TRIBUTES continue to pour in for cultural icon Norvan “Fuller” Fullerton following his passing on Thursday at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex.
A special tribute for Fullerton by the Malick Folk Performing Company, or Bongo Night, will be held on Monday at the Queen's Park Savannah at 7 pm.
UWI Department of Creative and Festival Arts (DCFA) head Louis McWilliams said he had lost a friend and a brother. McWilliams worked with Fullerton since 1981, where he was part of the first performance by the Malick Folk Performing Company, which Fullerton founded after leaving the Barataria Community Council in 1979.
“He would call me when he wanted work done, and I would help. In 2002, I was recommended by Fullerton and asked to take over the artistic directorship of Malick, which I accepted. We continued working together as co-artistic directors on dozens of projects. Over the years, we developed a strong working relationship. We never had an argument in 40 years. We had a mutual respect for the creative work we were doing.
“We were brothers at the end of the day. We played hard, we worked hard, we limed hard. Cultural events were sure to see us, Panorama, kaiso, pan, mas. We played mas together for a number of years. People would look forward to seeing me, Norvan, and the men of Malick playing mas together on a Carnival Tuesday. The last time was in 2020 with Minshall.”
McWilliams said the two exchanged WhatsApp messages and phone calls daily.
“I’m definitely feeling the loss, I haven’t come to terms with it. I’m going through photos and videos of the work we’d have done, the tours we went on. There are so many stories, memories of after-rehearsal sit-downs where we would sit down and talk culture and theatre over a beer, germinate ideas and then work on them. He was a visionary, a natural leader, a good organiser, and an artistic giant.”
Entertainment coordinator and limbo queen Kimmy Stoute-Robinson said she began working with Fullerton at age seven when she joined the first cohort of the junior company of Malick, when she called him Uncle Fuller. She said she had to do music, dance and drama as part of the group.
“He encouraged me to take part in limbo compeitions since I was 14. When Universal Circus was looking for performers from the Caribbean, he recommended limbo as part of the show, and encouraged myself, Natalie Joseph-Settle and Nydia Byron to join, so I was touring right after CXC.
“The group used to lime outside of rehearsals and performances because of our camaraderie and family feeling. We would go out clubbing, back-in-time parties, clubs, and people would ask if Uncle Fuller was our father or uncle. Our parents trusted us to knock about under his supervision and the others in the group.”
Stoute-Robinson said Fullerton was responsible for shaping her focus in the arts, encouraging her to not limit herself to one thing.
“We were old talking about the Pierrot Grenade and he said why don’t you try that? I performed in Best Village and for Carnival. He was that person, once he s
