CHARLES KONG SOO

Port-of-Spain May­or Joel Mar­tinez says the de­vel­op­ment of cul­ture and the arts will con­tribute to the re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion of the cap­i­tal and al­so pro­vide more op­por­tu­ni­ties to cel­e­brate cul­tur­al icons like pan pi­o­neer Neville Jules.

He was speak­ing at the for­mal cer­e­mo­ny for the re­nam­ing of the cor­ner of George and Duke Streets to the Neville Jules Junc­tion, at the Trinidad All Stars Steel Or­ches­tra’s pa­n­yard.

Mar­tinez said, “Mr Neville ‘Cap’ Jules’ love for the Trinidad All Stars led him to cre­ate cer­tain tra­di­tions with­in the band that I have heard still ex­ist to this day.

“There is no dis­pute over the pride that he has brought to the cap­i­tal city and es­pe­cial­ly to this area and to the Trinidad All Stars.

“It is there­fore my plea­sure to ho­n­our his con­tri­bu­tion to our na­tion­al in­stru­ment and to our cap­i­tal city in such a con­crete way. “With the des­ig­na­tion of Port-of-Spain as a UN­ESCO Cre­ative City of Mu­sic, the Coun­cil will have even more op­por­tu­ni­ties to cel­e­brate cul­tur­al icons like Neville Jules.”

He said there were al­so plans to place a Walk of Fame in the city which will fea­ture more of the coun­try’s promi­nent cul­tur­al icons.

Mar­tinez said there were al­so plans for the de­vel­op­ment of mu­sic zones with­in Port-of-Spain, those his­tor­i­cal sites that had been the homes of in­stru­ments like the steel­pan for many years.

He said these projects had been the dream of per­sons with­in the arts for some time and he was hap­py that the coun­cil had been so ac­tive­ly pur­su­ing such ini­tia­tives.

Massy Group’s pres­i­dent and chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer Ger­vase Warn­er said the com­pa­ny had many won­der­ful years of ‘mar­riage’ as a spon­sor of the band with over­lap­ping val­ues and ap­pre­ci­a­tion for the pan and re­la­tion with band mem­bers and the wider com­mu­ni­ty.

Al­so present were House Speak­er Bridgid An­nisette-George and her hus­band, New­man George.

For­mer MP Ed­die Hart and long­time mem­ber of the band gave the clos­ing re­marks.