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2009 DC Carnival Wrap-Up
By Karen Byer
 Carnival
Time Come Again!
When I started saying that
as DC Carnival approached, it occurred to me that
there’s hardly ever a time that this statement
isn’t true. Between Carnival in T&T, Crop
Over, Vincy Mas, Caribana, Eastern Parkway, Notting
Hill, Miami, DC, Atlanta, etc. isn’t it pretty
much always carnival time somewhere?
So it’s June 2009 in
the nation’s capital. That means two things…it’s
time to jump, and it’s time to wave.
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Steel-Pan
Music: The True Story
By Zahra Gordon
 Steel-pan,
the national instrument of Trinidad & Tobago,
has become ubiquitous, with its music being found
in numerous commercials for Caribbean tourism, in
school programs as close to home as Grenada and as
far away as Japan, and even in the song “P.I.M.P”
by rapper 50-Cent. Yet as popular as steel-pan has
become, people seem to know very little about its
origins. Many still think that the instrument is a
Jamaican invention. So in the interest of knowledge-sharing
and challenging misconceptions, here is the true story
of the steel-pan and its evolution.
The steel-pan is the only instrument
to be invented in the 20th century. Pan, as it is
locally referred to, developed as part of the Carnival
culture of Trinidad. Up until the 1930s, tamboo-bamboo
bands were still the norm for Carnival music among
Afro-Trinidadians. The tamboo-bamboo bands were Carnival
bands whose instruments consisted of different lengths
of bamboo which would be played with sticks and knocked
on the ground. Bamboo was used after drums were banned
by the colonial powers in the 1800s. It is believed
that the younger generation of Africans at the time
sought to and did change this. In his book, “Rituals
of Power and Rebellion: The Carnival Tradition in
Trinidad & Tobago,” Hollis “Chalkdust”
Liverpool, PhD, Trinidadian calypsonian writes that
“The evidence of several writers and eyewitnesses
show that following the Tamboo Bamboo band, younger
bamboo beaters began to slowly introduce pieces of
steel and old pans to provide more rhythm for the
revelers.”
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Miami-Broward
One Carnival Host Committee, Inc. to Celebrate the
25th Anniversary Celebration of Miami Carnival on
Sunday, October 11, 2009
Embracing the Notions
of Change-Two Major Teams Join Forces
 Miami,
FL-May 2009-The Miami-Broward One Carnival Host
Committee will celebrate the 25th Anniversary of
Miami Carnival on Sunday, October 11, 2009 at Bicentennial
Park in Miami, Fl. After six years of having two
Caribbean Carnivals on the same day in South Florida,
both Miami Carnival Inc. (MCI) and Broward Caribbean
Carnival Inc. (BCCI) have signed an agreement to
implement the One Carnival Host Committee Initiative.
This spirited collaboration serves as the foundation
of a united Carnival celebration in South Florida.
This agreement was signed on May 11, 2009 by Ruthven
Williams (Chairman/Founding Member of MCI) and Mario
Zamora (Director/Founding Member of BCCI).
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