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At 75, Annette Nicholson-Alfred still remembers the first folk song she sang as a pupil of Charlotteville Methodist Primary School, Tobago.
The former independent senator was about eight years-old and the song was called Coverlet.
“A teacher from Belle Garden Anglican, Dayla Frederick, taught us the song for some kind of school gathering,” Nicholson-Alfred recalled in a WMN interview.
She said the folk song told the story of a bed spread that was hung out to dry but mysteriously went missing.
“When the teacher could not find it, being from Belle Garden, she asked people to look for the coverlet in Pembroke and Roxborough, which are adjoining communities.”
Now, Coverlet can be found in Nicholson-Alfred’s first publication, Come Sing with Ti Netty, launched on October 3 at the Scarborough Library.
Asked about the title of the book, she explained, “The ‘Ti’ in the title is short for Tanty. Long ago, there was always a tanty or matriarch who used to be a powerful person in the yards of many homes. In the book, I see myself as Ti and a lot of my friends affectionately call me Netty (short for Annette). So, I just added the ‘Ti’ to it.”
[caption id="attachment_916711" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Annette Nicholson-Alfred and her husband Richard perform a folk song at an event. Photo courtesy Annette Nicholson-Alfred. -[/caption]
Cultural activist and former independent senator Dr Eastlyn Mc Kenzie was expected to deliver the feature address at the virtual launch, with a review of the publication by Tobago Festivals Commission Ltd CEO John Arnold.
Nicholson-Alfred’s grandchildren, the Itsy Bitsy Players and some friends from her native Charlotteville, were due to perform selected folk songs from the book.
A compilation of 25 folk songs, Come Sing with Ti Netty celebrates the Caribbean’s rich cultural heritage.
But the veteran cultural activist said the songs, several of which are indigenous to Tobago, also explore familiar, universal themes of love, hope, loss, fear, disappointment, among others.
“For instance, many people would have gone to Venezuela years ago to work and left one or two children here. They would have promised to come back and the children are still waiting for them to come back so you will hear the people lamenting.”
Some of the songs also reflect occurrences that have become synonymous with certain villages over the years while others offer warnings to naive and unsuspecting Tobagonians.
“In one of the songs, reference is made to Sandy River in Mason Hall ‘because if you go there the fairy maid is going to take you away.’”
In another piece, a grandmother also warns her granddaughter “not to follow Louisa because she too bad and hot like a pepper.” One song also cautions bathers about jumbies and douens (folklore characters) at the beaches in Les Coteaux.
“So, the songs deal with different aspects of our culture.”
Nicholson-Alfred, who received the Public Service Medal of Merit (Gold) in 2005, said she was inspired to do the book because she was fed up of groups performing the same folk songs at cultural shows and other events in Tobago.
“As a teacher and later a cultural officer, I was deeply involved in teaching but what I found after a time, everywhere I went – because I went to all of the cultural shows – you would only be hearing three or four folks songs as though that was all we had and there were other folk songs that could be sung.
[caption id="attachment_916712" align="alignnone" width="720"] Former independent senator Annette Nicholson-Alfred. -[/caption]
“At a point, I was not pleased and I said to myself instead of complaining and quarrelling why don’t you put some of the folk songs that you know together and do a book.”
The mother of four said several of her friends encouraged her to embrace the project and she began compiling the book a little over a year ago.
“I decided to go brave but I did not know it was such a costly thing. But having got into it, I decided I was not turning back and now the book is a reality.”
One of Tobago’s cultural luminaries, Nicholson-Alfred recalled that for as long as she could remember she was always exposed to folk songs.
She attributed her love for the performing arts to her late mother, Margaret Nicholson, who would often sing while raising her eight children in their humble home.
As a child, Nicholson-Alfred sang and acted in many activities in the Methodist church and by the time she left her alma mater Bishop’s High School, was already a fixture at many of Tobago’s cultural events.
But it was in the 1960s, during her years at the now defunct Mausica Teachers’ College, in Trinidad, that her love for singing and performing really took off.
[caption id="attachment_916710" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Annette Nicholson-Alfred, her husband Richard and young members of Itsy Bitsy Folk Theatre. - Photo courtesy Annette Nicholson-Alfred -[/caption]
In fact, under the tutelage of Daphne “DG” Cuffie and Fitz-James Williams, Nicholson-Alfred, an alto singer, played a key role in the choir’s success in music festivals and other national competitions.
“I did a lot of harmonising and dramatisation for them.”
At the teachers’ college, the choir was also exposed to the folk songs of the Caribbean islands they had visited.
In the early 1970s, a newly-married Nicholson-Alfred coordinated Plymouth’s presentations in the Prime Minister’s Best Village competition for five years. She was later awarded a government scholarship in 1977 at New York University where she received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in educational theatre.
On her return to Tobago, she established the Tobago Academy of the Performing Arts (TAPA) in 1983, which became the centre for ballet, modern and folk dance on the island.
After teaching for several years, Nicholson-Alfred was assigned to the Department of Culture from 1997 to 2006. And a year later, after the TAPA drew its curtain, founded the Itsy Bitsy Playhouse and Folk Theatre at her home in Mt Pleasant. The group exposed the young people of the community and its surrounding villages to singing, dance, drama and stilt-walking.
In its heyday, Itsy Bitsy offered locals and tourists an authentic glimpse into Tobago’s culture in a folksy ambience. Apart from experiencing the tambrin, speech band, story-telling and folk singing and dance, guests were also treated to what was called heritage dinner, featuring several of the island’s indigenous dishes.
Today, dwindling tourist arrivals coupled with the economic impact of covid19, has forced the Itsy Bitsy Folk Theatre to temporarily shut its doors. But Nicholson-Alfred assured the group will regain its status as one of Tobago’s leading cultural venues when the economy fully reopens.
Nicholson-Alfred is also heavily involved in the island’s signature cultural event, the Tobago Heritage Festival and since 2002, has managed the Charlotteville Heritage Folk Performers. The group’s re-enactment of village life in the olden days remains one of the more eagerly-anticipated presentations at the annual festival.
In compiling Come Sing with Ti Netty, Nicholson-Alfred drew from her experiences with several of Tobago’s noted cultural personalities.
These include late anthropologist JD Elder, Adolphus “Boyo” James, Rollins Bacchus, James Murray, Lifroy Moses, Vernon Dennis, Margaret Bobb and Kelvin “Django” George. Gilbert O’Connor, Caryll Warner and Afesha “Fefe” Lincoln also collaborated on the project.
Saying the book is a tangible manifestation of a lifelong dream, Nicholson-Alfred believes young people will appreciate the effort.
“There is an interest among young Tobagonians because they always say, ‘Ms Alfred, I want a folk song,’ whenever there is an event. I am also working with some 30 something year-olds on various projects and they are quite interested.”
Asked what she believes will be the take-away from the compilation, Nicholson-Alfred responded, “The preservation and the passing on of our cultural heritage. We have been singing folk songs as part of our tradition all the time but for folk songs all the time but documenting it now has given me the opportunity to pass on and preserve for the future generations.”
Nicholson-Alfred said judging from her own grandchildren’s interest, folk singing appears to be in good hands.
“My little grandchildren always behind me singing. As I start a song, they would be behind me finishing it because they are learning something different.”
She lamented that folk singing rarely takes place in schools.
“Even before covid19, we did not do those things in schools anymore. So, the book is an opportunity to reintroduce singing into our schools.”
In the meantime, Nicholson-Alfred said the THA Division of Education, Innovation and Energy has also embraced the project
“They have already ordered books for the schools and I am trying the same thing with the Ministry of Education. I sent a letter to the ministry asking them to get involved because Come Sing with Ti Netty could be used as texts. There is music and lyrics. We have our scores and I have a glossary so whatever is in dialect can be translated.”
Nicholson-Alfred said a CD of the melodies to the songs will be available from this week. She said she has already compiled 40 more folk songs to be packaged in a volume two publication in the not-too-distant future.
Copies of Come Sing with Ti Netty are available at Itsy Bitsy Folk Theatre, Robert Trace, Mt Pleasant, The Little Mines Bookstore, Port Mall, Scarborough and The Blue Edition Bookstore, 32 St Vincent Street, Tunapuna.
It can also be purchased from Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
 
The post Come Sing with Ti Netty: Annette Nicholson-Alfred celebrates Tobago folk songs in new book appeared first on Trinidad and Tobago Newsday.