Culture: 50 Years 'on the Hill"

Davina Hamilton writes about Notting Hill Carnival's 50th year celebration, assuring the public that “Yes, this is Notting Hill Carnival's 50th year,” as Debora Alleyne De Gazon, creative director of the London Notting Hill Carnival Enterprises Trust, clears up the confusion about the year the event began. Here are excerpts; please read full article in The Voice:

THERE has been considerable dispute about the year Notting Hill Carnival began, calling into question whether 2016 does – as many insist – mark the event’s 50th anniversary. Trinidadian activist and newspaper editor, Claudia Jones is often credited as the ‘Mother of Carnival,’ thanks to her well-documented Caribbean Carnival – an indoor event that she organised, which took place in London’s St Pancras Town Hall in 1959.

The event is often heralded as spearheading the Notting Hill Carnival we know and love today. But for many historians and carnival aficionados, it’s not Jones that deserves the credit for the famed west London festival, but a lesser-known pioneer – Rhaune Laslett (read more about her on page 18), who organised the Notting Hill Fayre in 1966.

“When we talk about Notting Hill Carnival, we need to be geographically specific,” says Debora Alleyne De Gazon, creative director of the London Notting Hill Carnival Enterprises Trust. “Yes, in 1959, we had Claudia Jones fighting the cause against racial inequality, and one of the ways she approached that was with an indoor event that had elements of carnival, like the steel bands and calypsonians. But that wasn’t the same as Notting Hill Carnival. In 1966, Rhaune Laslett used the power of the arts and the idea of bringing cultures together as the basis for her idea. She engaged the steel pan group, the Russell Henderson Trio, who really made their presence known in 1964 when they began an impromptu march through the streets, which created a nostalgic moment. [. . .] So when it comes to the actual establishment, where you had a team putting together a programme for a carnival, Rhaune Laslett started that with her Notting Hill Fayre in 1966. In being geographically specific – as opposed to saying, ‘I was in Brixton and I started a carnival, which then moved to Notting Hill’ – you recognise that Notting Hill Carnival was born in 1966. So this is our 50th year.”

While De Gazon credits London-born Laslett as Notting Hill Carnival’s true founder, she says acknowledgement must also be given to many others for their involvement in the event’s development.

“Rhaune Laslett definitely put things in place,” De Gazon affirms. “When Rhaune left, [pioneer] Merle Major sustained the same elements of the event by continuing to involve Russ Henderson. That is why we also reconginse Russ Henderson [and fellow steel pan musicians] Ralph Cherrie and Sterling Betancourt as the fathers of the carnival. We would also tag [former carnival director] Leslie Palmer, who, in 1973, put a hell of a lot of work into the event. Leslie was supported by Westway Trust, which was known back then as the North Kensington Amenity Trust, and that trust was headed by Anthony Perry. So there are a lot of people to recognise when it comes to Notting Hill Carnival.”

Hailing from Trinidad, De Gazon’s role is integral to the London Notting Hill Carnival Enterprises Trust, which works to transform perceptions of carnival and educate audiences about the event. [. . .]

What would De Gazon say to the carnival traditionalists, who feel that through its evolution, Notting Hill Carnival has lost its Caribbean flair? “I don’t think it has lost its flair,” she says. “The Caribbean roots are still evident through the music, the food and the presence of the steel bands. But we need to remember that we live in a cosmopolitan society and when cultures come together, there will be overlapping.

“So now, we have many cultures participating, but I don’t think we’ve lost anything. What we now have is a hybrid that still has its roots in tact. If you take the roots out, that is when Notting Hill Carnival will die.” [. . .]

West Indies Cricket in the Crucible: FIRE IN BABYLON Official Trailer - In Cinemas May 20

It might not immediately resonate with despondent Windies cricket fans, but the two-decade dynasty that the great West Indies teams of the late 70s through the early 90s  was forged in the cauldron of Australian pace bowling and the ashes (no pun intended) of a thrashing at the hands of the Aussies in 1975.

After that fateful test new captain Clive Lloyd set out to overhaul the team and, essentially, fight fire with fire. Michael Holding, Joel Garner, Colin Croft and - later Malcolm Marshall, Courtney Walsh and Curtley Ambrose, combined with the potent and intrepid batting attack of Gordon Greenidge, Desmond Haynes, the aforementioned Lloyd and Vivian "Master Blaster" Richards  to put the "fire" of the film's title on, first, the English, and then, the Australians in the supreme grudge match.

For its portrayal of the above only, "Fire On Babylon" is a worthy addition to sporting film lore. But the production teams behind award-winning features like "The Last King of Scotland" and "Restrepo" has much more on their minds than just a cricket highlight reel. The ascendancy of the West Indies is set against and paralleled by the socio-political forces of the day, including the rise of Afro-consciousness, the fight against apartheid and against racism in general, and the concurrent threads of Caribbean musical expression - reggae in particular - which were also attracting global attention.

All these elements are skillfully and wittily blended by writer-director Stevan Riley, who has everyone giving input, from Sabina Park groundsmen to last-standing Wailer Bunny "Jah B" Livingstone to the cricketers themselves - notably Richards and Holding, who each speak poignantly about resisting the temptation to go on the ill-fated and controversial "Rebel Tour" of then apartheid South Africa in the early 80s.

The bottom line is you don't even have to like cricket to enjoy Fire In Babylon, although a newfound appreciation for the game could well be a product of viewing it. Telecoms giant Digicel, which recently hosted a Kingston premiere, are certainly hoping for that and other positive effects as a prelude to the home series against Pakistan and India this summer.