June 6, 2025
Storytelling geniuses Paul Keens-Douglas and Auntie Thea will be honored at a special event at the Little Carib Theatre in Woodbrook on Thursday 5th June from 6pm. The event concludes the 2 month ‘Season of Anansi Folklore Festival’. Festival founder Rubadiri Victor says, “Trinidad and Tobago continues to produce phenomenal storytellers generation to generation- on every single street corner, in every lime, and in every medium. Sometimes we take this gift for granted. I believe it is time we pay tribute to the Elder Geniuses and pioneers.” The event just added a Tribute to the recently deceased legendary Rapso elder Brother Book to the ceremony.
The Thursday 5th June event is called ‘A Tribute to the Storytellers’- and will pay tribute to 4 generations of T&T storytellers: ancestors represented by Brother Book; the Elders represented by Paul Keens-Douglas and Auntie Thea; the in-between generation represented by Roger Alexis of ‘Santana’ fame; and the younger ones by Ro’Dey (Rodell Cumberbatch) who opened the door for the new social media influencer stars of today. To Victor all represent generations of the ‘Anansi’ spirit. Cocktails will be served from 6pm with the ceremony beginning at 7pm. Patrons can then move 4 blocks over to the Big Black Box Theatre on Murray Street for the After-party & Festival Closing from 9pm- 1am.
The Tribute is long overdue. Paul Keens-Douglas is one of the most important Artists the Caribbean has produced. At one time in the late 1970s and early 80s he was everywhere- on radio, albums, tapes, videos, books, and onstage at the Little Carib. Keens-Douglas was multi-media before there was multi-media. A pioneer in the development of the oral traditions and the use of the vernacular as a literary form, Keens-Douglas has to his credit 9 books, 15 albums, 3 videos, 16 CDs and 2 DVDs. His work has a wide appeal and he has given the world characters such as Tanti Merle, Vibert, Slim, and Tall-Boy. His stories have been featured in many well-known international publications and have been translated into French, German, and Japanese.
Theodora Ulerie known as Storyteller 868, has kept West African and Caribbean storytelling traditions alive for decades, reclaiming ancestral folktales for contemporary performance. Also known as Autie Thea, Sojourner Culture, the Mystic Storyteller, and now ‘Storyteller 868’, Ms Ulerie is the co-ordinator of Baku Productions and is Founder/Creative Director of Culture House, a facility for developing cultural awareness among young people. She has done School Tours, corporate retreats, and international performances consistently for years spreading the gospel of traditional ancestral storytelling.
In the last decade T&T has produced a prodigious slew of prolific online Storytellers. Of this cohort, a handful have distanced themselves from the pack, with brilliantly crafted skits that have won large local and international followings. That push in the online space was led by the boundary-breaking work of Roger Alexis and his irreverent puppet Santana. He was quickly followed by Ro’Dey who created the template for others to follow. These Storytellers continue the work of previous generations, reflecting contemporary realities to audiences, and keeping the trickster spirit of Anansi alive!
Brother Book was a Rapso artist, a trade union supporter, and an east Port of Spain community activist. He served as secretary of the John John and Environs Improvement Organisation, a member of the East Port of Spain Cultural Alliance, and president and public relations officer of the St Joseph Road Youth Movement. Book worked closely with the young men in his community, particularly through the sport of football and served as the manager of the RSSR Football Academy. Book was one of the Rapso Elders who helped build the strong multi-generational Rapso movement of the 1990s which helped change the face of T&T music. He was known for his provocative Rapso poems ‘Message to the Young Intellectual’ and ‘That was a Friday’ about the day of the 1990 Muslimeen coup.
The two month long Folklore Festival ‘The Season of Anansi’ has been moving successfully thus far, with events in multiple venues. It was launched on Wednesday 16th April at IMAX, Port of Spain. It then staged 3 performances as part of its National Bookstore Reading Tour with a readings from Rubadiri’s 3 ‘New Adventures of Anansi’ novels at: Metropolitan Bookstore, Woodbrook; Blue Edition Bookstore, Tunapuna; and Ishmael M Khan, Henry Street, Port of Spain.
On Thursday 15th May the team launched the 3 week international multi-media Exhibition ‘The Black Infinite: The Rise of Afro-Futurism’ at IMAX Port of Spain. Afro-Futurism refers to storytelling by Black, Brown, and ethnic peoples free from shackles and stereotype- including Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy. The cocktail gala launch was followed by a successful international Zoom Conference featuring legendary Afro-Futurist pioneers Like Ytasha Womack and artists from Africa, North America, Europe, and from Trinidad and its Diaspora. The exhibition continues Thursday to Saturday every week until Sat 7th June.
On Wednesday 21st May Rubadiri’s theatre company, the Wire Bend Folklore Theatre staged their most popular play ‘Anansi & the 10 Dragons’ at Queen’s Hall. There were 2 performances for school and a 7pm adult Gala. Throughout May and June, Rubadiri and his team will be doing their annual National School Storytelling Tour where he performs his Anansi stories to thousands of primary and secondary school students. Schools can still book performances.
Tickets for the ‘Tribute to the Storytellers’ event are $200 and available at: https://islandetickets.com/event/storytellers or at Metropolitan Bookstore, 12 Ariapita Avenue, Woodbrook. To reserve tickets, buy Anansi books and merchandise, or for more information about the Festival, you can call 1-868-797-0949 or visit https://www.seasonofanansi.com/