As the 2026 Car­ni­val sea­son heats up and new so­ca re­leas­es dom­i­nate the air­waves, the Bo­cas Lit Fest is turn­ing the spot­light on ca­lyp­so with the launch of a new dis­cus­sion se­ries, Kaiso Con­ver­sa­tions, ded­i­cat­ed to the art of ca­lyp­so song­writ­ing. The in­au­gur­al event will fea­ture mu­si­cal icon David Rud­der.

On Tues­day, Jan­u­ary 20, Rud­der will join mu­sic crit­ic and writer Nigel A. Camp­bell on stage at the pop­u­lar Kafe Blue on Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain, for an in-depth con­ver­sa­tion ex­plor­ing ca­lyp­so lyrics, cre­ative tra­di­tions and in­flu­ences, and the lit­er­ary di­men­sions of the ca­lyp­son­ian’s craft. Doors open at 5.30 pm, with the dis­cus­sion be­gin­ning at 6.30 pm.

The event al­so serves as a fundrais­er for the Bo­cas Lit Fest, whose year-round work sup­ports and de­vel­ops writ­ers and read­ers of all ages and gen­res across Trinidad and To­ba­go and the wider Caribbean. Ad­mis­sion is $100, with pro­ceeds sup­port­ing the NGO’s on­go­ing pro­grammes and ini­tia­tives. Tick­ets are avail­able on­line at is­landet­ick­ets.com/event/kaiso­con­ver­sa­tions or at Kafe Blue.

Ca­lyp­so is no stranger to the Bo­cas Lit Fest. The na­tion­al art­form has been fea­tured in nu­mer­ous fes­ti­val events over the years, in­clud­ing the ea­ger­ly an­tic­i­pat­ed Ex­tem­po De­bate, a sta­ple of the an­nu­al April fes­ti­val.

“We al­ways in­sist Bo­cas is about words, sto­ries and ideas,” said fes­ti­val di­rec­tor Nicholas Laugh­lin, “in all forms and gen­res. Trinidad and To­ba­go’s best ca­lyp­so­ni­ans have al­ways been cul­tur­al crit­ics, po­lit­i­cal com­men­ta­tors and philoso­phers, and ca­lyp­so lyrics are among the most en­dur­ing works in our lit­er­ary her­itage. David Rud­der is un­doubt­ed­ly a mas­ter of the art­form, and this will be a rare op­por­tu­ni­ty to hear him ex­plore what tru­ly lies at the heart of ca­lyp­so writ­ing — past, present and fu­ture.”

Kaiso Con­ver­sa­tions is in­tend­ed as the first in an on­go­ing se­ries, con­cep­tu­alised by mu­sic writer Nigel A. Camp­bell in part­ner­ship with the Bo­cas Lit Fest.

“Derek Wal­cott once mock­ing­ly wrote, ‘The in­tel­lec­tu­als … apoth­e­o­sized the folk form, in­sist­ing that ca­lyp­sos were po­ems,’” Camp­bell not­ed. “These con­ver­sa­tions are in­spired by the crit­i­cal work of Pro­fes­sor Gor­don Rohlehr, which push­es back against that Wal­cot­t­ian idea. Ca­lyp­so­ni­ans like David Rud­der ap­pear in the work of im­por­tant Caribbean writ­ers, in­clud­ing our No­bel lau­re­ates, who have writ­ten ex­ten­sive­ly on ca­lyp­so. V.S. Naipaul ob­served that ‘wit and ver­bal con­ceits are fun­da­men­tal; with­out them no song, how­ev­er good the mu­sic, can be judged a ca­lyp­so.’ Bob Dy­lan proved lyrics are wor­thy of a No­bel Prize. So too is the oeu­vre of our ca­lyp­so­ni­ans.”

Pa­trons are en­cour­aged to pur­chase tick­ets ear­ly, as space is lim­it­ed.

For more in­for­ma­tion on the Bo­cas Lit Fest and its pro­grammes, vis­it bo­caslit­fest.com or fol­low @bo­caslit­fest on so­cial me­dia.