Bo­cas Lit Fest suc­cess­ful­ly launched its new Kaiso Con­ver­sa­tions se­ries with an en­gag­ing and well-at­tend­ed event fo­cused on the art of ca­lyp­so song­writ­ing, fea­tur­ing mu­si­cal icon David Rud­der. The ini­tia­tive re­in­forces the fes­ti­val’s long-stand­ing com­mit­ment to ex­plor­ing words, sto­ries, and ideas across gen­res, and to recog­nis­ing ca­lyp­so as a vi­tal part of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s lit­er­ary her­itage.

Held on Jan­u­ary 20 at Kafe Blue on Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain, the con­ver­sa­tion saw Rud­der in di­a­logue with mu­sic crit­ic and writer Nigel A Camp­bell. To­geth­er, they ex­am­ined Rud­der’s ca­lyp­so lyrics, cre­ative tra­di­tions and per­son­al in­flu­ences, and the lit­er­ary di­men­sions of the ca­lyp­son­ian’s craft. Re­flect­ing on his song­writ­ing process, Rud­der not­ed, “There’s a time when the mu­sic writes it­self. You just fol­low,” adding that “the good ones of­ten come quick, like they’re wait­ing to be writ­ten,” ref­er­enc­ing the cre­ation of his clas­sic Ca­lyp­so Mu­sic. The dis­cus­sion high­light­ed the role of ca­lyp­so­ni­ans as cul­tur­al crit­ics, com­men­ta­tors, and philoso­phers, while af­firm­ing Rud­der’s mas­tery of the art­form.

Rud­der is one of this coun­try’s most ac­com­plished ca­lyp­so­ni­ans. He’s known for hits like 1986’s The Ham­mer and Bahia Girl, for which he won the Ca­lyp­so Monarch, Young Kings and Road March with the lat­ter song that year. He’s de­liv­ered around 20 al­bums, which in­clude oth­er mem­o­rable mu­sic like Haiti, Ral­ly ’Round the West In­dies and Tri­ni 2 De Bone.

For his con­tri­bu­tion to T&T as well as the Caribbean’s mu­sic and cul­ture, Rud­der was award­ed a Hum­ming­bird Sil­ver Medal by the gov­ern­ment of Trinidad and To­ba­go. He was lat­er ap­point­ed, in 1996, as a Good­will Am­bas­sador to the Unit­ed Na­tions De­vel­op­ment Pro­gramme (UNDP). Rud­der was al­so giv­en the keys to the city of Port-of-Spain. In 2015, the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies (UWI) award­ed Rud­der the hon­orary de­gree Doc­tor of Let­ters (DLitt), in recog­ni­tion of his “out­stand­ing” con­tri­bu­tions to Caribbean cul­ture. In 2022, he was con­ferred with the Or­der of the Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (OCC).

Man­ag­ing Di­rec­tor of the Bo­cas Lit Fest, Georgie Pop­plewell, said, “This Kaiso Con­ver­sa­tion was in­tend­ed as the first in a new se­ries that al­lows us to ex­plore words, sto­ries, and ideas in all their forms.”

Pop­plewell said, aside from ex­plor­ing Rud­der’s work and lega­cy, “The evening was al­so a spe­cial fundrais­er sup­port­ing our year-round work to pro­mote and de­vel­op writ­ers and read­ers of all ages and gen­res across Trinidad and To­ba­go and the wider Caribbean. We are deeply grate­ful to David Rud­der for so gen­er­ous­ly shar­ing his lega­cy and in­sights, to Nigel A Camp­bell for guid­ing the dis­cus­sion, and to the au­di­ence whose en­thu­si­asm and do­na­tions made the event such a suc­cess.”