Reigning National Calypso Monarch (2020) and recently-crowned Regional Queen of Queens Terri Lyons will join the cast of Kaiso House for the 2023 season titled BarackHard!
Also making a debut at the tent's BarackHard! is former International Soca Monarch (ISM) Groovy soca winner (2015) Olatunji Yearwood.
What exactly is BarackHard!?
[caption id="attachment_995512" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Terri Lyons -[/caption]
"That’s the alternative hybrid Carnival-theatre-meets-calypso-tent experience being crafted at the Kaiso House calypso tent," a media release said.
The tent opens at the Queen’s Park Savannah, Port of Spain, on January 27 with a cast of 24 artistes.
Regular cast members are all retuning for season 2023. Among them are longstanding veterans Brother Valentino (Anthony Emrold Phillip), Brother Mudada (Allan Fortune), Poser (Sylvester Lockhart), Calypso Kerr (Carlston Kerr), Bunny B (Neville Brown), Brown Boy (Knolly Brown), Twiggy (Ann Marie Parks-Kojo), Black Sage (Phillip Murray), Lady Aeisha (Elizabeth George) and Marvellous Marva (Marva Joseph).
[caption id="attachment_995521" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Karene Asche - SUREASH CHOLAI[/caption]
Former National Calypso Monarch winners Karene Asche (2011), Duane O’Connor (2012) and Chuck Gordon (Roderick Gordon) (2014 and 2015) will lead the young crop of performers that includes 2022 Diamond Jubilee Independence Calypso Monarch Snakey (Heaven Charles), Rondell Donawa, Aaron Duncan, and Tazyah O’Connor, among others, the release said.
[caption id="attachment_995524" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Aaron Duncan - SUREASH CHOLAI[/caption]
Together, they will bring to life a fully-immersive, poignant, powerful and funny audience experience, creative director Abeo Jackson promises in the release.
Jackson says BarackHard!, an interpolation of the barrack yard birthplace of calypso, is another manifestation of the space that birthed the ritual. It represents, she says, “a collective defiance of systems that have we tie up like market crab.”
She said, “In the midst of all that is hard and painful and seemingly irreparable, here still toils the warrior, the griot, the neighbour, the friend, the makers of ancestral magic, the instigators and architects of creative and cultural revolution, the weavers of joy,”
Evolution of tent culture
It’s a renewed mindset that is fully endorsed by Kaiso House’s new hierarchy. Newly-installed tent manager Gordon and assistant manager Donawa have engaged Jackson’s creative mind to help chart a meaningful direction forward, the release said.
[caption id="attachment_995519" align="alignnone" width="683"] Rondell Donawa - L Holder[/caption]
Twiggy and Calypso Kerr complete the tent’s management board while gifted young composer/musician Kern Sumerville serves as the tent’s new bandleader
Notably, Kaiso House lost three of its stalwarts in cultural icons Brother Resistance (Lutalo Masimba), Singing Sandra (Sandra Des Vignes-Millington) and Explainer (Winston Henry) during the covid-19 pandemi
