"It is a play about two people who love each other," explains Greta Mendez, the play's Trinidadian-born director. "The external elements of racism have affected their relationship. "As the battle is raging in Trinidad, [Elvira] and [Rohan] are raging. They are having their own coup and trying to work it out." "I call it the battlefield of heart and soul" "The divide-and-rule syndrome is still happening and the play is saying, `Let us look at that'." * Coups and Calypsos runs until February 28 at the Oval House, 52-54 Kennington Oval, London SE11 at 7.45 pm each night. Tickets from £5.50; box office: 0171-5827680.
Prophet and loss: A [Bob Marley] documentary forms the centrepiece of a Channel 4 special series on the Caribbean The music continues on August 7 with Top Ten: Caribbean, a celebration of Latino, reggae, ragga, hip-hop and everything in between with the 10 most successful Caribbean chart acts in pop history. Representing the lighter side of Caribbean life is rising star Richard Blackwood in a one-off Caribbean special of his entertainment series, The Richard Blackwood Show.
In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the Windrush, Prince Charles, in collaboration with the Windrush Foundation, invited 30 of the surviving settler s, their friends and family and a whole host of stars and celebrities to a reception at St James' Palace last Thursday. Luminaries
Curiously about the origins of the game has compelled the Anglo-Caribbean committee to begin research into one of the most enthralling pastimes. "We are looking to find out just where the game began," adds [Linton Blake]. "We are also trying to establish who the oldest player is so we can find out about the game's roots." "Most of the women are more passionate than the men," [Winston Bennett] admits. "They just want to be seen as another player and treated as such. It can be embarrassing for some of the chaps when they play against women and lose. It's wonderful to see!" Winston says: "There are some young fellows out there playing at the moment but unfortunately they don't take it seriously like the middle-aged or the older generation. We need good sponsorship to give them the interest. Without the money we can't really go into the fields we would like to."
Yet [Dennis Morris]'s `funny' speech not only attracted [Bob Marley] but helped to open a door into the exciting world of photography that would soon spiral him towards success. Now people will be able to get an eyeful of Morris's talent in Growing up Black, an exhibition in London depicting his life as a '70s teenager. "My black friends couldn't understand why I wanted to associate with a white punk band," Morris says.
"`Faith in the Future' is a clarion call to these churches to look at the shape of faith in UK society - and the role they will play in it." A total of 60 speakers will appear in more than 50 sessions. Speakers will include Rev Arlington Trotman, Bishop Joe Aldred, Bev Thomas, Bishop Paul Jinado, Bishop John Sentamu, Les Isaacs and Bishop John Francis. "Over the last 50 years, the black majority churches have transformed the shape of churchmanship in the UK," he said, "as black churches represent many of the most vibrant and fastest growing congregations in the country.
"The Black church is the success story of the arrival of the Empire Windrush. Therefore the church should not be an appendix to the celebrations but at the heart of it." So says Angela Sarkis, chief executive of the Church Urban Fund and vice-president of the African Caribbean Evangelical Alliance (ACEA). Pauline Graham, the coordinator of the churches' Windrush celebration, is encouraging congregations, is encouraging congregations to write in for a Windrush Information Pack. * For further information, contact Ms Graham at ACEA, Whitefield House, 186 Kennington Park Road, London SE11 4BT, or telephone 0171-735 7373.
Over half a century later, it would be Marcus Garvey, the goer, against WEB Dubois, the stayer. Although, even Du Bois himself was to get so fed up with American racism that in the `60s at the time of the great new possibilities promised by the Dr King's Civil Rights Movement, he left America to go to Nkrumah's Ghana where he was to die on the eve of Dr King's, `I Have a Dream Speech'. Following Du Bois and Garvey, the Rastafarian movement-which was founded in the 1930's in Jamaica, were to be the next manifestation of goers even though its real impact was not to be felt for another forty years. They were followed by the next great two goers and stayers - Malcolm X (and the Nation of Islam) and Martin Luther King. Luther King's `I Have a Dream' speech was in the tradition of frederick [Frederick Douglass], and was perhaps the most eloquent statement yet of the need to sit tight, fight and make manifest the dream of the brotherhood of man. Dream So [Bernie Grant]'s latest call is in the tradition of many others before him - [Martin Delany], Garvey, the later Du Bois, and Malcolm X. Many of those who denounce Bernie at the movement, would turn around and cite some of those whose tradition Bernie embraces as heroes.
CARL Campbell Dance Company 7's forthcoming dance showcase will celebrate more than two decades in the business and in British creative dance work. Carl Campbell 7 is a contemporary Caribbean dance theatre company with a deep commitment to educational development as well as the appreciation and promotion of Caribbean dance and culture as a performing art. Using the medium of contemporary Caribbean dance, the youngsters will perform an exhilarating piece as part of Carl Campbell Dance Company 7's eighth dance education showcase.
Culture is a powerful tool for inspiring human beings and bringing them together in a concerted `family' action, says Prof [Marimba Ani], adding: "Our cultural roots are the most ancient in the world." This is very true and it is accepted that Egyptian science and technology laid the foundations for the development of Europe. It is also true that the finance to fund this development came from the proceeds of the barbaric slave trade. Black history is rich and diverse and knowledge of African achievements in education, politics, art, agriculture, medicine, science, religion, metallurgy, engineering, music and sports can help to boost our self-confidence no end. Records refer to the small population of `Negras' in Elizabethan London and even stretch back to the Roman Empire's occupation of Britain, when Africans were marooned at Hadrian's Wall in the third century AD. In the mid-'50s the Transport and General Workers' Union, now headed by Jamaican-born Bill Morris, insisted that no more than 52 of Wolverhampton's 900 bus workers should be black. This kind of colour bar was prevalent in many city transport companies from West Bromwich to Bristol.
