Cul­tur­al ac­tivist and po­et Dr Ein­tou Pearl Springer has called on the Gov­ern­ment to place more em­pha­sis on the cul­tur­al sec­tor, as she be­lieves this is a so­lu­tion to the crime sit­u­a­tion in T&T.

While Springer was say­ing a prayer of bless­ing for the Car­ni­val Mu­se­um at Fri­day’s launch of the sec­ond ex­hi­bi­tion, The Sto­ry of J’Ou­vert, which took place at the cor­ner of Duke and Char­lotte streets, she al­so prayed for the na­tion’s lead­ers.

“We ask that it (the mu­se­um) per­me­ates the minds and hearts of the lead­ers of this coun­try who still do not see cul­ture as a force in de­vel­op­ment, as a force in trans­for­ma­tion,” she said.

Springer shared her be­lief that ed­u­cat­ing the mem­bers of the East Dry Riv­er com­mu­ni­ty about the his­to­ry of Car­ni­val will bring about a trans­for­ma­tion.

“We look at all the crime among young black men. I feel I know in my heart that if their lega­cy, if their cul­ture, if their con­tri­bu­tion to so­ci­ety was made known that it would im­pact more than a mil­lion po­lice.

“This place will be a bea­con of light that will be­gin to make an im­pact in the sense of self, in the sense of self-worth, and in the knowl­edge of lega­cy that is miss­ing from these com­mu­ni­ties. I think it is a crit­i­cal ini­tia­tive,” she added.

Springer lament­ed that cul­ture is not pri­ori­tised enough and asked the artists to por­tray the re­sis­tance that led to Car­ni­val.

“We need to in­sert the re­sis­tance, be­cause we have the car­ni­val be­cause of re­sis­tance. All these tra­di­tion­al mas are root­ed in re­sis­tance, the right of a peo­ple to say ‘we is peo­ple too’. So I pledge my­self, my own or­gan­i­sa­tion to work to de­vel­op this with our com­mu­ni­ty to de­vel­op this place,” Springer said.

Mean­while, the Per­ma­nent Sec­re­tary at the Min­istry of Tourism, Cul­ture and the Arts, Si­mone Thorne-Mo­ra Quinones said they hope to cre­ate a cul­tur­al lega­cy with the sto­ry of J’Ou­vert.

“Ex­hi­bi­tions like these are mon­u­men­tal for the in­ter­gen­er­a­tional trans­fer of our cul­ture while ed­u­cat­ing and en­ter­tain­ing our lo­cals and for­eign vis­i­tors. Trinidad and To­ba­go’s cul­ture is mar­ried to Car­ni­val and J’Ou­vert is the wed­ding re­cep­tion. That time when the par­ty starts and you get to kick off your shoes and en­joy your­selves,” she said.

Ac­cord­ing to Quinones, there are plans to have a vir­tu­al mu­se­um, a hall of fame for all three art forms of mass, ca­lyp­so, and pan, a re­search and ed­u­ca­tion hub, and an on­line gift shop.

Di­rec­tor of the T&T Car­ni­val Mu­se­um, Ros­alind Gabriel, said there is al­so a plan to launch ‘The Sto­ry of Pan’ in Au­gust 2023.

Al­though of­fi­cial­ly launched yes­ter­day, the Sto­ry of J’Ou­vert has been open for two weeks, and ac­cord­ing to staff, there have al­ready been around 200 pa­trons.

The mu­se­um was dec­o­rat­ed with icon­ic cos­tumes from Ole Mas char­ac­ters such as the Mid­night Rob­ber, and Ba­by Doll. There were al­so in­ter­ac­tive pieces such as a buck­et of mud and gal­vanise, and a wall for pa­trons to paint with their hands.