“Raise The Bar”: Lionel Jagessar Jnr Issues Call To Transform Carnival
Stakeholders and members of the public gathered at the Queen’s Park Savannah VIP Lounge on Wednesday for the second day of « the Blueprint of Carnival »— a data collection exercise hosted by the Ministry of Culture and Community Development, aimed at strengthening future planning of Carnival, management and global competitiveness of Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival.
Dominating the Carnival arena for decades, CEO of the oldest mas band and the largest traditional band, ‘Jagessar Costumes Limited’, Lionel Jagessar Junior, is urging the public to not only pass the torch of traditional mas from one generation to the next, but to raise the bar.
« I say we are the guardians of our culture, and we must today ask the pertinent questions, however provocative they may be, and find a structure and find policies from the information that we gather today so we could find a balance between upholding culture and art and also making it fruitful for persons to pick Carnival or pick mas as a part in life. »
Meanwhile, several concerns were raised by members of the audience on the preservation and funding for traditional Carnival bands.
« How can traditional mas forms such as the jab jabs, the moko jumbies, and other traditional mas be preserved without freezing them as museum pieces, especially as we, I say ‘we’ because I’m in traditional, we are the most unappreciated aspect of the mas history. »
Member of the Warriors of Crocon Black Indians Organisation in Trinidad and Tobago, Anderson Patrick, requested that the Ministry grant Carnival bands special passports, designed to support cultural ambassadors in their role of promoting Trinidad’s culture both domestically and internationally.
« Black Indian and all traditional mas that does be going out to represent Trinidad and Tobago yet we don’t have a cultural ambassador passport. I would like the Ministry to look into that and give us a cultural ambassador passport. We, the black Indians, want help and assistance in having a building erected at our compound which is a cultural building, as a museum, working with children and working with the community all over. »
On Tuesday, discussions focused on the business of steelpan. Discussions are expected to continue at locations in South Trinidad and Tobago.
