Saving Calypso with Toronto's Kaiso Street Society

Abstract

This article is a piece of personal journalism that both explores the rich musical and cultural history of Calypso as well as my deep personal connection to the form. The music “shares an ancestral musical and cultural thread with all diasporic cultures that originated in Africa and spread throughout the world – to Cuba, the French– and English-speaking Caribbean and Brazil – via the chattel slavery system,” is one of the premises of the article. In the article, I also interview musician Jesse Ryan founder and director of the Kaiso Street Society, a group whose mandate to investigate, and honour, document, promote and educate around traditional Calypso to ensure it is preserved and holds its place in the global musical lexicon.

First published in WholeNote Magazine, May 2024.