11TH STEELPAN CARNIVAL CONF

The 11th Steelpan/Carnival Arts Conference kicked off today at the University of Trinidad and Tobago in NAPA under the theme Famalay.

Transcript

00:00Carnival is celebrated in many countries across the world, the most famous being in Rio de

00:07Janeiro, New Orleans and Trinidad and Tobago.

00:10Professor Harun Shah, a lecturer at the University of London, says the Steelpan slash Carnival

00:15Arts conference is held primarily to provide a platform for academics, practitioners and

00:21artists to discuss, share knowledge and celebrate the rich cultural heritage of Carnival Arts

00:26by focusing on the Steelpan, exploring its history across different regions globally.

00:35We expanded and went outside of the UK into Ghana and during that conference in Ghana

00:42we looked at the interconnection between how the music arrived, went across the transatlantic,

00:51arrived in the Caribbean and particularly Trinidad and we could trace the roots of this

00:57music in a very, very intricate and sophisticated way.

01:03The drive here in this particular one is to see whether we can now develop that collaboration

01:11in a much bigger way.

01:12So we have a very, very vibrant diasporic communities with big carnivals in London,

01:20Notting Hill, in Toronto, in New York and various cities in the world.

01:26He adds over the years the conference helped a lot of young people.

01:31And during the years that we've done this, it's done extremely wonders for many of the

01:39young artists, many of the, I could think of about 12 students in Steelpan who then

01:45went on to university and got degrees both at bachelor and graduate level and went on

01:52to great careers.

01:54The conference will feature a number of programs including film presentations, interactive

01:59workshops and ample opportunities for networking among artists, academics and enthusiasts.

02:05The three-day conference ends on Saturday 8th.

02:10Charlotte Kistel, TV6 News.