This year, the world converged onto the streets of West London as the Notting Hill Carnival turned 50! Temperatures recorded were the lowest on record; a meagre 15 degrees Celsius; and as if that wasn’t enough, it rained and rained. Still, even in the chilly August Bank Holiday wind, and the wettest since as far back as 1986, Notting Hill Carnival 2014 and the spirit of its million and more patrons couldn’t be denied. It was Food, Fun and Frolic just the same, and then some. The rains served almost as a numbing distraction. At the time, many never even realised, but we did. Notting Hill Carnival was at last golden like its creators. The London Notting Hill Carnival is the largest street festival in Europe, and second in size only to Brazil’s Rio Carnival. It originated in 1964 as a way for Afro-Caribbean communities to celebrate their own cultures and traditions, and served as a tool of resilience against the everyday pressures and prejudices of post war London, a fight led and championed by Trinidad and Tobago’s own, Claudia Jones. Accompanied by fellow West Indian stalwarts, Amy Ashwood Garvey (Pan-Africanist and first wife of Marcus Garvey); British Honduras born singer and actress, Nadia Cattouse; Trinidadian dance legend and founder of the Little Carib Theatre, Dr Beryl McBurnie; her lifelong mentor, Paul Robeson and many others, Jones quickly became active in campaigning against racism in housing, education and employment in 1950s England. Based in London, she also founded the first Black British newspaper, the West Indian Gazette, and used it as a tool to unite the young marginalized “Windrush” community, the first group of West Indian migrants to settle in England from as early as 1948. Renowned as the ‘Mother of Notting Hill Carnival’, she organized the first ever major showing of Caribbean Arts and Culture in Britain in 1959 – a BBC televised indoor-style exhibition of West Indian music and masquerade at St Pancras Town Hall, London. This was also a movement and motion in response to the 1958 Notting Hill Race Riots, the result of fierce tensions between the then 10 year old London West Indian community and White Fascist groups. It was only months before her death in 1964 (aged 49) when Carnival first took to the streets of London. CarniRIOT is a musical and storytelling tribute to Claudia Jones and the thousands of fellow West Indians and their descendants who ultimately changed the social, political and cultural landscape of Great Britain for good. Coming soon to Trinidad &Tobago. Tiny Tobago Roadshow. youtu.be/ApTBtFC9oac
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 19:46:57 +0000
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