a museum could have brought in millions of dollars each year, but with the house now gone the Coalition would not be interested in negotiating with John for the site.

“Heritage is about authenticity, the bedroom Beryl slept in, the room Paul Robeson visited,” he said. In moving forward, he did state the importance of “battl( ing) for a Caribbean dance museum in tribute to Beryl McBurnie, Pearl Primus and Dai Ailian.” He made the point Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley needs to build up the National Trust and National Museum Board so that no more pieces of TT’s heritage would be lost.

Known as “La Belle Rosette”, Mc Burnie, born on November 2, 1913 died on March 3, 2000.