Trinidadian Culture in New York City

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Trinidadian New York City

Trinidadian New York City is centered in South Ozone Park, Queens; and Bed-Stuy, Crown Heights, East Flatbush, & Flatbush, Brooklyn. There is a Trinidadian community in Nassau County, Long Island.

Trinidadian Art in NYC

• Trinidadian art shows up in New York City art fairs. 🇹🇹

Trinidadian Books in NYC

• The PEN World Voices Festival usually has some Trinidadian authors. 🇹🇹

Trinidadian Cultural Centers in NYC

• The Caribbean Cultural Center African Diaspora Institute (CCCADI) in “El Barrio” East Harlem, preserves and promotes Trinidadian culture. 🇹🇹

Trinidadian Dance in NYC

• Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater often has great Trinidadian modern dancers. 🇹🇹
• One of Dance Theatre of Harlem’s signature pieces is “Dougla,” Geoffrey Holder’s 1974 ballet about a Trinidadian wedding joining the African and South Asian Diaspora communities. 🇹🇹

Trinidadian Festivals in NYC

• Christmas Day and Boxing Day 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🇹🇹
• Diwali 🇮🇳 🇹🇹
• Holi is the Hindu spring festival of colors and love. 🇮🇳 🇹🇹
• J’ouvert 🇹🇹
• New York Carnival and the West Indian Day Parade 🇹🇹
• World Steel Pan Day is a UNESCO celebration on August 11.

Trinidadian Film in NYC

• The African Diaspora International Film Festival screens Trinidadian films. 🇹🇹

Trinidadian Food in NYC

The Creole Food Festival usually has Trinidadian food.

• Ali’s Trinbago Roti Shop is a Trinidadian restaurant in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. @alisrotishopfulton
• Ariapita is a Trinidadian restaurant in Flatbush, Brooklyn. @ariapitanyc 🇹🇹
• Kokomo is a Trinidadian restaurant in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. kokomonyc.com 🇹🇹

Trinidadian Government in NYC

• The Trinidad and Tobago Consulate is in Manhattan’s Financial District. 🇹🇹

Trinidadian Music in NYC

• Nicki Minaj is a hip hop star who was born in Trinidad and raised in Queens, New York City. 🇹🇹
• Etienne Charles and Creole Soul is a Trinidadian jazz musician. 🇹🇹

Trinidadian Parades in NYC

• The West Indian Day Parade follows Trinidadian tradition. 🇹🇹

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Trinidadian Culture

Traditional Trinidadian culture includes calypso and steelpan. Contemporary Trinidadian culture includes soca, a musical blend of South Asian Indian and African Diaspora rhythms.

Caribbean peoples are generally happy people who enjoy teasing each other and making fun of elites. This Caribbean humor is very present in Trinidad culture.

Though gender relations are generally patriarchal (male-led), some Trinidad communities, like some cultures of Mother Africa, have more matriarchal (female-led) traditions.

Many Americans confuse Trinidadian culture with Jamaican culture because Harry Belafonte, the Harlem-born son of Jamaican immigrants had some worldwide hit songs based on Trinidadian traditions.

Trinidad Carnival

Trinidad’s most important culture is Trinidad Carnival, a celebration of freedom and “the Mother of Caribbean Carnival.”

Abolition came in 1834 and that is when Trinidadian Carnival, a celebration of freedom, took form.

Trinidadian traditions are celebrated around the world, including at New York Carnival (AKA West Indian Day Parade, Brooklyn Carnival, or Labor Day Carnival), and London’s Notting Hill Carnival.

Limbo Dance

Limbo is a Trinidadian dance that was originally done at funerals in the mid to late 1800s. Dancers try to pass under a pole by bending backwards without using their hands or falling down.

It’s meanings are lost to time. One explanation is the Kongo (Central African) concept of the cycle of life. In Kongo tradition, the Kalûnga Line is the threshold between the worlds of the living and the dead. In Kongo, the Kalûnga was the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. Kongolese knew that people who went far out on the ocean never came back.

The One Supreme God (same One as other religions) lives in the stars, but his/her spiritual helpers live underwater. So crossing under the Kalûnga and coming out the other side is a ritual enactment of the cycle of life.

Another explanation is that the small space below the bar represents the cramped quarters of a European slaver ship. If kidnapped Africans were forced on deck for some exercise, they weren’t allowed to speak, so they communicated with each other through traditional dance steps. Limbo may have evolved from these games.

Julia Edwards, “The First Lady of Limbo,” dramatized and popularized the dance around the world in the 1950s. [Kíko Keith: I remember dancing limbo in elementary school in 1960s Los Angeles.]

Calypso

Calypso emerged in Trinidad and Tobago in the mid-1800s. It evolved from Kaiso music of the Efik and Ibibio people of Nigeria, and the Canboulay harvest festival (from burnt cane, the last phase of sugar cane farming). Calypso became an important part of Trinidad and Tobago Carnival. Many Latin music traditions are tied into Carnival.

Mighty Sparrow is the “King of Calypso.” Lord Kitchener and the Original De Fosto are also influential. Calypso Rose was the first woman calypso singer.

Steelpan

Steelpan is a tonal drum made from old oil drums that is now strongly associated with calypso music. Steelpan is sort of a metal balafon (marimba or xylophone) which was originally a Central African (Kongo) instrument.

Steelpan developed from tamboo bamboos, tuned bamboo sticks created after European colonizers banned the drum. This is just one example, but the Yoruba language is a tonal language, and the Yoruba talking drum is a tonal drum that mimics the tonal language. So the steelpan as a tonal drum makes perfect sense.

As Trinidad’s oil industry developed, musicians mirrored the tones of the tamboo bamboos on the lids of oil drums. The first all-steel band was Alexander’s Ragtime Band in 1939.

Soca

Soca is a Trinidadian blend of East Indian and African rhythms. In New York City, you hear lots of soca at New York Carnival and the West Indian Day Parade.

There are many soca derivatives with various East Indian influences.

Trinidadian Literature

V.S. Naipaul (1932-2018), a Trinidadian author of East Indian descent, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2001 for his stories about communities marginalized by colonization.

Samuel Selvon and Earl Lovelace are also famous Trinidadian authors.

Trinidadian Religion

The colonizer’s Christianity is the most common religion, with a large Hindu community. There is also some Islam which is common in the Caribbean, though usually practiced quietly at home.

Trinidad Orisha (Orisha Shango) is an African Diasporic religion based on Yoruba traditions. It will be familiar to anyone who knows Cuban Lucumí, Haitian Dahomey, or Brazilian Candomblé traditions.

Trinidadian Cultural Complex

Trinidadian culture influences the South American countries of Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana; and all the islands of the Lesser Antilles.

In the Antilles, the Trinidadian influence reaches as far north as Culebra and Vieques, the northernmost of the Lesser Antilles, the Spanish Virgin Islands which are part of Puerto Rico, just ten miles off the Puerto Rican coast. In Culebra, you see steelpan murals which you do not see in Puerto Rico proper.

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Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago are two islands just off the South American coast at the southern end of the Lesser Antilles. The islands are actually an extension of the Venezuelan Andes.

“Trinbagonian” or “Trinibagonian” is the proper term for its people, but Trinidadian is much more commonly used, so that is what we use. “Trini” is slang for Trinidadian.

The Multicultural Caribbean

The Caribbean is very multicultural, and Trinidad is probably the most multicultural Caribbean island.

Trinidadian culture is a unique blend of Indigenous, Spanish, Dutch, French / Haitian, African, and English traditions.

After abolition in 1834, the English brought East Indian (South Asian), Chinese, and Portuguese laborers into the mix. Today, there are more Trinidadians of East Indian descent than any other group. African descent is the second most common heritage, but the reality is that we are all mixed.

The East Indian and African mix is called “Dougla.” That used to be an insult, but like most colonizer nonsense, we flip it around into a source of pride.

Public Holidays in Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidad and Tobago’s public holidays reflect the country’s diversity.

• New Year’s Day celebrates the start of the year in the contemporary Gregorian calendar on January 1. ✝️ 🇹🇹
• Spiritual Baptist/Shouter Liberation Day celebrates the 1917 repeal of a law that prohibited the Christian tradition brought to Trinidad by African Americans who fought for the British in the War of 1812. It is celebrated on March 30. ✝️ 🇹🇹
• Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the Friday before Easter Sunday. The date varies. ✝️ 🇹🇹
• Easter Monday is the day after Easter Sunday, the Christian celebration of the renewal of spring. The date varies. ✝️ 🇹🇹
• Eid al-Fitr is the Muslim feast that end of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month. The date varies. ☪️ 🇹🇹
• Indian Arrival Day celebrates the arrival of South Asian indentured workers in Trinidad and Tobago in 1845. 🇮🇳 🇹🇹
• Corpus Christi celebrates the Catholic tradition in which the wine and bread of communion represent the blood and body of Jesus Christ. ✝️ 🇹🇹
• Labour Day commemorates the Butler labour riots against the exploitation of oil and sugar workers in Trinidad in 1937. 🇬🇧 🇹🇹
• Emancipation Day celebrates the end of human enslavement in British colonies on August 1, 1838. 🇬🇧 🇹🇹
• Trinidad and Tobago Independence Day celebrates the country’s independence from Britain on August 31, 1962. 🇹🇹
• Trinidad and Tobago Republic Day celebrates the founding of the country’s own government institutions on September 24, 1976. 🇹🇹
• Lakshmi Puja is a Hindu festival that honors Lakshmi, the goddess of prosperity and wife of Vishnu. They are the supreme gods in Vaishnavism, one of the main Hindu traditions. The date varies. 🇮🇳 🇹🇹
• Christmas Day celebrates the traditional birthday of Christ on December 25. ✝️ 🇹🇹
• Boxing Day is an English tradition of giving gifts to the poor on the day after Christmas. ✝️ 🇹🇹