SAN­DRA L BLOOD

The “rhythm of a peo­ple” will come alive on Sat­ur­day at the Cen­tral Bank Au­di­to­ri­um when the 8th edi­tion of Crack­ers & Cheese kicks off at 7 pm, fea­tur­ing sev­en stand­out lo­cal artistes backed by the pow­er­house Theron Shaw Project.

The di­verse line­up in­cludes Du­vone Stew­art, mul­ti­ple-Panora­ma cham­pi­on arranger, men­tor, and mu­sic ed­u­ca­tor; La­dy Adan­na (Mar­sha Davis-Clifton), 2024 AEAUSA Best Ca­lyp­so/So­ca awardee; Ta’Zyah O’Con­nor, 2023 Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch and 2021 Ju­nior Ca­lyp­so Monarch; the in­ter­na­tion­al­ly ac­claimed Free­town Col­lec­tive, de­scribed as “the new ca­lyp­so­ni­ans,” blend­ing ca­lyp­so, rap, and spo­ken word; Manyank Ram­goolie, se­nior ed­u­ca­tor, arranger, per­former, and ex­pert in gospel, de­vo­tion­al rhythms, and bha­jan; and Tam­ba Gwin­di, in­ter­na­tion­al­ly ac­com­plished per­cus­sion­ist, drum­mer, and for­mer clas­si­cal mu­si­cian.

Ex­plain­ing the unique name, co-pro­duc­er and pub­lic re­la­tions of­fi­cer notes: “In Trinidad and To­ba­go, crack­ers and cheese—lo­cal­ly known as the beloved Crix and cheese—are en­joyed by every­one, across all so­cio-eco­nom­ic back­grounds. From a sim­ple wake to an elab­o­rate char­cu­terie board, the com­bi­na­tion is uni­ver­sal­ly loved. Our show mir­rors this in­clu­siv­i­ty, cross­ing bound­aries of age, class, re­li­gion, na­tion­al­i­ty, and eth­nic­i­ty. There tru­ly is some­thing for every­one in this eighth edi­tion.”

Among the fea­tured per­form­ers is Stacey Sobers, for­mer NWAC Na­tion­al So­ca Queen, promi­nent mem­ber of Di­vas Ca­lyp­so Cabaret In­ter­na­tion­al, ac­com­plished con­cert pro­duc­er, and ac­tress who de­buted as Ca­lyp­so Rose in Hart House The­atre’s Queen of the Road: The Ca­lyp­so Rose Mu­si­cal.

Co-pro­duc­ers Abra­ham and Sobers high­light that ad­mis­sion is just $300, with doors open­ing at 6.30 pm. For reser­va­tions or tick­ets, call 748-3346 or 683-5540.