NEW YORK – The culture, music and spirit of the Caribbean island of St. Lucia will be on display during the 40th anniversary of one of the Caribbean’s largest cultural expositions as millions converge on Brooklyn, New York’s Eastern Parkway for Labor Day celebrations on Monday, September 3, 2007.
A tripartite arrangement between the St. Lucia Tourist Board, the island’s Cultural Development Foundation and St. Lucian revelers and musicians in the New York-based Paradise Islands Carnival Band will blanket the Eastern Parkway carnival route in blue, yellow, black and white as St. Lucians display their national colors, cultural creativity and celebrate with the island’s top calypso and soca monarchs who are in New York for Carnival.
Curtis Brown, the founder and band leader of the Paradise Islands Carnival Band, is excited about this “unprecedented” partnership. “We are anticipating that this year will be one of the best years for St. Lucia and our band on Eastern Parkway,” he said, adding “with the support we are receiving from the Tourist Board and the Cultural Development Foundation, we have been able to do much more than in the past three years of participation in the parade. As such, we are all enthusiastic and we feel confident that this will help to put us in winners’ row in the small band category. But if not, we are assured of the greatest prize – the pride of seeing our homeland on display to the world like it has never been before.”
Teddy Francis addresses reporters at the New York Marriott at the Brooklyn Bridge
Not only has the band’s participation been fueled by the support of the two agencies, but the partnership helps in the promotion of St. Lucia as both a Carnival and tourism destination. “It’s a particularly exciting time when the Government of St. Lucia has put renewed emphasis on the Carnival product with the injection of a great amount of capital,” said Teddy Francis, Executive Director of the Cultural Development Foundation, who embraced culture as a further medium for selling St. Lucia’s tourism product.
Accompanying him was Milton Branford, Chairman of the Cultural Development Foundation, on this mission to increase the collaborative efforts between the Foundation, the Tourist Board and St. Lucians in New York, and to facilitate the development of St. Lucian art and culture at home and abroad.
“This year’s St. Lucia Carnival in July was one of the best in several years,” said Maria Fowell, St. Lucia’s Director of Tourism. “Our involvement in the Eastern Parkway parade certainly helps in our attempt to position Carnival as a premier event on St. Lucia’s cultural calendar. We acknowledge that attracting the participation of the Caribbean Diaspora is critical to this effort, hence our presence in New York City to showcase the quality of our music and our mas.”
At a press conference last week focusing on the Celebration of the Culture of St. Lucia on Eastern Parkway, the musical and cultural genius of St. Lucia took center stage with the appearance of Calypso Monarch, Menell; Power Soca Monarch, Kakal; Groovy Soca Monarch, Teddyson; and Caribbean Soca Monarch, Ninja Dan.
Milton Branford, Chairman of St. Lucia’s Cultural Development Foundation (left) and Teddy Francis, Executive Director of the Cultural Development Foundation with Paradise Islands Carnival Band revelers at a New York press conference last week
