A couple days this week I sent sitting in the 2nd Caribbean International Arts Education Symposium. This was actually the first ever conference that I actually felt truly interested in the subject matter. Hearing these Caribbean and international perspectives on the need for arts education, the state of arts education in the region, the need for strong policy support for arts education, etc. But all of that may be a topic for another day.

As part of the symposium, they tried to incorporate cultural activities.

• Monday they had a cultural mix show which I never made it to as I was sleeping off the effects of my Tobago weekend (slept for 12 hours straight).
• Tuesday they visited All Stars panyard, which of course I had to go to.
• Wednesday there was a pan performance by the UWI group, which I unfortunately missed.
• Last night was the closing of the symposium and they had a good ole Kaiso night. This turned out to be a varied mix,
  • starting with some real ole time kaiso (a one man, his guitar and some hilarious lyrics),
  • moving into a jazz fusion group, which played among other things a jazz version of “It’s Carnival” (you know, everybody take a jump, take a jump, take a jump up now, start to wave, start to wave etc.).
  • The grand finale was the man himself - BLACK STALIN!! His performance was fantastic! I missed a chance to see him perform when I just got here so I was glad to get this opportunity. This man is a true kaisonian, knows how to work the crowd. After doing a few of his classics (Caribbean Man, Is Time, Ah Coming), he had the crowd up in the aisles with …, what else but “tonite the black man feelin to party, tonite the black man feelin to jam jam jam jam jam, tonite the black man just feel to boogie woogie, come on, come on, hold on to yuh man and leh we do a little, do a little, do a little oyyy!!” Great night!!