The National University

On November 8, at a breakfast media meeting held at the NA PA restaurant, Port-of-Spain, the names of persons on whom the titles Master Artist-in-Residence, Honorary Doctorate and Honorary Distinguished Fellow were to be conferred, were announced. It is in my own estimation a valuable initiative for a national university, especially one in such early stages of its development.

These names will stand, as models for younger generations for, we would also like to alter VS Naipaul’s vision by saying that, there are people who have been made in Trinidad, and who have produced new traditions of value.

Among the names identified for this year are people, who have, through their work, exemplified how given knowledge can be used in creative ways. I focus here in particular on those honoured in the sphere of arts and literature.

Many of our debates on national culture very often centre around questions like, who is more Trinidadian than whom, who destroying ‘we’ ting versus who isn’t (early reactions to soca comes to mind), who is using knowledge to build nation versus who is destroying it (as in the most recent mas furore) and a host of other questions that create tensions within the creative sphere and among the public. These tensions drive creative work, as much as they can also stifle potential. At their core, however, is the question of relevance.

The honouring of stalwarts makes it possible for us to see alternatives.

Such people usually challenge the accepted norms and create new spaces for dialogue. They work simultaneously within and against traditions.

And there comes a point, when the pioneers’ works become the accepted, and a new generation emerges to further challenge it even while working with it. This process of adaptation and rejection is at the heart of most, if not all creative endeavour.

The central question: how do we make accepted knowledge relevant to our experience within this space and time? Each of the individuals selected have in some way exemplified the answer. David Boothman’s (Master Artist-in-Residence, Visual Arts), Transcendental Caribbean style of music for instance, by its very name suggests the search for something that moves beyond the conventional sounds of Trinidad yet remains rooted in the spirit of the Caribbean.

Mungal Patasar’s (Master-Artist- In-Residence) Pantar music too comes from his Classical Indian heritage and aims to cross boundaries even while being rooted in the classical.

Masking ragas within a Caribbean and world music idiom, it too transcends. Ray Holman (Master Artist-in-Residence, Steelpan) as his bio reads, ‘challenged in the 1970s the status quo by composing his own tune for Panorama at a time when everyone played tunes composed by calypsonians’.

Dr Peter Minshall (Master Artist- in-Residence, Carnival) offers us innovative ways of re-thinking conventional narratives through his mas designs. Honorary Doctor of the Arts, Kelvin Pope (The Mighty Duke), who was given the posthumous place at UTT , is remembered for his calypsos that cover all genres. As Professor Hollis Liverpool (Chalkdust) noted, ‘no one has sung so much on Africans and Africanism as Duke has…and he shows that not all memorable quotes must come from Europe.’ Winford Devine (Honorary Distinguished Fellow, The Arts) was honoured for his calypso lyrics.

Among the popular ones are ‘Progress’, ‘Marajhin’, and ’Capitalism Gone Mad’. Dr Earl Lovelace (Master Artist-in-Residence, Literature) and Dr Michael Anthony (Honorary Distinguished Fellow, The Arts) are writers who have shown, through their writing, a command of the English Creole and a deep understanding of the Trinidadian space. Such historians like Anthony have laid the foundations for younger ones like Angelo Bissessarsingh (Honorary Distinguished Fellow, The Arts).

Bissessarsingh is known for his Virtual Museum of History that utilizes social media to promote the knowledge of history. He has condensed a large body of research into accessible material for a general reading public.

The other honourees were Errol Mahabir (Honorary Doctor of Energy, Posthumous) and Justice Anthony Lucky (Honorary Doctor of Law).

The single quality that each honouree shares is his commitment to nation. The list of individuals selected, represent Trinidad in different ways, through their vehicle of choice and the mastery of the vocabulary and mechanics of that vehicle.

Through their work, they have all engaged with this space and the world at large, creating for us a body of work which is now a part of the larger Caribbean canon, and which younger generations may use as models for their own creative and intellectual work.