Ray Funk
PANYARD UNIVERSE, a new documentary film on Siparia Deltones, is the latest in Mark Loquan’s series of films, A Better Tomorrow, which showcases the myriad directions pan is taking in the country.
Previous instalments include a series on Uni Stars and NSSO director Kareem Brown (2021), the ten-part series Women in Pan (2022) and Duvone Stewart: the Man Behind the Music (2023).
The film was directed and produced by Maria Nunes, best known for her Carnival photography.
Collaborating on making this film was Vanessa Headley-Brewster, who recently led Golden Hands to victory at the Pan is More Beautiful Ensemble competition. She collaborated with Nunes to do the interviews for the film.
[caption id="attachment_1104629" align="alignnone" width="819"] Zanda Alexander, left, and Hugh Masekela. - Maria Nunes[/caption]
Their subject, Deltones is a remarkable steelband, one whose leaders believe in their version of the Star Trek motto, “to boldly go where no pan has gone before.”
For them, panyards must be a means of crime reduction and poverty eradication through unique programmes. Children and education are the main focus on events in the panyard, where no alcohol, smoking or gambling are permitted.
As manager Akinola Sennon notes in the film, their model is one “that diversifies that which is pan,” to seek “self-excellence,” with the panyard itself as a place that focuses on young people and constantly goes in new directions.
Akinola’s brother Alpha, the communications director and a passionate player in the band, calls their panyard “the home of innovation” with things like its Railway Pizza in the yard. Indeed, the pizzas are cooked in old oil drums, and Deltones got a grant from the Digicel Foundation and Shell Trinidad and Tobago to develop a solar-energy-powered hydroponic greenhouse to grow high-quality, pesticide-free pizza ingredients.
Meanwhile, Alpha heads another organization, Whyfarm, developing various approaches to getting youth involved in agriculture. Most striking is the creation of the superhero of farming Agriman – in his own comic books, Agriman Agventures.
The band’s captain and driller George Caesar told TTT’s Dike Rostant, “Our role is to find, nuture and display.” Their pallet-furniture initiative developed from thinking if steelpan came from discarded oil drums, what else can be done with discarded items? Hence the pallet-furniture business.
But none of this is to suggest that music is not central to this legendary band from south.
Deltones is not a new steelband. Jeannine Remy got the early history of the band from interviews with founding member Terrance Wallace.
It was founded in the early 1960s, when locals talked pan pioneer and builder Ellis “Lively” Knight (1928-2007) from Laventille to come down and help them realise their dream of starting a steelband. He would direct the band for decades and is memorialised with a statue in Siparia. They have been active ever since, appearing in both Panorama and the Steelband Festival, as well as touring to Guyana,
