Kristy Ram­nar­ine

kristy. ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

The Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee of T&T (ES­CTT) will pay trib­ute to Lord Re­la­tor (Willard Har­ris) this year.

Pa­trons can catch Shikamoo Re­la­tor fea­tur­ing Lord Re­la­tor at the Lidj Ya­su Omowale Eman­ci­pa­tion Vil­lage which will be of­fi­cial­ly opened on Fri­day at 10 am.

In Swahili, the word Shikamoo means I re­spect you.

“We are pleased to pay trib­ute to Lord Re­la­tor as we con­tin­ue to en­sure ho­n­our is giv­en to our cul­tur­al icons,” said ex­ec­u­tive di­rec­tor of the ES­CTT Za­kiyah Uzoma-Wada­da.

“In the past, we have paid trib­ute to Mighty Duke, David Rud­der, Com­pos­er, Black Stal­in, El­la An­dall and Singing San­dra. So we con­tin­ue the tra­di­tion of cel­e­brat­ing the cul­tur­al foun­da­tion,” Uzoma-Wada­da said.

The 1980 Na­tion­al Ca­lyp­so Monarch won with Food Prices and Take A Rest.

His trib­ute to In­di­an leg­end, for­mer skip­per and bats­man Sir Sunil Gavaskar, is known among crick­et fans.

Gavaskar’s prowess against West In­di­an fast bowlers in a five-match Test Se­ries in 1971 was leg­endary. The Lit­tle Mas­ter, as Gavas­car is fond­ly called, was ho­n­oured dur­ing the tea break on day two of the sec­ond Test match be­tween West In­dies and In­dia at the Queen’s Park Oval, St Clair, last week Fri­day.

Lord Re­la­tor is al­so revered for his trea­sure trove of ca­lyp­so clas­sics. In essence, he gives life to ca­lyp­soes past, while giv­ing his au­di­ences a his­to­ry les­son through the work done by bards be­fore him.

An ac­com­plished gui­tarist and play­er of many stringed in­stru­ments, Lord Re­la­tor is al­so known for his mas­tery of the art of ex­tem­po.

Shikamoo Re­la­tor al­so fea­tures Broth­er Valenti­no, Stacey Sobers, and Helon Fran­cis among oth­ers.

To­mor­row, the ES­CTT will present its an­nu­al Rap­so Con­cert at 6 pm. The Rap­so Con­cert, which fea­tures Black Lyrics, is ti­tled In Re­mem­brance of Mark Not­ting­ham.

Lat­er on, from 8 pm, the ES­CTT will host its an­nu­al Uni­ty Reg­gae Con­cert at the Queen’s Park Sa­van­nah.

The en­trance fee is $40 af­ter 3 pm. Chil­dren un­der 12 are free.

Pa­trons head­ing to the Eman­ci­pa­tion Vil­lage are be­ing en­cour­aged to look out for the on­site re­cy­cling bins to sep­a­rate their emp­ty bev­er­age con­tain­ers.

The Eman­ci­pa­tion Sup­port Com­mit­tee has teamed up with the Ideas I Foun­da­tion to cham­pi­on re­cy­cling ef­forts and launch the first Ed­u­ca­tion Green Zone this year.