Trinidad and Tobago

Trinidadian dancer, singer and poet Michael Manswell evokes the Yoruba God Oyá, customs officer for the dead.

All of us as have two experiences in common — birth and death.  One is greeted with joy and celebration; the other is often accompanied by a wide range of emotions such as fear, relief, sorrow, joy, grief, and loss.  In the process of dying, and in death itself, cultural practices and rituals play a key role in the individual’s and family’s experience of end-of-life. Understanding how death and dying have come to be expressed in culturally-specific traditions and diverse art forms offers remarkable insight into end-of-life situations, allowing healthcare professionals to develop essential cultural competencies and increased empathy.

The End-of-Life Toolkit is a set of resources that accompanies an eLearning course entitled “Heritage to Health:  Harnessing the Power of the Arts for End-of-Life Care”.  The Toolkit provides resources on death and dying, geared to both health professionals and the public.  It contains links to textbooks, stories, poems, cultural perspectives on death and dying, as well as compelling video clips, examples of various art forms, and “how to” information for creating various types of memorials when an individual passes away.  The Toolkit expands the opportunities for healthcare providers to enhance their skills in end-of-life care through the use of the Arts. It focuses on ways to create a culturally sensitive yet individualized environment for those at the end-of-life, using the Arts as a clinical tool for supporting patients’ beliefs, traditions, and customs in a meaningful way.

Developed by City Lore and the Nurse Practitioner Healthcare Foundation. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Community: 
City Lore
Traditions: 

Ritual

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Belief

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Steve Bhola of the Steve Massive Rhythm Band performs and discusses the multidimensional rhythms that make up J'Ovuert Rhythm band's with Ray Allen, professor of music at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center.

Traditions: 

Music

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Currently, an "Extempo King" is crowned each year as part of the carnival in Trinidad. Three-time Extempo King Black Sage (Phillip Murray) has performed in New York a number of times along with other calypso masters including Mighty Gypsy (Winston Peters). In this scene, filmed at the Tropical Paradise, a Trinidadian restaurant in Brooklyn, Black Sage duels against a relative newcomer to the scene, Fat Man George. These picong performances preserve an important part of Afro-Caribbean culture and heritage.

Community: 
City Lore
Traditions: 

Music

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Verbal Arts

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