Trinidad: Rapso training workshop

All budding poets and rapso artistes interested in developing their talent are invited to attend. The 20th edition of the Festival of Rapso and the Oral Tradition is scheduled to take place from May 1 to 17. Rapsofest, as it is popularly known, is designed to promote the oral tradition and folk culture through a series of performances, lecture-demonstrations, seminars and workshops across Trinidad and Tobago. As in previous years the emphasis on training and development is a major platform upon which the Festival is established.

The training is specific to the development and enhancement of the artiste or poet as a performer and will be conducted through a series of workshops over a six week period. The workshop programme is the result of a direct collaboration between NALIS and the Rapso Movement of Trinidad and Tobago over the past decade. Over 400 persons have benefitted from the experience of professional training and support in the arts through the Rapsofest programme. Participants have come from as far as South Africa, London-UK, Toronto Canada and the United States.

The training programme has been incorporated as teaching modules in the University of Hereford-Trinity project, Colgate University, University of Guelph, Ontario Canada, and the University of Cologne, Germany. For further information please contact Brother Resistance at 620-2966, Karega Mandela at 681-4373, Omari (Studio 161) at 689-3721, or Drumline Uprising at 624-8742. Source