‘I believe that all women are pretty without make up – but with the right make up can be pretty powerful.’
– Bobbi Brown, Cosmetics Entrepreneur
Make up has always been used by men and women to enhance our physical appearance for aesthetics and theatrics whether it is for pleasing ourselves, to attract others or to keep up with fashion. Doing our make up is not only a habit that is used to express ourselves, there has been numerous innovations throughout time in what is now a profitable cosmetics industry.
Goddess – Roman Egyptian shared on Museum Week
In the book ‘Painted Faces – A Colourful History of Cosmetics’ by Susan Steward, she writes: “In the past, cosmetics were just as likely to be worn as visible markers of social status or religious expression of gender, wealth, health and wellbeing: that is to say, the meaning beyond mere decoration. Women and, at certain times in history, men have applied cosmetics to improve. Alter, even to camouflage or disguise their appearance and have used cosmetics extensively to as a clue to their health, wealth and social status”. There is a long history of body adoration in all civilisations and make up has seen many innovations and developments in it base products. Susan Stewart continues “Dispute the rhetoric, in reality cosmetics formed an integral part of culture of the great civilisations of Greece and Rome under a variety of aromatic herbs, plants roots, flowers, woods, fruits, seeds, and gum resins for cosmetic purposes’. Even in the Roman times, beauty products were sold almost door to door by street traders as well as at regular markets in the town forums. The books presents the popularity and importance of cosmetics then: “In fact cosmetics, through increased trade brought about by the Roman Empire, became quite widely available. In short, in terms of cost and availability – there was something for everyone and everyone used cosmetics”.
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With this in mind, there is no wonder I have a natural love of making up when I can. I already mentioned in this blog that in my childhood, I used to go home in my lunch break in my first primary school, and would occasionally put on my mother’s lipstick. I also used to like when our neighbour gave me a haircut and then I would get to wear a little lipstick that day. I also loved nail polish but in secondary school – there was a strict ban on makeup and nail polish at school. It is self-explanatory why I wear them most of the time now! My mother has a lot of sisters and this too influenced me to like ‘girly things’. Seriously though, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, my aunties would give us or pass on clothes, but also send packets of high-end branded makeup from Canada, such as Estee Lauder, Clinique, and Dior. I actually used to play with some expensive products then, and later realised that those products were high quality and expensive!
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Avon was also sold by women agents who came ‘house to house’ in our village. Avon are still a business that has some beneficial strengths for cosmetics sellers, as well as buyers. There direct selling models are still unique today and is particularly useful for empowering women in developing countries. Marketline ‘Avon Products Inc’ reports: “Avon is the 5th largest beauty company in the world and is by far the biggest direct selling enterprise globally with 6.4 million active representatives, who then turn around and sell Avon’s lipstick and lotions to the end user”. The company went through a period of change at the 2000s but it seems to have survived with its’ core offering: “changing lifestyle and rising disposable income are leading to growth in cosmetics and personal grooming market. Increasing demand for events and parties with an increased number of beauty conscious customers, social status and emergence of ecommerce are aiding market growth. Unique business model supported by a portfolio of well-recognised brands in the market, has been enabling Avon to sustain its competitive position in the market”.
Live demo on Instagram
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Therefore, Avon is a business model that enables women across the globe to ‘earn something on the side’ to supplement their income. I was truly surprised about 6 years ago when a local contact asked me to have a browse of her Avon catalogue. I have a constant demand for nail polish, so I ordered some good and reasonably priced Avon gel nail polish. I bought it intentionally to support her. I also met an employee of Avon doing research in the library where I was more than happy to tell her how well the brand is recognised and commended their Corporate Social Responsibility programme. Long may they reign with their flexible business model opportunities and branded products.
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I have always worn a bit of makeup, but in the 1990’s makeup in the UK was not a big deal and I noticed that not everyone was ‘into it’. However in the last 10 years or so, cosmetics has seen a revival since the flamboyant New Romantics day of the 1980s. This has been helped with social media and the Internet. According to Global Data Online, millennials are spending more and engaging a lot on cosmetic products: “S-Commerce (social media commerce) is becoming integrated into everyday life and could be a long-term game-change”. Cosmetic fans are consuming, writing, reviewing it, promoting makeup on social media by blogging, producing videos, demonstrating live tutorials, and creating other exciting content.
Instagram is buzzing with beautiful tips and product reviews. I know that some people feel the pressure of social media and absolutely loath it, but for those who can handle its’ faults – it is great for getting creative ideas, especially for make-up. There are some good recommended blogs and web resources that are informative as well as full of inspirational ideas. Some of these are Marie Claire Best Beauty Blog, BBC Article and Guardian writer Sali Hughes on Beauty.
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Superstar Rihanna has also created her own brand of makeup called ‘Fenty Beauty – beauty for all’ with a “focus on embracing products for a wide range of traditionally hard to match skin tones, creating formulas that work for all women and pinpointing universal shades”. The launch of Fenty Beauty was a sign of movement in the beauty industry, pushing more content for diversity in terms of colour, especially in foundation lines.
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In Trinidad and Tobago, we have a long standing and strong makeup brand called Sacha Cosmetics. I remember buying some items in the late 1980s, especially as the colours are suited to women of colour. The founders of Sacha Cosmetics have received awards for innovation in products and entrepreneurial substance. I was also told by my friends that the company is one of the bestselling online cosmetics and has a successful market in the Caribbean, North American and Panama. My friend recently gave me some Sacha makeup that are world-class and ethically made cruelty-free.
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Cosmetic are popular everywhere in the world and there is a thriving market for makeup artists. A lot of people have their makeup done by professionals for special occasions, and thay can come to you at your mutual convenience. Makeup artists can freelance and it is a viable business. You can also book a appointment on an app, or with a department store like Blow Ltd via Debenhams. If you prefer a more tradition make up advice or session with an expert, some makeup brands have them in store in their shops, such as in Chanel and MAC in St Pancras train station.
When I got into the music industry, I wasn’t focused on being the most famous artist or even getting a major record deal. It was just to make music on my own terms or create my own image, do my own hair, do my own makeup. – Janelle Monae
We can’t really wear makeup all the time, especially in our downtime. However, it is super that everyone can look after themselves with some TLC, and apply a little bit of makeup, if and when require. Makeup will always be important for personal and social reasons as it is a way to feel good about oneself, express individuality, allure confidence and make that fashion statement.
Diversity is a fact, inclusion is a practice and equity is a goal –
Dereca Blackmon, Stanford
What do diversity, inclusion and equity really mean? …This is the question we might want to ask ourselves, especially in a diverse digitally connected world in the 21st century. It can be unclear why we even need to discuss this topic but it has been on my radar particularly since I was asked to take part in a SLA Task Force for Diversity and Inclusion in 2016. I was an honour to be asked, and I was unsure if I had anything insightful to contribute but to be honest, I realised that I was already championing the features of Diversity, Inclusion and Equity. We don’t usually need to disclose attributes of people, but for the purpose of this blog post, I have mentioned information on myself and gave a couple of real examples.
SLA Diversity & Inclusion Task Force Participation in 2017
I am a little ahead of the game for some obvious reasons – I am female, an ethnic minority, working mother with a powerful diverse background of being a Trinidadian (other Trinidadians will understand what I mean with regards to diversity), married to a European, living in multicultural London…and I worked in world class libraries. I am heterosexual with no obvious disabilities. However we must remember that there are other areas of diversity and inclusion that is deeper than the physical and obvious. The point of this blog post is to discuss some of the challenging issues we face, but also to find examples of good practices and stress how important it is for information professionals to advocate, champion and stand up for diversity and inclusion for the communities and customers we serve. In this context, I am mainly discussing the business workplace and libraries with some principles for the wider society.
I need to do some more research on an official definition for Diversity, Inclusion and Equity as it tends to cover Equality rights and anti-discrimination policies. However there are some good pointers on this Wikipedia page, and the SLA Caucus page has a good example of the motive behind the topics. The term Equity is used more in the US, where I saw a good example on this voluntary sector site Independent Sector.
Freedom is Indivisible –Nelson Mandela
Found in a Venue in Tottenham
My research also came across a motivating quote on Diversity and Inclusion at the closing keynote at the National Diversity in Libraries Conference, Los Angeles – “Bourg, as a white, butch, lesbian, Army veteran, library director, and Hathcock, as a black, straight, cisgender, Christian, Southern, non-director, sat on stage and talked from the heart about the ways in which they are attempting to learn from and with each other along their varying intersections. Their work, said Bourg and Hathcock, begins first and foremost with an acknowledgement that “libraries have never been, are not now, and will never be neutral,” that whiteness sits at the heart of our society and therefore our institutions”.
This puts the topic in context and shows the library and information professional position on Diversity and Inclusion. There is a quest of best practice by information professionals in being pragmatic with neutrality versus social justice for the communities who we serve in providing facts, unbiased and trusted information. For example, I remember being ‘as nice as apple pie’ serving members of the British National Party in a working library where impartiality and neutrality were the guiding principles. However at the same time, on balance I would advocate for libraries that were cut by mainstream Politicians and government policies. As I am aware, I still try in my own way to reach marginalised library users by stretching out. There is a need to try to reach as many as possible, regardless of biases and background. This world should be a level playing field where everyone has a voice. We certainly should also stand up if something or if someone was harmful or threatening to others.
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Looking at ‘The Bigger Picture’ shows that Diversity, Inclusion and Equity are progressive hot topics. It is important for us to think about these terms in the workplace as well as in society. There are a few events that I kept a close eye on social media recently, where there were online events advocating and discussing the topics. The UK Lib Chat Twitter talk on ‘Celebrating Diversity: supporting clients and broadening the profession in libraries’ held some great nuggets of thoughts on how we should implement this in this sector. It was also fabulous to see the tweets (Twitter @StemGameChange) shared for the Gender Diversity in STEM event at the Alan Turing Institute a couple of weeks ago. It was nice for the speakers to invite me in too but I was busy in my normal work, so could not attend. I also refer to CILIP and SLA Connect online community caucus on Diversity and Inclusion for best practices and information.
Gender Equality in STEM at the Alan Turing Institute
So what is the problem? Why do we need to be reminded about Diversity & Inclusion? Harvard Business Review’s ‘Research: People share more information with colleagues of similar backgrounds’ states: “in the workplace, people tend to trust and attribute a higher status to colleagues whose cultural background are similar to their own. As a result, members of the majority national group – and minorities who share cultural similarities with the majority – also share the most information with one another. Whereas minorities with the most cultural differences are often attributed a lower status and information is withheld from them. This withholding can cause those from ‘low status’ minority groups to underperform and never reach their full potential”.
This is just one of the problems. There are other issues around privilege, recruitment, team dynamics, talent development, gender pay-gap, cronyism, cliques, tribes and exclusivity, which act as barriers to diversity and inclusion. There have been some progress and positive steps to have better talent and support systems, but this also requires diversity and inclusion to be fluid enough to filter to the top of teams and even executive boards. There is a lot of research that a more diverse board or top management around the table will have broader viewpoints and experiences, which will heed better business decisions that are best for an organisation.
Words in this blog…Diversity and Inclusion
Most of the research I read says that it is not always easy to achieve the right balance. “True equality is not taking away for one to give to another. It means having an equal voice, opportunities and rights”. There is a lot written on the ‘privileged’ White Alpha Male – a group that has long been overdone and it can be monotonous for the rest of us in the shadows. It is possible to seek more balance where anyone can get an opportunity to contribute and to harness talent. There is richness in diversity, inclusion and equity in all of this…if we are in it together. The demography, scope and locations of the global consumers are also more diverse in a digital world – and top management have to reflect and understand their audience, staff, customers, clients and stakeholders. We are not forgetting the White Alpha Male – we are simply including him in the mixture with a balanced and broader talent pool. We just have to make room for more diversity and inclusion.
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In the article ‘While automation eats jobs, it doesn’t eat work’ on Equity: “companies are committed to a diverse work force for varying motivations. Some believe that diverse teams are just smarter and more creative… Other firms, especially technology companies believe that they are disproportionally responsible for designing the future and therefore it’s simply wrong to leave entire communities out of their teams”. There is also a positive outcome when people feel they belong – they perform better.
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The other aspect of Diversity and Inclusion practices is that there are strategies for a supportive culture, with advocacy to maintain and sustain positive levels. It is recommended that organisations examine themselves and their policies for: “without them, diversity cannot be achieved because people will leave before they are given the opportunity to make a difference”.
Another piece of research by Culture Amp states: “Creating a workplaces that make people feel they belong. Without this, no matter how much diversity you might achieve by the numbers. You may find people feel disconnected, disengaged and prone to leaving your organisation”.
There is another issue of unconscious and conscious bias. There may be physical attributes to humans that make us compassionate and conscious to inclusiveness. At a Public Library Conference in the USA this year, keynote speaker Steve Pemberton (Chief Diversity Officer at GloboForce) explains: “the first picture you see of someone is not the full picture”. We come into this world with visible characteristics and diversity traits… but the real story is below the line: “This things you can’t see would be stunned to see how much commonality there really is, but it requires conversation and willingness to be open and to learn”. So with this in mind – an inclusive environment means providing everyone, no matter who they are with equal access. The richness of inclusion and diversity is below this invisible line: “Top of the waterline are people’s visible traits but below the water line many other invisible traits emerge, such as sexual orientation, beliefs and background”. Pemberton went on to say: “that we need to depend on each other and celebrate our myriad experiences because we all have something new to learn about the world”.
I may be thinking of a Utopian idea…but we can dream, and hopefully we can forget the hostile and divisive hot air that is currently blowing in parts of this world.
In reality, there is still some work to do. Libraries still play a large part in diversity and inclusion, and operate in one of the most open physical and digital areas you would expect to encounter. But we are still a profession in the English-speaking world that has mainly white professionals. It is heart-warming and motivating when I see social media shares from libraries in Trinidad and Tobago for their good work on diversity and inclusion programmes.
This way – Library sign in Trinidad & Tobago
There are still vast issues, levels of poverty and access for customers in a ‘first world’ country like the United Kingdom. A multi-cultural and diverse content coverage should be programmed, but there are pressures on public funds. Socio-economic barriers prevent diversity in developing professionals and the communities they serve. Most of these issues are in disadvantaged urban environments where there are discourse for crime, low income families struggles, poverty, underprivileged persons and other societal disparities – therefore librarians act as a haven for promoting diversity and inclusion in their communities. There are other barriers like the digital divide, dyslexia, the elderly, literacy, languages, and physical disabilities. Some will be visible and some below the line. This may be a good point to acknowledge too that there are some people who may never come into the library, but there are still a large proportion of people who do see its’ worth and will continue to use them.
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Therefore we must continue to be diverse, inclusive and equitable. Outreach and marketing work helps to reach marginalised communities which will foster positive inclusion for developing diverse professionals and customer bases. CILIP has a great page on the work they are doing in their diversity and inclusion programmes. It is motivating as an information professional that we are doing our little bit on the front line to help disadvantaged communities and individuals. It leads to better social cohesion, improve economic prosperity and the possibilities in a more level playing field in a diverse and inclusive society.
There are a lot of best practices out there for professionals and organisations to champion the business and corporate social responsibility (CSR) benefits for Diversity, Inclusion and Equity programming. These types of programmes are leading the way and act as a benchmark to adopt and ‘anchor’ in our businesses and mission. Some of these admirable organisations are Channel Four, Touchstone and Halebury. There are some tips on the CIPD factsheet, and the Gov.UK website as an employer.
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So what does this all mean to us now? …There are a lot of positive policy, narrative changes, game-changers and professionals working to create more diverse and inclusive work environments. There are also inclusiveness programmes that are trying to balance representation, content, coverage and highlight diverse stories for personnel and patrons for all types of businesses. Some cynics may even be ‘fatigued’ by the words ‘Diversity and Inclusion’ and much more so by an inclusive agenda! However, if we don’t continue to encourage positive policy and action – we will end up with an echo chamber and miss out on the richness of celebrating our differences and similarities.
In the bigger picture – diversity, inclusion and equity have a lot of benefits and are the best ingredients for shared collaboration and empowerment of individuals and organisations. Embedded inclusion with a whirlpool of diverse talent makes life more interesting, and exposes us to fresh perspectives, bringing better understanding and with it respect, compassion and hopefully, greater all-round success.
One in six adults struggles to read. Reading Ahead supports young people and adults who struggle with the written word or who don’t read for pleasure. Reading Groups for Everyone celebrates all the good things that happen when people come together to share reading and Reading Well supports people’s health and wellbeing. Because everything changes when we read.
– The Reading Agency
It is always a challenge to read novels for leisure if you live a busy life at work, home and socially. If you know me, it would be evident that I spend a lot of my spare time listening to music, catching up on current affairs and pop culture. Therefore finding the time to read can be scarce and finding a good book is also a task. I may also work as an information professional in a library, but we are usually providing factual information and there is no time for lightweight fictional or even non-fictional novels during the day. Despite all this, I still want to make sure I spend some of my time reading those best selling books written and sold that are frequently presented to us as books we need to read before we die in a list.
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Reading is beneficial to all of us regardless of age. So, one of my resounding wish each year is to read more novels. I obviously support reading and literacy for libraries, bookshops, the book industry and general community building. Reading challenges such as the Summer Reading challenge, and young people after-school programmes have also been set up by organisations to help children with their literacy. The Literacy Trust also has their ‘young reader programmes’ whereby corporations (such as KPMG’s Family for Literacy) help in encouraging young children to read…and it is also a good business Corporate Social Responsibly (CSR) initiative.
Hatchards, St Pancras Station
It was a real pleasure to receive a suggestion from our neighbourhood that we should form a new neigbourhood book club. We all agreed that when we joined that it was because it was not a snobby club, and we already knew each other well enough to feel comfortable to do this together. We started the book club about a year ago and it has been really good for me in terms of reading commitments to get the book completed for our discussion at the monthly book club meeting. We usually meet over some drinks in a local pub and dissect the book of the month. The books suggested by other book-clubbers may not have been ones I would have tried but after hearing pitches from other members, it helped us to decide which book to try. We do go deep into our literary critique of the characters in the story, setting, style of writing, offer any likes and dislikes about the book in question. We also catch up on what is happening in our neighbourhood, and wherever the conversation may leads us. It is only a short walk back to our homes at the end of the evening.
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Given the choice with eBooks and kindles – I also know that I still prefer buying traditional hard copy books. Some of the book clubbers use a kindle. It is also interesting that some of the books have been made, or are about to be made into films, such as the Man Booker 50 Prize winner ‘The English Patient’ and ‘Eleanor Oliphant is completely fine’. I also saw that Reese Wetherspoon has set up her own book club ‘Hello Sunshine‘ recently. All good for brilliant reading and researching material for film scripts!
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Seriously, some of the great factors for the book club have been (1) for me to read regularly as a literature fan (2) help me support local bookshops (3) pass on books to friends and family and (4) stay in touch with the lifelong learning benefits of reading. It is also an interesting sense of camaraderie to know that a group of you are reading the same book and you are going to discuss it together. It does feel like schoolwork and homework sometimes when you have to meet the deadline! Having a book club definitely is a great incentive for reading, fun socialising and for community building. There are some fabulous tips about reading groups in the Reading Agency’s website.
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I wasn’t always good a reading. I mentioned before that my first primary school focussed on maths but my second school focussed on literacy. After joining a new school at seven years old, I had to do extra reading with my mother to catch up with classmates for about a year. However as a teenager, I loved reading romantic fiction with other girls from school and in my neighbourhood. Yes, we studied serious English Literature up to A-levels but we still circulated and shared romantic novels such as Mills and Boon. I think I must have read about 1000 books in the 1980s! We didn’t have neighbourhood libraries to borrow books from then, neither mobile libraries. These books we good for light reading – but also increased my vocabulary and exposed other cultures, languages and places to me. I know that the romantic content and formulae story lines we not realistic, nor a true representation of real couples’ lives – but they were a fun way to spend a day or two reading. Another book club member mentioned that she loved reading and swapping these romantic novels when she was younger with her grandmother.
A male information professional friend who worked in Westminster Libraries in the 1990’s said that the Chinese community in Chinatown still borrowed a lot of Mills & Boon, and I think romantic novels are still kept in many local libraries to encourage writing them too. One of the book club suggestions I read recently reminded me of a Mills & Boon! Never mind. The main point is…I am reading novels regularly again.
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I am due to recommend a book for my book and may suggest ‘The Lonely Londoners’ which is currently in the Windrush exhibition at the British Library. And I can’t remember if I have read it before. Or another book to suggest is ‘House of Mr Biswas’ by V.S. Naipaul, who recently passed away. We obviously studied him at school in Trinidad and being an exceptional writer – since his death, there are a few people who have told me how great a writer he really was. It was great to see Twitter light up with tweets about his books and their importance, as well as comments on his controversial personality. In July, the British Library usually hosts Africa Writes, which is interesting for books by other diverse writers. To be honest – I always come across something interesting and inspiring to reading in the library. It’s just the time required to read these good books!
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As with everything, there are always persons who are less fortunate than us and any help with reading is a bonus. In our neighbourhood, we recently received a donated decorated reading bench and a children’s Little Free Library. It is brilliant to see people having a break to read and to receive donations. There was some vandalising of the books but hopefully this does not occur often. There are other free libraries in my neighbourhood for adults, the local library is well-stocked and the bookshop still has an immense presence and customers.
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Another neighbour hosts a Rock and Roll Book Club with talks and events in the local bookstore. These are great initiatives that help in keeping physical spaces like shops, libraries and hard copy books thriving. Digital formats and cyberspace are great for literacy but they are too broad topics to delve into now, so they are other stories for another blog post in the future.
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One good point about social media is seeing what other people are reading, or what is recommend by peers and libraries. The Orkney library (@OrkneyLibrary) always find interesting and funny trends to tweet to promote their books. In the meantime, I am happy that I am frequently reading for leisure and enlightenment with my book club – some of the books have been interesting for imagination as well as thought provoking. It also is a fun community initiative, and I get to support local bookshops.
Read over a year
You never really stop learning and comprehending language and vocabulary. Reading new stories to understanding human behaviour is always exciting and informative too. Therefore, there will always be a long list of books I still want to read. You may also have a list. Even if there is no book club – I’ll just have to make time, as reading should always be one of my top priorities.
“A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies, said Jojen. The man who never reads lives only one.”
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful,
we must carry it with us or we find it not. – Ralph Waldo Emerson
Summer is in full swing and it is the time of year when most of us are thinking of enjoying time off from work, school, commitments or simply a break from the normal routine. It is also the season to enjoy the usually better weather, get outdoors more, go sightseeing, travel and rest. The sunny summer of 2018 has been gloriously blessed, until now, with good weather and has helped in my decision to have a Staycation.
My last staycation was in 2012 and I am certainly happy to try mini-breaks in the UK this year having been away consistently for the last few years. As an adult, I have had time off the whole summer when I was on maternity leave twice, in between jobs and redundant. It was a blessing in disguise to spend the whole summer off, even if I had to be on a budget. I will write about one of my mini-breaks in 2018 here.
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There is also the cost of travelling that has been one of the factors for me having a staycation this summer. In ‘Caravan and Camping Sites in the UK’ report by IBIS World predicts 2.3% annual grow to reach £3.8 billion by 2023-34. The report is also insightful on why other British travellers may be doing this: “weather patterns and fluctuations in exchange rates will continue to encourage domestic tourism over the next few years, as the UK remains a cheap holiday destination”. The report goes on to explain: “fragile consumer confidence is likely to cause families to delay discretionary expenditure on holidays over the next few years. However, this could also have a positive effect on the industry as UK holidaymakers who would previously have taken trips abroad may instead choose to take relatively inexpensive domestic camping mini-breaks. Similar to the conditions at the start of the period, low consumer confidence may help to sustain the staycation trend”. So this insight is quite relevant to me. I didn’t go caravanning this year, but I spent a weekend in a campsite at a Jazz Festival and can imagine other more official campsites across the country benefitting from this type of holiday.
The last few years I have planned my holidays at least six months in advance to get the best deals possible as the flights tend to cost higher closer to the time of travel. Most of the time, like all families with children at school, we have little choice and flexibility and so must travel in the peak inflated priced holiday periods like everybody else! However, for children with working parents it is the time of year that you can actually have some quality time to relax and spend with the family.
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I haven’t travelled extensively due the cost and family commitments. However, I seem to have travel in my DNA as a fourth generation Indian immigrant to the West Indies. There are some places I have scratched off my list, but there is still a long imaginary bucket list of places I would like to visit one day. For example, my bucket lists contains India. Being of Indian heritage, I would like to visit India in the future but the cost for a family will be horrendous and I certainly don’t want to go on my own. I would also like to go to the Far East to Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Thailand, and other parts of the world such as Africa, Brasil, Peru, Mexico, San Francisco, and other Caribbean islands. The list can really go on, and on. I know that air travel is not good for the environment and wish that there were other environmentally friendly modes of transport that were quicker and cheaper. There is no real chance of me going to all the countries I would like to visit in the near future anyway, so hopefully I can ‘be chilled’ about my carbon footprint for now.
Two roads diverged into a wood, and I – I took the one less travelled
– Robert Frost
Generally, I don’t follow my bucket list of places to visit. I honestly don’t think my list will ever be finite, as I love learning and seeing new parts of this beautiful, interesting and natural world. My friend Barry blogged here and just came back from Antarctica. It sounded so very different from what I am used to – and so I wish I could visit there one day. My friends, Anna and Pete, also have had an amazing holiday this year in Japan and there too is on my bucket list. I have an aunt, Sandra, in Canada who has travelled extensively and I love how she uses Facebook to share her stories and enthusiasm for travel, culture and the people she meets. My neighbour, Bob, sent me a photo of his happy holiday in Rhodes just a few days ago. Social media has all the temptation for aspiring to visit places…or even for you to remain at home and see the world. It’s a win win for exploring the Earth! One of my post popular blog posts since I started this blog was my trip to New York City in 2016. One relative said that my photos inspired them to take a trip to New York that same year.
My neighbour sent me his holiday view from his balcony in Rhodes …Wishful thinking.
Mintel’s Consumer Confidence Finance Tracker from April 2017 found that long holidays, short breaks and days out all features in the top 10 things people spend their disposable income on. Mintel reports that “despite the Brexit vote and the drop in the value of the pound, consumers have shown their strong appetite for oversees holidays. Mintel estimates that overseas trips grew by 5% to 44.3 million in 2016”. The barriers and bottom line to seeing all those places is the cost of travel, which is expensive. You also have to consider the time required away from a full time job, family commitments, and possibly travel restrictments such as travel visas and your safety. One can still dream about travelling to new places though. Travel is always good for new experiences, ideas, creativity and culture. We also come away understanding the places and people that we have visited.
Should I stay or go? …Well, this year I stayed in England. I went last week for a few days to Derbyshire for a break. This meant that I avoided the busy drive to an airport, checking-in procedures, the lounging, duty free temptations and general busyness of an airport. My drive was just under three hours to my destination. I was quite excited as I had been told by friends and family that the countryside in the Peak District was beautiful. There are also nice restaurants in Derbyshire and the surrounding areas – all in the mix with international and local cuisine.
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The two main attractions I visited were stately homes – Chatsworth House and Haddon Hall. The drives to both locations were very scenic through parts of the National Forest, villages, rivers and winding roads with the undulating hills of the Derbyshire countryside.
Chatsworth House is spectacular and I had heard so much about it. I love the drive to the house with the sheep resting in the shade of the trees and grazing on the grass on a sunny summer’s morning during our recent heatwave. The house’s exterior itself has a magical simplicity in its shape and design. I particularly liked the garden and all its difference features such as The Cascade, the 100 steps to the maze, the rock garden, the lilies, grotto etc. There were so many vistas to take it all in, and I loved the beautiful plants and trees. It must be nice in winter but it certainly was splendid in the heart of summer with the sheep baa-ing closeby, the butterflies fluttering on plants, and the lovely birdsong. I intend to visit the garden again one day. Touch wood!
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The interior of the house was also interesting and it was nice too that the current owner, the Duke of Devonshire and family, are still involved in the house’s upkeep. I liked the mix of modern and older art pieces in the collection. It is always interesting to see how other people live regardless of wealth or social class – and this house obviously had historic significance. The actors impersonating the past head gardener, Joseph Paxton, told us about the evening that Queen Victoria visited the maze garden adorned in a candlelit atmosphere. This must have been something to see! They still host amazing events at Chatsworth House throughout the year.
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As a special treat, I also had afternoon tea served on Wedgewood China. I was even inspired to try one of the sweet puddings on my return to London a few days after. Chatsworth House is beautiful for indulgence in a beautiful setting and was really interesting for creative ideas too – be it gardening, writing novels, poems, painting, photography, music and most of all… period dramas films! It has been the setting for programmes such as ‘Pride and Prejudice’. The shop was also full of lovely tokens and souvenirs.
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The next day was just as exciting at Haddon Hall, Bakewell. I loved the medieval features and the lived-in feel and evidence of the house’s history – from the wooden kitchen surfaces, to the medieval steps, courtyard and banquet hall. I also liked the vista over the rolling hills and countryside from the windows in the house.
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Again, the garden was amazing too and I am hoping that I can visit Haddon Hall again! I loved the planting of some of my favourite plants, the view from the garden terraces, which gave the garden a varied dimension from the river to the hill. The house was something out of a storybook with the stream and medieval setting. Places like this brings the past alive and sends our imagination into overdrive! I managed to squeeze in a nice pub lunch in nearby Bakewell (famous for it’s Bakewell tart) too.
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Travelling is my drug of choice
– quote shared by my well-travelled Aunt.
This was a short break in an extraordinarily warm summer in England. I hope to visit a couple more places such as Southwold and Norwich this year. I may even visit Paris and Italy for very short breaks too. Trinidad will always be home for me to visit. In 2019, I am hoping to visit Greece. In the meantime, I will try to save some money, use the Internet to see the place I haven’t been and keep dreaming of nice and interesting places I would like to visit…one day.
There will always be a fascination with inventions, innovations and new development in music and musical equipment, whether for broadcasting and our personal enjoyment. Coincidentally, it is also a time of immense changes and disruption in the music industry, and also our own personal experiences with these adoptions and evolutions. Innovations in musical equipment have moved from the physical to the digital, starting from the wax cylinders, phonographs, vinyl, cassette, mpg file to streaming. I may have left out quite a few formats here but forgive me for my ignorance. Here I will try to cover some of these changes with some of my personal experiences.
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It may be back in the 19th Century, but occasionally I get asked at work to search for patents on musical inventions, which is very interesting. In the article ‘In what’s your best innovations yet?’, there is a brilliant description of musical history and our experiences in a nutshell. The explanation goes: “…before the invention of the phonograph people could hear music only when it was performed. When Thomas Edison and Alexander Graham Bell began working on their phonograph in the late 1800s, their primary objective was to desynchronise the time, and place of a performance so that it would be heard anytime, anywhere…..Emile Berliner’s flat disc-shaped records and later, the development of magnetic tape made it significantly easier to mass-produce recordings, lowering their cost while increasing the fidelity and selection of music available. For decades, however, players were bulky and not particularly portable”. Does this sound familiar to you? This is a quick whistle stop of earlier musical inventions but you may have experience some similar changes too in our lifetime.
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I wanted to blog about the evolution of music from my own experiences, but it is with great coincidence and significance that the British Library held a recent exhibition entitled ‘Seasons of Sound – 140 years of Recorded Sound‘. This was a visual and interactive timeline of sound equipment, technology, culture, sub-cultures, and the impact these have had on society. This was the library’s first sound focussed exhibition – described as an exploration of how “sounds has shaped and influenced lives since the phonograph was invented in 1877”. The exhibition aims were to demonstrate how innovations in recording technology and radio broadcasting have transformed our listening experience. The exhibition was great to see (and hear…and feel) how equipment, technology and developments in recordings have progressed in this period, especially if you are a music fan. Working at the library, I have also answered queries on historical patents, including inventor and entrepreneur Emile Berliner and the phonograph!
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I had the privilege of also attending a guided tour by two of the exhibition’s curators. Some of the items that were highlighted were 16-year-old Alfred Taylor’s wireless log – which apparently would have been like a modern day vlogger or You Tuber. We were told that the first set of live radio broadcasting was not recorded in his diary, as there were a lot of “false starts”. It was also quite exciting to hear about the launch of live broadcasting at the turn of the 20th century, and so it seemed this had gripped the public’s imagination with a fascination for live shows. You can just imagine the development of such well-known media outlets such as the BBC, the rise of record buying, the pop charts, broadcasters, live shows – and the rest they say is history! One point the curator wanted to convey was that “the library is remembered for its books, but this exhibition was focussed on sound and listening and to raise the profile of the sound archive”. So look out for the Save our Sounds Project and for more ‘Season of Sounds‘ events on until this autumn.
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We have reached a stage where these inventions and innovations are ever-changing and so we can all relate to a period in time when we consumed music in one or another format. We have experienced, witness and moved from the early days of audio through to the digital age.
It still amazes me that there is so much personalisation. Andreas Pavel first created The Walkman in 1979. Apparently, Andreas wanted to create it but found resistance from the head of Sony at the time. However it was later launched.
“They all said they didn’t think people would be so crazy as to run around with headphones, that this is just a gadget, a useless gadget of a crazy nut,” Sony on Andreas Pavel’s idea for the Walkman.
In the book ‘Inventions in the 21st century’, my ex-colleague wrote the following on the personal stereo: “the story is great for the birth of the idea where Sony’s head realised that young people loved their music and did not want to be without it”. Sony’s marketing staff were apparently not convinced that the product would sell, but after launch in April 1979 – 100 million units were sold. Certainly, this is a forerunner of the smartphone and other such devices as we know them now – but the rate of development has been steadily improving.
The iPOD MP3 Player – ‘Inventing the 21st Century’ by Stephen Van Dulven
Despite the current move to the digital age, Vinyl has seen a resurgence and renaissance in their sales with more millenials discovering vinyl, and obviously record players too. Who would have thought that that vinyl would have their own best selling charts again? The experience of crate digging in a record store or in a pop-up shop is still a self-fulfilling experience. Some record fans have always preferred the physically activity of selecting, loading and playing records. Not forgetting the historical and artistic contribution of record covers designs. I used to get lost just looking at record covers and lyric sleeves. All of this is even more fun and better to share with friends and loved ones. I have loads of record stories but I remember our Italian relatives in a band asking us the lyrics to Steely Dan’s ‘Do it again‘ before we had access to the internet – we had to keep rewinding the cassette until we got most of the lyrics. It’s so easy now.
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I grew up in the age of vinyl in Trinidad were we bought hundreds of vinyl 45” and LPs in the late 1970s and 1980s. However the late 1980s saw the adoption of CDs and by this time, I was a foreign student on a budget in the UK, and so CDs were too expensive and a luxury for me to buy. However, I used to buy cassettes and also taped my favourite sounds from radio (for personal use). I buy music occasionally still and I continue to listen to the radio a lot compared to buying music. In the last 20 years, I have found the development from cds in the 1990s to the present fast moving and revolutionary.
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By the late 1990s, the Internet had disrupted all of this but also acted as a catalyst for a lot of innovations. You may recall Napster from about 1999. In the article ‘What’s your best innovation bet?’ by the Harvard Business Review July-Aug 2017 (link above), Melissa Schilling writes: “soon after the file-sharing platform Napster launched in 1999, consumers were downloading new music and film by the millions, and Napster like services were sprouting up like weeds”.
These disruptions were obviously having an impact on sales and the industry. The latest music statistics are healthier but in another article, ‘The trouble with streaming music: how to dig a new hole’, the argument is that the “macro trend is that music sales in real dollars have been decreasing every year since 1999, concerns in this digital age is that the model of the music has not only shifted in the democratisation of music. No longer are we tied just to the artist we hear on FM radio. In no other time in history has it been possible to sample so much music with so little fraction or cost”.
Another milestone in the development of music is without doubt by the company Apple. Steve Jobs, Apple’s late CEO, loved music and incorporated music listening in the design when Apple was developing the iPod – “an iPod, a phone and internet”. This leveraged the mp3 for a new generation. The revolution in music continued with iTunes, and now to Apple streaming music. The news is that Apple Music is now a rival to iTunes as mentioned in the report ‘Streaming resuscitates entertainment industry, but operation bypasses retail‘ where it states: “Apple’s entrance into streaming with Apple Music has resulted in limited investment in its original platform”.
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Up to date in the 2010s, this leads me to explore the new world of music streaming, which is tied in with the proliferation of the smartphone. The general topics are: rights and revenues paid to artists, how much of our spending ends up being owned by us, algorithmic versus personalised selection, and the interaction levels that are now possible. The rate of these digital changes is phenomenal! In this BBC article, the figures says streaming generated $7.1bn (£5bn) in 2017, more than sales of cds and vinyl. The number of people subscribing to a streaming service topped 176 million, up from 112 million a year before’.
Streaming has been around for a while but I have intentionally started paying more attention to its development and also using it too recently. I have had a Spotify account for my elder son for a couple of years, and I recently took out an Apple Music family account for my younger son and myself. It certainly is amazing how easy it is to have seamless, mainly banter-free and advert-free music streamed for your pure listening pleasure. You can let the algorithmic system work the magic with serendipity, smart searches and suggestions for you. An extra bonus is that you have access to millions of sounds at your fingertips and ears. For example on Spotify, you can see what your friends are listening to, have access to a whole album instead of a single, and various information and user-centric data. How cool is all this! Do you remember talking to your friends at school about new pop music? Then we had no You Tube links neither streaming music to discuss whilst showing them on our smartphones. So streaming music seems like a whole lot of fun whatever the genre you like – especially if you are passionate about music.
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The streaming music market is now rampant with competition with Google Play Music (owned by You Tube Music), Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer and Amazon etc. I certainly don’t and can’t afford to use them all. There are billions of pounds in the music streaming business – but what about the artists? In terms of rights for the artists, it is argued in ‘The Trouble with Streaming Music: How to dig a new hole’ that “you can explore 100 artists that all sound similar to one you put with their algorithmic, but you will never get anything that blows your mind the way that one guy in college was able to do when introducing you to something completely novel”. It is the same occurs when you discuss with friends, or go to a party and accidentally come across a track that you may not have heard before. Music knowledge is great to discuss with a person face to face. The one suggestion for streaming music’s success says “to combat the economies of streaming services depriving artists of a working wage, and to keep new music coming out – is to buy more music, see more shows, and buy more merchandise”. This is the reason why touring artists and live shows are still very profitable for revenue and encouraged by both struggling and successful artists. They need their fan’s support too to survive.
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I do still have personal dislikes for streaming music – with my total cost of money spent a month averaging about £30.00, it still will not be wholly owned by me such like the 45”, albums, cassettes or cds that I owned in the past. Also although I only have experience of Apple and Spotify, it does not allow me access to the eclectic world music catalogue that I like. I frequently do not find songs on streaming that I know exists! You Tube videos may be better in those instances.
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I am 100% sure that music consumption and inventions will continue to evolve in time with new visionaries, ideas, technological developments and experiences. Generally, I feel all will be well with the future of music and the artists who make these beautiful melodies. How do I know this? Our love for music will be at the heart of all this driving the changes, and we will show that we do care.
Dance, when you’re broken open. Dance, as if you’ve torn the bandage off. Dance in the Middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you’re perfectly free.
– Rumi
I have now come to the point in life where wisdom makes me see and appreciate the more important and finer things in humanity and life – Dance is one of them. Those of you who have known me since a child would recall that I have always loved dancing. We have danced together in our homes, schools, at parties, clubs, on the street and even in our kitchens. My parents were keen dancers and even my mother showed us the steps to calypso and meringue dancing. Apparently, my paternal grandmother was a dancer, which explains a lot of my family’s enjoyment in dancing – it must be in our DNA. My only regret is that when asked by parents on whether I wanted to take classical Indian Dance lessons…I said no. Recently my mother reminded me of this to my horror and deep regret. However, it seems like every week this month I have been to a musical event or dance show at the theatre. That is exactly the way I like my social life – with some form of dance or music.
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In this post I would like to cover some of my thoughts and activities on dancing. As an art form, we should support the performing arts, venues and persons who facilitate and teach dancing for its real cultural, financial and emotional value. Dancing also helps us lead healthy lives, feel happy, keep us entertained and improve our general well-being regardless of age, background, geographic locations, ethnicity etc.
Dance is like time itself. Just like our solar system – dancing has been around for as long as humanity as an art form of performance, expression, social interaction, connection, rituals, entertainment, spirituality and a reflection of life. According to Dancefacts, the oldest evidence of dancing comes from the UNESCO listed 9000 year old cave painting that are found in Bhimbetka, India. The rock painting depicts scenes from hunting, childbirth, religious rites, burials and most importantly, communal drinking and dancing.
Bhimbetka Cave Drawing, India
Fast forward to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks also showed proof of the development of dance in their culture – most notably at the start if the ancient Olympic Games. Dance integrated with drama in theatre, music and other celebrations through to the western world with ballet in the 18th century. Other 20th century two-person classic dances such as the waltz, foxtrot, tango, Charleston, swing, hip hop, breakdancing etc may be more familiar to us. Dance is ever evolving with new trends, moves, beats and influences. There is a 21st century fascination with popular viewing of dance competitions in our living rooms with the television programmes like ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ in the UK and ‘Dancing with the Stars’ in the USA. We still go to see dance in theatres that tell us stories, showcase professional talent, or simply, we participate in dance to celebrate life.
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My parents would take me to see dance live shows in Trinidad such as the ‘Mastana Bahar Pageant’ and touring Indian dancers. African dance traditions are also celebrated in the ‘Best Village’ competitions that I saw on Fridays on television and inspire Carnival moves like the Moko Jumbies. There was also a Latin dance tutorial television series on Monday nights, but I can’t remember the title of the show. Dance is still very much part of the social life in Trinidad and integral to the Trinidadian psyche. There are few people there who cannot move in time to the beat regardless of background or age.
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Let us read, and let us dance.
These two amusements will never do any harm to the world.
– Voltaire
Currently, Dance is an important part of our both our everyday sports and culture without us noticing it. It makes up a large amount of a theatre repertoire with music, acting and other stage production. According to Statista, 22% of the UK population went to a ballet, a dance performance or an opera annually. In 2016, 7.9% of adults participated in a form of dance other than for fitness. Dance has also evolved and morphed into some major fitness exercises such as Zumba, Body Step, Street Dance, Soca dance etc. According to Statista, “the most common reasons to choose a style of dance fitness is the music, of which Fitsteps and Zumba appear to be on the rise in popularity among dance fitness professionals”.
In terms of my own fitness goals – I should try to make time for dance fitness lessons and will try to be more proactive about this as a new Salsa class has started in my neighbourhood. I am certainly a freestyle dancer as I have little professional experience. However, I have immense admiration for professional dancers who have followed that dream and trained long and hard.
I took salsa lessons locally between 2001-2003 every week, and even went to some central London dance venue as I got to a fairly good level. However, I haven’t taken dance lessons since then…but may take up salsa lessons locally again with ‘The Salsaman’ dance trainer. There are also a few local community dance groups in my neighbourhood that use social media to effectively promote their classes. Zumba is another fitness-dance form that has taken over the world in the last decade.
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Big business also uses dance for capturing our attention with engaging adverts. Multivitamin brand Berocca introduced a new brand character, Roccy the Chameleon, in March 2017. Their effective use of the eye-catching Chameleon dancing and body popping moves to Punjabi music, communicated how the brands supplements can help to combat tiredness and fatigue, and ended with the tagline ‘Be more Berocca’. They also ran a marketing campaign that was supported with social media activity, and ran advertisements on the London Underground to target commuters who are a key audience, according to Mintel (Vitamin & Supplements 2017). There are other fabulous creative uses of dance in advertising, such as some of my favourites like Guinness, Adidas, Pepsi.
In my work-life, I have taken part in line dancing, loved the Big Dance initiative and attended a Georgian Dance talk and demonstration. Dance is serious stuff too!
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If you are in contact with me via social media, you would see that I am frequently out ‘socially’ at local events and Caribbean parties. All good for the the nighttime economy. In the last few weeks, I have attend the following events where I was able to have a little dance:
3 March – YSBD (You should be Dancing title inspired by Saturday Night Fever) which occurs regularly at the Walthamstow Trades Hall. It is usually for adults with cheap entry fee and drinks. I also don’t have very far to go for a fabulous little boogie.
10 March – Chutney in London at Funky Brown in North London was an opportunity to catch up with my West Indian friends and to enjoy some Chutney Indian Caribbean fusion music and dance.
16 March – Rose and Crown for a birthday party where the DJ were playing Northern Soul Music and general British Pop music. I can always judge a fab party when I stay later than I intended.
4 & 23 March – Mirth Marvel Maud theatre for live band Dennis Rollins and Funky Funk, which eventually got us all to our feet. And Jazzy B’s DJ set, the entrepreneur and musician behind Soul II Soul, who played some fabulous soul and neo-soul music. There was one track (I wasn’t aware off) which had the crowd buzzing.
17 March – ‘Tango after Dark’ show by Sadler’s Well at the Peacock Theatre. This was an Argentinian touring group with sizzling dance choreography accompanied by a live band and singers. It was a treat to see, and reminded me of other gorgeous Latin dance troupes ‘Brasil Basiliero’ and ‘Havana Rakathan’. I also have been to see Swan Lake by Walthamstow’s Sir Matthew Bourne a couple of years ago. So do keep an eye out for Sadler’s Well shows.
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And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music. – Friedrich Nietzsche
These are just simple ways I can still enjoy my passion for dance with music, and it certainly won’t be the last I mention it. Again, I find that there is so much on dance that I can write about. I am sure to return to the topic again. Dance will continue to fulfil us with joy, entertainment, inspiration, enlightenment, togetherness and connectivity with other cultures, humans and music. We should seek to support dance companies, professionals and the art form itself. If like me, you just like to have a little boogie when you can – just do it! And be sure to dance until you drop.
“Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.”
Alfred Tennyson
I am writing this at a restful festive time after Christmas when most people tend to wind down with family and friends during the season’s celebrations. It is also a time when I mentally close off the year in my mind. I sort of remember things and memories by the year it occurred (be it by association by music, smells or other unconscious triggers). It is also a great time for shopping, spending money on presents, which is great news for the retail industry. I was considering a more serious topic such as what consumer and economic trends to look out for in 2018 as forecasted in some of our business information sources in the library. However, I decided to reflect on a light-hearted look back at an average, but at times, exceptional year for me. I will leave the traditional media and magazines to tell you about the official world review of the year. I am going to cover some of the little things that mattered a lot to me – my iPhone photos are like a visual journal of the year. So, I am ready to say goodbye to 2017.
January – I started with a blog post about ‘Beating the January Blues’, on reflection it seemed that I actually managed to do just that! I saw some amazing Ceilidh dancing at the Southbank on 1st Jan, made my first Gallette Du Rois, celebrated Burns Night with friends, and also had fun at the SLA Europe Quiz. I will be celebrating the Gallette due Rois again, and I am looking forward to the next SLA Europe quiz at a new venue in a few weeks time. You too can join us if you really want to.
Bubbles for Burns Night
Ceiledh Dancing on New Years Day
SLA Europe Quiz
February – I seemed to have baked a lot this year going by the photos I’ve taken. I made pancakes for Shrove Tuesday, and a lemon drizzle sponge during a break in February. I attended a Guardian Newspaper supper club at the Geffrye Museum, hosted by the amazing and beautiful Eleanora Galasso, who was also launching her cookbook. Her menu for the evening was interesting and the supper club dining company was friendly. I also went to see Mario Biondi at the Union Chapel. He was great live and used the LIVE feature on Facebook, which also prompted me to use it for the first time to the pleasure of a few of my friends who interacted with me.
Geffrye Museum
Eleanora
Book Launch
Delicious meal
Supper Club
Victoria Sponge
Pancakes for Shrove Tuesday
Mario Biondi at the Union Chapel
March – Spring was in the air and it seems I was getting ready with my neighbours for some neighbourhood spring cleaning, E17 Art Trail plans, and more baking (must do a blog post just on baking!). I also went to Cardiff for the first time for a two-day training course at the Intellectual Property Office. I have now visited three capital cities in the UK, except Belfast. I still want to visit the countryside in Wales again after visiting Monmouthshire over a decade ago.
Cake I made on St Patricks Day
Guerrilla Gardening with Neighbours
Garden planting
Wales
Daffodils in Wales
Hmmmm…Stag Do
April – The days got lighter and the spring blooms were out. There were lots of places to see beautiful daffodils and blossoms. I was already beginning to channel the ‘Tree of Life’ submission for the E17 Art Trail by our neighbourhood. We organised a group of volunteers to clean, prepare and source plants for the garden with the advice from the local councillor. I attended Jonathan and Theresa’s fabulous wedding party with the John Ongom Big Band. I went to see the E17 Puppet Show ‘Vikings and Valkyries’ at the William Morris Gallery as they would be performing a street theatre in June for us. I also had a girly R&R (Rest and Relaxation) day with friends in Essex with cream tea as a treat.
Bride Theresa
Say Cheese!
John Ongom Big Band at the Rose & Crown Theatre & Pub
Blossoms in Lloyd Park
Highams Ferrers
Higham Ferrers
Groom Jonathan
Vikings and Valkyries
May – I prepared a lot for the E17 Art Trail garden and it seemed to go according to plan. It is amazing when you depend on people to work with you voluntary…and you do actually pull off something out of nothing! My neighbours were brilliant and created fabulous designs on terracotta pots and donated plants for our garden. That was heart-warming. It’s December now, and the last time I looked at the garden, there were only about three plant pots that were missing or damaged. The space is used more than before and we have since received further funding to redevelopment and redesign the space. Luckily we have an expert resident architect to help and advise us with the redesign.
Neighbours themed music inspired pot
Planting at home in Spring
Bird Nests and Pots decorated by neighbours
Cream Tea.
Blossoms in Essex
Handcrafted leaves designed pot
Wisteria at the British Library
I painted three swifts on this pot
I also went to Dublin in May and it was an amazing experience! I was warmly welcomed by my friend Lina, and also the Irish library and information professional community as an SLA Europe representative. I blogged about my trip here. I still think of the Irish green fields I saw on my trip to and from Dublin to Galway.
June – The launch of the much anticipated E17 Art Trail and we were pleased with our participation in Poets’ Corner E17. Walthamstow went wild for the 1000 Swifts and other collaborative and community creative activities and events. We had lovely weather for the ‘Vikings and Valkyries’ street puppet show on our newly pedestrianised street in the neighbourhood. We also held a fabulous street party.
Poems
Cogs
Swift on Bird Nests
Pots
Residents
Street Party
Salsa on the Street
July – One of the major highlights of my year! I went home to Trinidad and Tobago for my 30th School Reunion. My schoolmates chatted, praised, danced and re-acquainted ourselves, as well as made new memories. After 18 months of planning by a small group, it was amazing and much appreciated. It was also a special time to spend with family and friends. Regardless of all the problems in the country and this world – I see the beauty in this small Caribbean island and know that it is a place I can always proudly call home.
Maracas
Tobago
Salybia
School Reunion
August – It is normally depressing coming back after a summer holiday but I had the Notting Hill Carnival to look forward to. After the Grenfell Tower fire tragedy – it was a devastating and shameful reminder of the disparity in one of the richest part of London in the 21st century. Notting Hill Carnival itself was good fun on a very sunny day and I loved our costumes to the ‘First People’ theme. Two annoying factors were the real threat of an acid attack, and the false reporting of an acid attack. You can never win here.
September – It was back to school, back to work and back to routine. I baked my first Coffee and Walnut cake for the library’s fundraising Macmillan Coffee and Cakes afternoon. As I wasn’t in the office – I still don’t know how it tasted! I also went to Derby for the first time to settle my son into university. It seems like a nice city, if a little quieter than other major cities. I hope to explore more of Derbyshire next year.
Coffee and Walnut Cake
View from More London (had meeting there).
Derby
Derby Cathedral
October – The darker months were here again and there were Halloween celebrations in town. I went to see the Basquait ‘Boom for Real’ exhibition and Banksy’s Basquait tribute graffiti, which were brilliant. Also at the Barbican, I saw Annoshka Shankar’s live accompaniment to the digitally restored 1920s silent film ‘Shiraz’. It was an unforgettable experience. I also had luck on my side at the SLA Europe gin tasting event, as I won a raffle for three flavours of gin, which I am hoping to try soon.
Barbican Conservatory
Tropical Flower in the Conservatory
Banksy on Basquait
Go Freddy!
Gin I won in raffle
Thriller
Trip to Post Office Museum
Freaky Sahara Sand Day
November – I was lucky and happy to return to Trinidad again for a family wedding and reception. I don’t usually go often and it was worth going to see a modern Indian-Trinidadian wedding and reception. The merging of the east and west cultural influences is special. It was nice to spend time with loved ones again and I had a mini reunion with some school friends. I witnessed some fabulous wedding business ideas and event planners for our unique Trini wedding. It was nice again to dress-up, have my hair and make-up done by professionals. I received nice comments on my outfits. The bride and groom looked utterly beautiful in all the wedding celebrations.
Indian Dancer
Bride
T&T Express
Reception
December – Back to work and lots of activities in the library. It was also a reality check to come back from the tropics to very snowy weather. I went to the newly opened Walthamstow Wetlands for a Christmas Carols concert. I had fun at the YSBD Christmas Party theme disco, and so I danced to the end of the year. I have not taken part or planned much in my community this month as I was away, and we are taking a break. Personally and honestly, I feel that something is amiss.
Creche in Church near family home
Fab snowman!
Snow Sunday in London
Winter scene
Walthamstow Wetlands Christmas Carols
Trinidadian Christmas…Parang
Christmas Tree in Trinidad
So this sums up an average year for me and I am grateful for the good health and happiness we have. As the days slowly wind up in December, I looked to see what would be the serious United Nations theme for 2018, but apparently there is no theme. We can make it up as we go along! But I am looking forward to their theme for 2019, which will be the year of indigenous languages (hopefully I am still alive!). We do still have high levels of poverty, inequality, prejudices, environmental causes, Brexit, ever-present troubles in the Middle East and parts of the world to keep us preoccupied.
However, we can bring in some new perspectives, peace and control with our personal New Year’s resolutions and hopes. I always try a few new things. For example, I had always hoped to read more each year…and out of the blue recently – one of my neighbours created a book club, which I am a part of. I now make time to read leisurely and have read three books. This blog was also my resolution for 2016, and thankfully I have been able to carry it on for almost two years. The feedback received is motivating and makes it all worthwhile.
Hope
Snow
Santa comes to town
‘A Christmas Carol’
‘Old year’s night’ as we say in the Caribbean, is one way to say a fond farewell to another year. I understand in Italy they literally practice ‘out with the old, in with the new’ by throwing out rubbish on New Year’s Eve to be collected. I hope to do some of that! I still hope to exercise more, learn new skills, and visit parts of the United Kingdom in 2018 that I haven’t been before. I usually spend New Year’s Eve in a house party with close family and friends. In a Princely way…we will be partying like it is 2017 as we say hello to 2018! Soon, all across the world, we’ll watch images of the skies lit up with fireworks to ring in 2018 with a bang. There is nothing left for me to do but to wish you a happy and healthy new year.
October sees some of us relishing going out and about in the coming winter months, but like other exciting autumnal festivals to look forward to, Halloween on 31st October is full of soulful awe too. It has been celebrated in various cultures for centuries, and so I am hoping to briefly discuss the historical and cultural value. For businesses this time of year, the celebration signals high consumer experience and retail expenditure. You Gov describes Halloween as “an old tradition with contemporary impetus” with the modern take “focused on trick or treating and dressing up in costumes stems largely from cultural influences. However, parts of the United Kingdom, notably Scotland and North Ireland have strong roots in the tradition of ‘Guising’ dress up on the night before All Hallows Day to avoid the unwelcome attention of the dead”. There is an element of mystery, intrigue and adventure at Halloween, characterised by our secretiveness and masking of our personal identity. You certainly can’t avoid the seasonal decorations too.
When I first arrived in the late 1980’s to London, I noticed that the festival was not celebrated as much as in the USA. As I walked around the streets and shops in the city, even in Trinidad we were more ‘into it’ celebrating Halloween. However, there is evidence that it is a cultural British festival (part religious) going back to the 2nd century B.C. when the Celtic Order of Druids ended on the 31st of October. In ‘Halloween as a Consumption Experience’, the authors write “The Celts believed that on October 31st, the Lord of the Dead assembled the soul of all those persons who had died the previous year, the spirit of the departed were allowed a brief visit to their relatives. The departed souls would play tricks, so the Druids attempted to appease them with sanctices.” This is rather interesting, as it sounds very similar to the Indian traditions and beliefs of Pitra Paksha for deceased ancestors. The latter normally falls in September, and some of the beliefs seem to match those held in old Halloween traditions. They both seem to be idiosyncrasies relating to mortality and deceased ancestors, as in common with other cultures.
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It is also a time for prayers and partying. There is an explanation of the historical aspects “…in many countries of Western Europe, such as France, Spain, and Italy, Halloween is observed as a austere religious occasion with extra masses and prayers at the graves of deceased relatives and friends, but in the British Isles and especially in the United States, Halloween is primarily regarded as a night of merry making, superstitious spells, fortune telling games, and pranks (Hatch). Thus, Halloween is a curious mixture of the religious and the secular”.
Some parts of the population still prefer not to celebrate Halloween and there are negative as well as positive attitudes towards the festivities. In another reference ‘The Celtic Origins of Halloween Transcends Fear’, the author Geo Athena Trevarthen writes ‘Celtic traditions doesn’t experience darkness as automatically evil or frightening. It can be the fertile dark as well as the chaotic dark – these aren’t so far apart. Many traditions such as the Sumerian, Egyptians and Cherokee see the pre-creation state as a watery chaotic, unformed darkness from which all opposites, including life and death, emerge”. The article logically elaborates “most humans deaths happens during the winter months because cold and food shortages made the very old, young and sickly vulnerable. Any livestock that couldn’t be fed over the winter had to be slaughtered. Yet this also meant it was a time of feasting…Samshian/Halloween is the ‘ultimate best of times/worst of times’ festival”.
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Globally, we are not so dissimilar to each other…and we have many common cultural values. Halloween also falls two days before the Mexican’s Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos), and gradually this festival and tradition is more visible in London. The make-up styles and fashion are emulated – restaurants and shops are themed like in Wahaca, Accessorize, The Vault. Trevarthen continues, “Of course Halloween precedes the Catholic festivals of All Saints Day on November 1st and All Souls Day on Nov 2nd, when people honour departed saints and relatives respectively. The Mexican Day of the Dead celebrations featuring vibrant ‘death in life’ images of skeletons in daily activities culminates on November 2nd. All things ghoulish remain popular as costumes decorations and settings for Halloween as well”. These traditions all seem connected to the living and our relationship with the deceased souls of our ancestors and loved ones.
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With this background and history of Halloween, there are still positive and negative consumer perceptions about Halloween. So, what are some of the figures? You Gov states that in the United Kingdom, 45% are in agreement with negative associations of Halloween being an “unwelcome American cultural import”. Despite this, it is one of the most high profile party events in the social calendar and continues to be an important date for revellers and for UK retailers.
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Mintel predicts that spend in the ‘UK is set to reach £320million with a forecast that sales for such products will rise a further 3.2% year-on-year”. Apparently too, there has been a steady increase in celebrations since 1986 as reported by ONS in ‘Five facts about…Halloween – a monster mash of data’. Global Data Online have also carried our some research in 2016 with 72% of consumers thinking that “Halloween is a much larger celebration than it used to be”.
There is a lot of detailed Halloween spending analysis in market research held in our library at work. It is generally a great time for all round family fun – “53% of all adults agreeing that Halloween is a really fun event for all the kids” according to You Gov. Our Halloween dressing up is a £78million habit and it is the one time of the year that the whole of the UK are simultaneously in fancy dress and costumes. Driving these sales are low price, wider choices and convenience of supermarkets – which is a big win for the retail sector! Party food, decorations, entertainment and stationery are also consumer goods that have high sales volumes. Fun size bags of confectionery are definitely a main commodity as people get into the trick or treating Halloween spirit.
In a nutshell, these are the things we are spending our money on for Halloween:
Decorations – pumpkins for Jack-o-Lanterns
Make-up – to look the part
Costumes and Clothing – ideal for fancy dress
Halloween Food – food and drink
Entertainment – music and events
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As you may know, I live in Walthamstow and there has been phenomenal regeneration in the high street over the years to bring back our local nightlife with hipsters en tote. There are a few local parties being advertised this week in the run up to the Halloween weekend already. Global Data Online also states that retailers are “posting Halloween-themed social media content through Facebook and Twitter accounts to promote interest among shoppers”. Social Media improves significant retailing opportunities, such as Fanta beverages, who are using Snapchat campaigns on their drink cans and on adverts on digital boards.
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When I was in the Fundraising and Events committee at a local charity, The Lloyd Park Children Charity – one of our most popular events was our annual Halloween Party and Disco. It was a great fundraiser and our family tickets always sold out well in advance! There were always interesting costumes, decorations, food (some of which I prepared), dancing and music. Our DJ would play classics like Thriller, Monster Mash, Ghostbusters, as well as some contemporary tracks where we can all have a boogie. It was definitely a worthwhile fundraiser, and heart-warming to see families dressed up in a friendly and safe environment.
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A few years ago, our neighbourly residents group also tried hosting a street party on Halloween Night. It was really busy as this was held on a street with lots of footfall. It was cold, dark and with general naughtiness that we found challenging to manage. We have decided since that it was best when children went about with ad-hoc trick or treating in the neighbourhood.
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I didn’t play Halloween as a child but my sister played with other children in the Expat community for the school we attended. She told me the tricks they did, and that they chanted the slogan “Trick or Treats. Money or Eats!”
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A few years ago where I worked, there was an advert for a group flashdance to Michael Jackson’s Thriller. ‘Thrill the World’ as it is known, was organised by an American who also worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers. We all met in a room at the Trocadero, where attendees where able to dress up and practice their dance routine. There were participants who came from outside of London, and they really impressed me as they knew all the moves to Thriller! This worldwide dance initiative is still planned every year and is performed in an open venue.
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Halloween is also a great time to get creative whether making cakes, costumes, decorations and great art. The Gothic imagery of skulls, spiders, vampires, and dark characters have been a fascination throughout the ages. It is a time of year, apart from Jab Jab Carnival perhaps, where you can let your darker creative juices and talent flow. There are copyright free photos from the 19th century on this British Library link if you are looking for free inspiration.
Last weekend, I also saw the current exhibition ‘Boom for Real’ by the late artist Jean Michel Basquait, and although not all gory – he had a healthy obsession with the ubiquitous skull. His art of the human body was kindled when his mother had presented him with a copy of the book Gray’s Anatomy whilst recovering from an injury from an accident as a child. Like in Basquiat’s artwork, the image of the skull is still seen everywhere at this time of year!
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Most likely this Halloween, I will see fancy-dressed commuters on their merry way to parties on my way home on the 31st October. I will be hoping to attend some local parties, may be tempted to create my first Jack-o-Lantern, and possibly make a pumpkin inspired pie. Halloween is an old tradition for us to remember the darker and…vulnerable side to the human condition, and quite simply, a time of fun for all the family! We may be at a big party event, a local venue, home or out walking in our neighbourhoods ringing doorbells for some cheerful ‘Trick or Treating’. The least we can do is offer a friendly seasonal hello and welcome.
Black History Month has been celebrated every October in the United Kingdom for the last 30 years when there are many events showcasing the story and contribution of our diverse history. I wanted to write and reflect a little bit more on my own West Indian heritage. It is something I have to explain regularly.
Are you Indian? Pakistani? Mauritian? …These are frequent questions I have faced since moving to the UK. Because of my brown appearance, I have also been asked on holiday in Spain, Italy and France. In 1995, one elderly solder in Amiens, France called me over to ask me where I was from as he thought I was Brazilian. I have no problem with people asking me where I am from but it is a long story that I frequently have to repeat. It sort of goes like this “…I am Trinidadian but I am Indian by race as my ancestors were Indians who went to the Caribbean as indentured labourers to work on the sugar plantations after the end of slavery”. That is a mouthful! However, it is certainly a true story about Indian Indentureship as a global movement of people to distant lands in the new world that resulted in a human journey rich in history and later integration in what we now know as the West Indies. Some photos here are kindly linked from the UK National Archives image library.
Description: Coolies arrived from India at Depôt. Location: Trinidad and Tobago Date: 1870-1939 Our Catalogue Reference: Part of CO 1069/392 This image is part of the Colonial Office photographic collection held at The National Archives, uploaded as part of the Caribbean Through a Lens project. We have attempted to provide place information for the images automatically but our software may not have found the correct location. We need your help to fill in the gaps, to unearth the missing stories, the social and cultural memories from this selection of colonial recordings. Do you recognise anything or anyone in the photographs? Do they provoke any personal or historical memories? If so, please leave your comments, tags and stories to enrich our records. If you would like to get involved in our community project Caribbean through a lens, we would love to hear from you. For high quality reproductions of any item from our collection please contact our image library
That is the short version. Here I am going to elaborate as it will also serve as a refresher in a voyage of self-discovery. There were a large number of East Indians who moved to the Caribbean as indentured labourers to provide a workforce that would replace the now freed African Slaves. Indentureship was used to entice Chinese, Europeans, Portuguese, Syrians, Lebanese and East Indians in chronological order to the Caribbean. The Fatal Razack was the first ship to bring indentured labourers from India to Trinidad in 1845 with 227 immigrants. This migration continued until 1917 and is referred to as ‘The Brown Atlantic’. There are both positive and negative outcomes of the resulting mass migration as written and discussed by academics, taught at school and oral stories told from my own circles and elders in Trinidad. I have always wondered to myself why my ancestors left India? I am still not sure what were their motives to leave India.
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Indians were brought to the Caribbean “under dubious circumstances” and lived in the same conditions as some of the former African slaves. Lomash Roopnarine writes in ‘A critique of East Indian Indentured historiography in the Caribbean’ that “Indians were treated more or less like black slaves during indenture with little or no opportunity to challenge the institutionalization of their indenture contract”. It certainly may have had its challenges after leaving Asia in what was considered a highly advanced society, had ancient religions and an already rich culture. Regardless, even though some may argue the ‘wool were pulled over their eyes’, large numbers set bound to new lands across seas and the Atlantic Ocean. Professor Clem Seecharan, at a recent event at the British Library, believes with our collective hindsight, it was also an opportunity to escape from whatever battles or personal baggage our ancestors wanted to leave behind in India. This is the similar story for all immigrants to North and South American in the last four centuries.
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Growing up in Trinidad, my elder relatives would tell stories of ancestors who came before us to the Caribbean. Unfortunately we have not traced our ancestors back to India, but these anecdotes and stories have been passed on over the 170 plus years. Ideally, it should be documented whilst we can remember the details such as in this archive by the National Council for Indian Culture. Social media has helped recently as older relatives would verify and add what they know to photos of persons and events that occurred. I recently found out that my maternal relations were most likely not indentured labourers but business migrants who came via French Martinique. They were also not based in the plantations, but in the city of Port-of-Spain. One thing that was certain – they were adamant on hanging on to their rich Indian culture, religion and heritage. Who can blame them after seeing for themselves how the colonial imprint had erased other indigenous and migrant cultures in the West Indies.
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At the time, my ancestors would have found it difficult, if not impossible, to keep in touch with their relations in India – they would eventually lose the connection with these Indian relations, their immediate roots and the location routes that they took before their arrival in the Caribbean. My mother told me a while ago that when they were growing up in the 1950’s, that they had no idea that they would go to India one day. It probably still is a dream for most Trinidadian Indians (Indo-Caribbeans or East Indians as we now called ourselves) to travel back to India one day. In the academic world in the 19th century, “few studies have concentrated on the re-integration of ex-indentured Indians to their former communities and even the second time…the reason for this discontinuity and disconnection in the study of indenture from India and the Caribbean has to do with the great distance and poor communication networks between the two locations. Discontinuity might have to do with language and cultural barriers. The culture of Indians in the Caribbean changed immensely from the original homeland. To some extent, new communities were created overseas”.
Description: Trinidad and Tobago. ‘Sugar loading in the south of the island’. Photograph No.: ZZZ 73308 H. Official Trinidad and Tobago photograph compiled by Central Office of Information. Copyright hand stamp of Anne Bolt, Paddington, London, on reverse. Location: Trinidad and Tobago Date: [1948] Our Catalogue Reference: INF 10/359/9 This image is part of the Central Office of Information’s photographic collection held at The National Archives, uploaded as part of the Caribbean Through a Lens project. We need your help to fill in the gaps, to unearth the missing stories, the social and cultural memories from this selection of colonial recordings. Do you recognise anything or anyone in the photographs? Do they provoke any personal or historical memories? If so, please leave your comments, tags and stories to enrich our records. If you would like to get involved in our community project Caribbean through a lens, we would love to hear from you. For high quality reproductions of any item from our collection please contact our image libraryThis is some of the challenges faced by academics, but the same applies to all descendants. It is a sad result of indentureship but also a warning that immigrants lose links with their ‘Motherland’. My Italian migrant relatives who live in the United Kingdom are considerably more fortunate in that they have only been here over 50 years – they can still speak the language, communicate by modern technology, and travel to the continent is only a few hours away to see relatives. This was not the case and still is not the case with Indian heritage – the family connection has long gone over a hundred years ago! It has only been in the last 25 years or so that affluent Trinidadians are able to travel to their ancestral India in group-organised tours. I haven’t been to India as yet, but still hope to travel there one day.
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Over time, Indians were able to assimilate and integrate with other migrants in the West Indies. When Indians arrived in Trinidad, “on estates, residents workers of both races shared similar experiences and conditions, although tendency developed for creoles and Indians to do different, specialised tasks”. There was some recording of tensions, such as “Trinidadians of other races were not sympathetic to the new arrivals and they freely expressed their contempt for the Indian religions, culture, method of dress and family life”. In Jamaica, some Indians were “cordially welcomed by their Black brethren, generously offered them oranges, sugarcane, and various descriptions of fruit, as well as bread, cakes, and trifling articles of clothing for their children”. Yet actual conflict between the races was rare. I am sure there would have been tensions at times too, but generally many races and cultures tolerated and got along despite the circumstances. It seems Indians were also in a position to resist and organised discontent against colonial government as the years progressive.
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I still have a book we used in secondary school called ‘Social Life in the Caribbean 1838-1938’ by Briget Brereton. Reading it again does reinforce some of my own oral stories heard from ancestors such as Indians hanging on to their own traditions, culture and religion. My mother’s family told stories of having only Christian schools in Port-of-Spain, and that they were encouraged to convert but this was vehemently resisted by my Hindu grandparents. Children were also encouraged to work at an early age on the plantations to help in households such as the case with my father. Canadian Presbyterians missionaries were also instrumental in educating young Indian children but also in the hope of converting them to Christianity. Further education schooling for all children were only made compulsory later on. Despite this, it is amazing that so much of their original Indian culture has survived! Indians eventually adopted and integrated Creole Caribbean cultures too, such as Creole fashion, language, names, food, etc. Brereton states, “the educated middle class made up largely of Christian Indians grew up in both territories (Guyana and Trinidad), and was an important group from about 1900”.
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One point highlighted in my research is that there was few women heroines pointed out, but Roopnarine writes “Are we to believe that the movement of 500000 Indians from their homeland to the Caribbean and years of indentured experience did not produce one single outstanding female indentured servant? From a colonial perspective, this memory never existed.” I also read that Shaleela Hosein interviewed Indian women in rural Trinidad to determine their historical experience through their eyes – “the result is a remarkable oral narrative that exemplifies strength, stability and strong leadership among Indian women in latter stages of indentureship. It seems a contradiction to Indian migrants being subservient and submissive”. From my own family history and neighbourhood – we were told and saw women who worked extremely hard in rural agricultural jobs in the plantations to support their families. Eventually there was, and still is a push and emphasis on education for all. These migrants must have been tough to decide to leave India for the unknown Caribbean, and to make the journey across the Atlantic. This toughness must still be in our DNA. Remember that there was none of today’s modern technology.
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Coincidently at the British Library, recently I attended a talk based on the book ‘Sugar Sugar –bitter sweet tales of Indian Migrant Worker‘s’ with the author Lainy Malkani and the same Professor Clem Seecharan mentioned above. There was great discussion on this topic, and Professor Seecharan mentioned various thoughts, such as we should see indentureship as an opportunity for our ancestors from what would have been a hierarchical (caste) system in India. It gave people opportunities too to move away and get upwardly mobility. It may have also been a myth that they were not aware of what they were signing up too – some wanted to come to the Caribbean. Apparently some Indians also returned to India, but most indentured migrants stayed.
It is also very hard to trace migrants as they came from various Indian villages and changed names etc. Professor Seecharan also shared some insight that the French governed Tamils, and they would have settled in Martinique. This also seems to make sense with my maternal ancestors. He was not that enthusiastic about tracing his own family tree to Guyana. It was also the first time I heard about indentured labourers going to work in Fuji – but I was aware of Mauritius, South Africa etc. There were lots of other questions from attendees at the Knowledge Centre event, especially for Indian descendants like myself who now live in the UK. Tracing families in India may be a tough task due to poor and inaccurate record keeping, and would require a lot of time researching through archives and records. It is great if you can trace your background as recently shown for celebrities Liz Bonin and Noel Clarke on the TV Series ‘Who do you think you are’.
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Indians weren’t always bound or stayed in plantations. Brereton continues that as time passed, Indians adopted “most aspects of western culture and their lifestyle become more and more distant from that of their parents and grandparents. They were businessmen and professionals, civil servants, teachers and clerks, based in towns, especially San Fernando in Trinidad, New Amsterdam and Georgetown in Guyana. They began to form organisations to protect their interest and first entered political life in the early 1900’s”.
Beyond the Boundary by C.L.R James
‘A House for Mr Biswas’ by V. S. Naipaul
It is with pride and admiration that we can now look back at our ancestors who came to the Caribbean and contributed to its’ economic, social, political and cultural development – and made it their home like everybody else. Some notable Indo-Trinidadians are listed here on Wikipedia. There is still a strong link with India for some of the population with simple things such as Bollywood movies, songs and fashion still very popular. Television helped to connect some of the disconnected just as the Internet does today. I recently saw young Trinidadian Indians singing Hindi songs at a wedding and they knew all the lyrics despite not knowing the language. Cricket is also another uniting force with India, Britain and with our African brothers in the Caribbean. Professor Seecharan said that C.L.R. James’s book ‘Beyond the Boundary’ is one of the best books ever written in English, and he obviously had admiration for C.L.R. James.
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There is much to celebrate personally. My own grandfather was a well-respected businessman by the 1950’s, and my father a dedicated worker with 50 years in the sugar industry. There are many ways that Indo-Caribbeans have contributed to the region and even to the wider world with later migration to Canada, America and the UK. Nobel Prize Winner for Literature, V.S. Naipaul, was a family friend and he has written books that make us look at ourselves such as ‘A House for Mr Biswas’. In the arts and culture, we are tenacious with our own Indian culture, but have also created our own fusions, and some spicy flavours – such as with the Chutney Music genre. Yet too, we are still proactive and keep intact our ancient religions, traditions, language to some extent, fashion, dance, food…and our homes reflect that. Indian Arrival Day is now celebrated annually with a public holiday on 30th May in Trinidad.
Description: 23. Walker Street – the owner is not a barrack dweller. Location: Frederick Village, Trinidad and Tobago Date: 1949 Our Catalogue Reference: Part of CO 1069/401 This image is part of the Colonial Office photographic collection held at The National Archives, uploaded as part of the Caribbean Through a Lens project. We have attempted to provide place information for the images automatically but our software may not have found the correct location. We need your help to fill in the gaps, to unearth the missing stories, the social and cultural memories from this selection of colonial recordings. Do you recognise anything or anyone in the photographs? Do they provoke any personal or historical memories? If so, please leave your comments, tags and stories to enrich our records. If you would like to get involved in our community project Caribbean through a lens, we would love to hear from you. For high quality reproductions of any item from our collection please contact our image library
This post is just scratching the surface of years of history – colonialism, end of slavery and global migration at that! I am a product of that triangular Brown Atlantic passage, and from my perspective – it as a great way to view the world. I also wanted to highlight this rich, sometimes forgotten heritage for Black History Month in October. We know the story of Columbus heading west in his search for East Indian Spices, but his voyage ending up in what is now known as the Americas and Caribbean. Funny and ironic, that my East Indians ancestors eventually also sailed west to settle in the melting pot of the West Indies. It is also great that some of us kept our Indian names in defiance, that our culture has survived but also that there has been integration, inter-racial marriages, social cohesion, fusion, adoption and adaptability with other communities and cultures. Generally it is a great example of the positive influence for multiculturalism and mass immigration that our Indian ancestors have played in the hemisphere. They should be appreciated and celebrated for their innovations, continued development and colourful contribution they make to the region. The journey surely has not ended yet.
Notting Hill Carnival is the largest street theatre of its kind in Europe having been developed since the late 1950s in London. It is a great participation celebration for Caribbean heritage, culture and identity that has gradually been adopted and inclusive of other similar cultures in the city. I have blogged about Trinidad Carnival here, and the two carnivals are similar but have their own idiosyncrasies and dynamics. The background and roots of this Carnival is European. Europeans celebrated Carnival before lent for Mardi Gras in the Caribbean colonies, this was eventually practised by the African slaves who brought their own rich African traditions, dance, music and song to the party. Trinidad carnival is the inspiration for the Notting Hill Carnival but it certainly is a different story.
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Calypso and Caribbean culture came with immigrants in the Windrush years from the Caribbean, and it is even noted that Lord Kitchener wrote the words to ‘London is the place for me’ whilst on his journey on a ship across the Atlantic Ocean. There was a high number of Trinidadian immigrants who settled in Notting Hill in the 1950s, which was a relatively run down and cheap area to live at the time. These black communities were intimidated by white youths from ‘Teddy Boy’ gangs in 1958, which caused the Race Riots of 1958. The first ‘Caribbean Carnival’ was organised in 1959 for the black community to help with the legal costs of the arrests made that year. The ‘Caribbean Carnival’ was the brainchild of Claudia Jones, a social activist and writer, who arranged the first carnival indoors in cold January 1959 at the St Pancras Hall in King’s Cross, London. I saw notes that it was in a cabaret style, with a Carnival beauty queen competition, steel pans and a dance hall as the grand finale. This carried on for a few years but did not last as Claudia Jones passed away suddenly and unexpectedly in 1964. Eventually the Carnival moved to Notting Hill where most of the Trinidadians immigrants lived, and then was held in the summer. Fifty years on – it has become a part of the social and cultural calendar for Caribbean, Latin American and African descendants and communities. It has also been laced with race and police tensions throughout this time, which I will mention later.
Carnival Past Research
Pocohontas in Previous Years
This year is the 51st year of the carnival, and I will be celebrating it in Notting Hill with family and friends. It is a time of year when you will get messages asking if you are taking part in ‘Mas’ as we fondly call it. Our key community leaders chose a band theme when costumes are prepared, materials sourced, created, and then put it all together in the three months leading up to the bank holiday weekend for Notting Hill carnival. There is a lot more that goes on behind the scene, such as the registering of the band with the London Notting Hill Carnival Enterprises, security passes, vehicle hire, food, drinks, DJs, sound systems, etc. We have intentionally kept our band low-key, affordable and non-commercial with a more close-knit group of volunteers and Mas players. This year we are calling our band theme ‘Mas liberation’, with our costumes designs based on Native American Indians attire. I love digging deeper – I will therefore be channelling my inner Pocahontas as we celebrate the 400th death anniversary in the United Kingdom. We have been dressed as Cleopatras, Sun Goddesses, Sailors, Queen of Hearts, Aliens, for example in past Carnivals. There certainly is community spirit as you volunteer to help in the creation of the costumes in a team effort, and we tend to meet regularly before and during Carnival. Generally it is good, happy fun in surprisingly…a Carnival atmosphere.
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I have honestly witnessed both the good and bad side of Carnival. It has always been a ‘resistance festival and art form’. There are times when you see scenes, and can be in a scary situation, usually later in the evening when the tension and pressure builds with youths and the police. There are some carnivals when the tension is more apparent than others – I distinctly remember the 2011 Carnival being a bit tenser as it was just after the London Riots. Our sound system truck was directed to an alternative route and it took a long time getting home with several helicopters circulating overhead – it felt like a war zone, but I was there with people who were close to me so I kept safe. With a large crowd of one million plus people, there are sometimes scuffles by youths, firm control by the police, body searches, and therefore you really should go with friends to enjoy it and to be safe. It is not all cautionary, we do dance and be merry with spectators…and the police too.
Our Carnival Band photo used in British Transport Police Poster for 2017.
Notting Hill is great for signifying creativity, social cohesion, cultural identity and race relations in the capital. It was reported by the LDA that it brings in approximately £93Million to the UK economy. In ‘The Midnight Robber – the artist of Notting Hill’ published in 2007 for City Hall by Lesley Ferris and Adela Ruth Tompsett, the ex-mayor of London Ken Livingstone states that “London is the home to some of the world’s finest Carnival artists who are now in demand across the world serving as cultural ambassadors for London, the UK and the African diaspora”.
This is how it is too. Here at Trini-Corner.
This Carnival has grown organically into a successful and important celebration of the UK’s history with its former colonies, and these new London communities. It should be supported, celebrated and evolve into something that has a lasting legacy rather than just the negative rhetoric that is perpetuated by an ignorant media and some politicians. The Carnival doesn’t look like it will stop in the near future, and frankly…it shouldn’t for the thousands of people who go to this part of London to enjoy it. As quoted on the Black Cultural Archives – “Carnival is now part of our English heritage, it is about freedom of expression on the streets. Britain would be a very gloomy place without it.” Winston Findlay, Source: Carnival: a photographic and testimonial history of the Notting Hill Carnival by Ismail Blagrove Jr.
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Calypso, soca, reggae, steel pan, dance and now samba too are some of the other art forms that I look forward to at Notting Hill Carnival, and you get to see and be part of the crowd engagement on this grand scale. As my research reveals, Trinidadians started the Notting Hill Carnival but other West Indian countries joined in the celebrations, such as the Jamaicans with their sound systems in 1975. The Brazilians, Africans and other communities also add some spices over the years. I remember observing this difference in my first carnival here in 1990. As we know now, Carnival is celebrated all across the world such as in Canada for Caribana, Labor Day in New York, Miami, Japan and my British-Trinidadian friends have been on cultural exchange trips to China too. Rihanna has in recent years been ‘breaking the internet’ (like Kim Kardashian) with her Carnival costumes at Barbados’s Crop Over festival. Have a look at the Carnevale Network social media site too, as they are great for sharing news and longer pieces on the global Carnival scene.
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It is also a time for Caribbean artists to collaborate with their UK counterparts. I just came back from a soca music gig in London and it certainly put us in the mood for Carnival. It is amazing to see so many people dancing to soca and some dancehall, the crowd may be young British…but they knew all the words and moves to the dance tunes. This is scaled up a thousand times for the masqueraders on the road in Notting Hill.
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“Carnival is always telling you something. It is a language, if you can understand the language then you can read Carnival” – Clary Salandy, Artist and Theatre Designer.
Carnival also means art, creativity and business. Trinidadian-born Clary Salandy is one of many artists and theatre designers who has worked and showcased her costumes in the UK and internationally for various Carnivals, parades, festivals and community art projects. She engages with the local community to pass on her craft but also believes in this as an art form that includes the community as mention in ‘Incremental Art: Negotiating the route to London’s Notting Hill Carnival’ by Lesley Ferris. I only just discovered her too when I saw her featured in the British Airways in-flight magazine this summer. Clary Salandy has a great way to describe her costumes – “A costume is like a visual poem, whether you are 2 or 88”.
The current political mood and devastating situation with the fire at Grenfell in close proximity has highlighted the Notting Hill Carnival this year, and some parts of the population want the carnival to fail. However, Carnival is a symbol and beacon of hope, unity, brotherhood and Britain at its’ multicultural best. All the critics should remember that, and hope it heals rather than it hurts.
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“Notting Hill as a Place held a special symbolic significance for the West Indians who regarded it as, in the words of one leader, the nearest thing they had to a liberated territory – implicit references to battles they had fought there against white racists in 1958, and against the police in 1970 and 1976. The carnival continued to exist, its greatest political achievement being that it survived at all, in the face of formidable opposition and pressures operating to subvert it all the time.” Abner Cohen
Regardless of the negative media coverage – Carnival is in healthy hands with young designers and masquerade bands. The Internet and social media have also given traction to the positive benefits for Carnival as an art form, empowerment, freedom and cultural identity. The most difficult part is the obvious media bias, misinformation and tension created by the police and delinquents. Sadly, we know that there is some crime and anti-social behaviour – it has always been a tradition of resistance. However, I have been going to the Notting Hill Carnival and would like to advocate that it is mainly a great, peaceful and happy experience where you can feel connected to that rich heritage, and forget the past troubles. There is no better way to share the Carnival’s brilliance but in a cosmopolitan and tolerant city.
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I clearly recall that Carnival was used as a positive showcase of multicultural and tolerant Britain in the run up to London 2012. It seems to have changed since then. Ferris states, “Many felt that London’s successful bid for the London 2012 Olympics was enhanced by the Carnival art, which demonstrated a vibrant artistic diversity in the nation’s capital. But there is still a long way to go.”
Understanding, acceptance versus bias and other cultural differences means that it will continue to be controversial in this country (have a look at the news and hashtag #NottingHill on Twitter!). Carnival is not mainstream in this country (as it comes out of European Roman Catholic traditions), but Carnival is still celebrated by various communities across the UK, such as in Leeds, Birmingham and other cities holding annual Caribbean Carnivals. We know that we lack funding and support, but for those who understand and want to be part of this special festival and celebration – we ask that you join us in making a new happier and diverse history for generations to come. It is our time to be free and identify with what is ours too. What better way than with everybody dancing on the street!
Connecting the Dots 