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THE CHALLENGES OF ARCHIVING AND RESEARCHING CARNIVAL ART

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2009

Lesley Ferris
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Extract

The fact that live performance is unrepeatable is both its greatest attribute and a constant worry to theatre historians. How is it possible to study an art form that is fleeting, short-lived, ephemeral? Nowhere is the challenge more acute than with Carnival, a popular art form that comes from the grassroots and is acknowledged as an art of resistance. Initiated by newly emancipated Africans in British colonies in 1834, Caribbean-derived Carnival struggled against endless confrontations with governmental authorities for its survival. In 1962, when Trinidad and Tobago achieved independence from Britain, the country's first prime minister, Eric Eustace Williams, recognized Carnival as the national art form. Despite this recognition, Carnival artists continue to struggle because of lack of funding, misrepresentation in the press, and lack of appropriate credit for their role as artists. So it is particularly gratifying to find the National Library of Trinidad and Tobago leading the way by making the work of Carnival artists available digitally on its Web site. This essay examines this new online resource and considers issues related to studying and researching Carnival.

Type
RE: Sources: Edited by Nena Couch
Information
Theatre Survey , Volume 50 , Special Issue 1: African and Afro-Caribbean Performance , May 2009 , pp. 127 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 2009

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References

Endnotes

1. Unless otherwise indicated, the quotes in this essay are from the Web site of the Heritage Library of the National Library and Information System Authority of Trinidad and Tobago library2.nalis.gov.tt; to reach the Home page of the Heritage Library, go to Libraries|Heritage Library (and for this and the following quotation, click About Us below that). The Heritage Library also includes material on calypsonian Bill Trotman (see n. 2), and the site has a Carnival “Glossary” and an online exhibition entitled “‘Talkin’ Mas': A Tribute to Brian Honoré,” commemorating the man who reinvigorated the traditional Carnival masquerade Midnight Robber. The Robber character, known for his bombast and speechifying, seeks to goad and provoke his audience as he strides through the streets wearing a broad-brimmed hat and a flowing cape. Honoré played his first Robber in 1985 and continued until his death in 2005. He is celebrated for introducing contemporary social commentary in his Robber talk. The online exhibition provides a variety of photographs of his Carnival legacy. To access the online exhibition of “Talkin' Mas,” click on Libraries|Heritage Library|Online Exhibitions.

2. To access the Heritage Library's digital archive of Berkeley's costume designs, click through the following sequence from the library's main page at library2.nalis.gov.tt: Libraries|Digital Library|Wayne Berkeley. From this screen, click on the “titles a–z” button that is near the top right of the scrollable window (but hidden until you scroll to the right via the horizontal slider bar at the frame's bottom). (A similar pathway may be followed to access the Bill Trotman materials mentioned in n. 1.) For Minshall, see Libraries|Heritage Library|Carnival|Mas Pioneers.

3. Berkeley, Wayne, Costume Design, Vol. 1, ed. Beeson, Alice (Trinidad and Tobago: Wayne Berkeley, 1999), xiiGoogle Scholar.

4. Kerrigan, Dylan and Laughlin, Nicholas, “The Showman,” Caribbean Beat 65 (January–February 2004)Google Scholar; available online at 206.225.81.27/online/caribbean-beat/archive/index.php?pid=6001&id=cb65-1-60, accessed 6 December 2008.

5. Nunley, John W., “Masquerade Mix-Up in Trinidad Carnival: Live Once, Die Forever,” in Nunley, John W. and Bettelheim, Judith, Caribbean Festival Arts: Each and Every Bit of Difference (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1988), 105Google Scholar.

6. Adela Ruth Tompsett, e-mail to author, 6 December 2008. (Tompsett's work on the Archive and Resource for Carnival Study at Middlesex University is addressed in the next section.)

7. Kerrigan and Laughlin, “The Showman.”

8. Tompsett, e-mail to author.

9. Online at www.meppublishers.com/online/caribbean-beat/index, accessed 13 February 2009.

10. Debbie Jacob, “Wayne Berkeley: King Carnival,” Caribbean Beat 2 (July–August 1992), available online at 206.225.81.27/online/caribbean-beat/archive/index.php?pid=6001&id=cb2-2-34, accessed 6 December 2008.

11. Tompsett, e-mail to author.

12. Ibid.

13. This section is based on my experience as a course leader for the B.A. degree in performance art at Middlesex University in the 1980s and on a telephone interview with Adela Ruth Tompsett, 7 December 2008.

14. Garry Steckles, “Calypso Dreams Come True,” Caribbean Beat 94 (November–December 2008), available online at www.meppublishers.com/online/caribbean-beat/past_issues/index.php?pid=2000&id=cb94-2-76, accessed 13 February 2009.

15. Gordon, Lesley, ed., Insight Guide to Trinidad and Tobago (London: Insight Print Services, 2000)Google Scholar.

16. Fenton, Rose de Wend and Neal, Lucy, The Turning World: Stories from the London International Festival of Theatre (London: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, 2005)Google Scholar.

17. Nindi, Pax, ed., On Route: The Art of Carnival (London: X Press and Arts Council England, 2003)Google Scholar.

18. Tompsett telephone interview.