But what happened after 1962?
If it’s not abundantly clear by now, I’m a big fan of visiting museums wherever I travel. Whereas other travelers may quickly write these institutions off as “boring” and “stuffy,” I find them fascinating gateways that weave the historical, social and artistic threads into the tapestry of a culture and people I’m encountering for the first time. Museums have given me context for the current political and economic climates of a nation; they’ve helped me understand the architecture and street art I’ve absorbed during an afternoon of wandering the thoroughfares of a capital city. I’ve seen exhibits about national cuisines where the dishes have later popped up on a restaurant’s menu or listened to traditional instruments that have gone on to serenade me near markets and public squares.
But what do you do when a museum warns you upfront that there will be gaps in the information it will present? How do you go about filling the holes in the knowledge provided? As I paid for my ticket to the National Museum and Art Gallery in Port of Spain, I was handed a map/brochure that stated: The National Museum and Art Gallery traces the Social and Economic development of Trinidad and Tobago up to Independence in 1962.
This was sounding great until that last bit. The National Museum will just stop telling Trinidad & Tobago’s story at 1962? But that’s sixty years ago! Not only has A LOT happened since then, but so much of it informs the daily lives of the modern Trinidadian citizen. The National Museum might be a good starting place to learn about the nation’s history, but with decades worth of narrative still to cover, I was going to have to get creative with how I would uncover Trinidad’s post-independence story.
The National Museum and Art Gallery
Trinidad’s National Museum opened in 1892 as part of Queen Victoria’s Jubilee celebration. The building was appropriately tailored in the Victorian Colonial-Style and is an historical landmark in its own right. No doubt, when the museum first opened it extolled the virtues of the British Empire’s role in the development of its crown colony, but nowadays the Brits have been recast in the role of the villain, as the museum charts Trinidad (& Tobago)’s path to independence from their many colonial oppressors.
Trinidad is believed to be the oldest inhabited island in the Caribbean. The original native peoples came in boats from South America, and their earliest found settlements date back to 5000 BC. Christopher Columbus never landed on Tobago, but he did “discover” Trinidad in 1498. His men made so-called slaves runs, snatching natives from other Caribbean islands and transporting them to Trinidad, but native Amerindians fought back and it wasn’t until nearly a century later in 1592 that the Spanish were able to establish their first permanent fort in San José, declaring it the capital of this new Spanish colony.
In 1687, Spanish monks arrived with two goals in mind, the first of which was to build missions and convert the Amerindians to Catholicism. This didn’t go over well with the native population, but their second directive was met even fiercer resistance. The monks set up an encomienda, or labor system, that basically turned the Amerindians into slaves who would work the fields and build the churches where they would later (attempt) to be converted. By 1699, the Amerindians led a rebellion killing three priests and the Spanish governor. The Spanish responded by slaughtering thousands of Amerindians in the Arena Massacres; by the following century, the Amerindians were entirely wiped off the island.
Fast forward another century to 1783 and the population was floundering. The capital had been moved to the newly-founded Port of Spain, but Trinidad remained underpopulated compared to other Caribbean island colonies. The Spanish introduced a Cédula de Población in order to entice new settlers to the island. The Cédula promised any Catholic a parcel of land, even free (mixed) slaves. A large influx of French Catholics took the Spanish government up on this offer and soon Trinidad adopted a distinctive French flavoring under Spanish rule. In total 1500 French settlers immigrated to Trinidad, bringing with them 33,000 African slaves.
The British, having previously taken an interest in Tobago, now set their sights on Trinidad as well. In 1797, the Spanish surrendered to the British navy and Thomas Picton became of the first British governor, unleashing a reign of terror on the population, sparing no one from his ire. Picton was eventually disposed of and Trinidad become an official crown colony in 1802. Scottish, German, Irish and Italian settlers joined the Spanish, French and British as Trinidad’s multi-cultural identity began to grow. Plantations producing sugar, coffee, cocoa and cotton flourished; slave labor ensured maximum profits for the European land owners.
When slavery was abolished in the United Kingdom in 1833, the formerly enslaved Afro-Trinidadian population left the plantations and set up communities just east of Port of Spain. Left with no one to work the fields, the British set up an indentured servitude system with several Asian nations including India and China. Any worker’s sea passage was paid for and in return they were to commit to ten years hard labor on the plantations. After this period, a return voyage could be purchased, or the indentured servant could opt to receive 10 acres of land. These workers were technically “paid,” with salaries ranging from $1.45-2.40 per month. They were expected to work nine hours a day, six days a week. Essentially, the British replaced one form of slavery with a second, only slightly less-awful form of slavery.
Still, people signed up in droves. Between 1845 and the program’s dissolution in 1917, 145,000 Indians came to Trinidad, bringing with them their Muslim and Hindu beliefs. Today Indian-Trinidadians make up 35% of the island’s population. A sizable Chinese minority also can be found in Trinidad, as well as descendants from Syrians who were seeking refuge in 1913 and Jews who escaped Europe during World War II. One of the greatest differences between Trinidad and Tobago is the latter is almost exclusively Afro-Tobagonian while the former is one of the most diverse places I’ve ever visited.
Speaking of Tobago: the small island was such a perpetual headache for the British that in 1889 they threw up their hands and stopped trying to establish Tobago’s own colonial government, making it a ward of Trinidad instead. The larger island was becoming the United Kingdom’s big money maker anyway. As plantations were becoming less profitable to run, petroleum was discovered off Trinidad’s coast in the 1850s. The island’s wealth grew, but none of the money was finding its way into the pockets of the non-Europeans. The British did eventually grant suffrage to the citizens and the first local government was elected in 1925, but it was too little, too late. Riots over labor conditions and wages spilled out into the streets .
Eric Williams founded the PNM (People’s National Movement) in 1956 and made great strides towards ensuring Trinidad & Tobago’s dual independence from the United Kingdom in 1962. (Williams went on to become the nation’s first prime minister, a post he held till his death in 1981.)
With Trinidad & Tobago’s independence assured and its acceptance into the United Nations solidified, the National Museum wraps up it’s historical narrative. In some ways, this is a cop out. It’s easy to tell the story when there are clear “good guys” and “bad guys,” but as soon as the tale becomes a little less clear-cut and the lines of who’s on the side of “right” become blurred, that’s when you’re got to work hard to objectively explain what occurred and let the visitor come to their own conclusions. Still, the exhibits chronicling the colonial period are well done and will give you the foundation to discover what transpired post-independence on your own.
Woodford Square
Not far from the National Museum is Woodford Square, the heart of Port of Spain’s historical district. Walk around the park and read the sign posts detailing the important buildings that line all sides of this small, urban park. The square was original designed by the Spanish in 1787 and was mainly used to carry out military exercises. In 1917, it was renamed after Sir Ralph Woodford, the British governor who refurbished the green space and launched various beautification projects in the capital, including Queen’s Park Savannah and the Botanic Gardens.
The bandstand was added in 1866 and Woodford Square is home to concerts and social gatherings in the evenings, but its real claim to fame is the early morning open forum that anyone can sign up to lead/participate in. The tradition was started by Eric Williams in 1956 when he founded the so-called “University of Woodford Square.” The idea was that any citizen could sign up to speak on or debate a current political issue and the whole community could watch and either be persuaded or not. The forum continues to this day; most recently, gay rights activists credit the forum discussions for the passage of historic legislation in 2018 that extended rights and protections to all sexualities in Trinidad & Tobago. Williams quickly realized that change will never happen if political action is left to representatives arguing in a Parliament chamber. True progress comes directly from an informed public.
The Red House
Trinidad’s Parliament, locally known as the Red House, has been hiding behind a spiderweb of scaffolding since 1999 when the government launched a massive renovation project to inject some new life into the battered building. (After 20 years of construction, several locals told me they wondered if they would ever see the Red House completed, but the global hiatus imposed by Covid ironically allowed the restoration work to speed up, and I hear that building is once again scaffolding-free!)
In fairness, the Red House has had a remarkably rocky history. The first Parliament building burned to the ground in 1903 before this Neo-Renaissance structure was erected on the same spot. Its most dramatic moment came in 1990 during A.N.R. Robinson’s Prime Minister tenure, when Yasin Abu Bakr, an Islamic fundamentalist, and 114 of his followers stormed the the Red House and a local TV, taking 45 members of Parliament hostage, including Robinson. The siege lasted six days, during which buildings were bombed and fires were set in downtown Port of Spain. Robinson came of out the situation alive and unharmed, but 26 others were killed and the prosecution of the case was mangled for years to come.
On top of all that, during the reconstruction process, the workers uncovered Amerindian remains beneath the Red House, which led archeologists to discover that the area’s original use was that of a native Amerindian burial ground before the Spanish leveled the cemetery in the late 18th Century. All construction was halted until the newly-found graves could be protected and preserved.
The (Old) Public Library
The Trinidadian library system was created in 1851 and its headquarters were moved to Woodford Square in 1901. At the time, serious roadblocks were put in place by the colonial government, hindering non-Europeans from fully receiving a public education. The library, while segregated, was open for all to use and both Afro- and Indian-Trinidadians took advantage of this loophole to become self-taught citizens. Thus the library and not the school became the center of educational life for many on the island.
The building itself was designed in the Classical Revival-Style with accentuated arches that descend from the second floor down to the first. The windows create a 3D cut-out effect when lined up with their corresponding arches. Most of the library’s collection has moved to a new home across the square, but reading rooms are still open to the public on the first floor.
Hall of Justice
Right next to The Old Public Library sits the Hall of Justice, built in a Tropical Modernism-Style (that seems to share a lot in come with Socialist Brutalism), dating to 1979. It shouldn’t shock you by now that I have an affinity for these concrete behemoths and the Hall of Justice quickly became my favorite building in Port of Spain; the prison transport buses add a nice touch to the milieu, don’t you think?
The building houses several high courts of the island nation, including the Supreme Court. When plans were being drawn up in the 1970s for the court’s new home, the architects were instructed to whip up something modern that still fits in with the other architectural styles around Woodford Square. The Hall of Justice has not gone over well with the locals, to put it mildly. Often ranked as the ugliest building in Trinidad & Tobago, I had several people think I was either crazy or pulling their leg (or both) when I told them how much I loved this monstrosity. Of course, even I can admit that the architects failed on both counts of their directive seeing as how the building looks positively stuck in the past (and straight out of the former Soviet Union) and, more importantly, it doesn’t match the aesthetic or vibe of its neighbors at all.
People can disparage the architecture all they want, but the building is functional. The concrete panels act as a natural cooling system, allowing the building to breathe and reduce humidity. As we saw with the gingerbread architecture in the previous post, all influences and design elements incorporated from other cultures needed to first be adapted to the Caribbean’s tropical climate.
Holy Trinity Cathedral
When the British assumed power of Trinidad in 1797, one of their first orders of business was to construct a cathedral in the center of the capital. Originally, Holy Trinity was meant to take up the entire square, but the citizens resisted having their green space destroyed and groundbreaking for the cathedral instead took place across the street, on the south side of the square. Completed in 1818, the church was modeled in the Gothic Revival-Style with its lancet stained glass windows and blue limestone excavated from nearby Laventille quarries.
Perhaps the most stunning feature of the cathedral is the mahogany hammerbeam roof which was built in England and transported across the Atlantic to be assembled in Port of Spain. You can see the decorative open timber roof trusses above that give this unique style of woodworking its name.
When cathedral opened for services, there were 480 designated seats in the pews: 300 reserved for white Europeans and 180 for “free coloreds.” (Slaves were not permitted to attend services at Holy Trinity and you can plainly see the hypocrisy. Everyone was expected to convert to Catholicism/Christianity, but many were not allowed to step foot in the church!)
As attendance and membership has dwindled in recent years, the church has attempted to rebrand itself, focusing less on the formal liturgy and more on personal spirituality. The Labyrinth and Garden of Peace were added to the grounds in the late 1990s to provide a place for quiet reflection. The church has also embraced cremation as a valid form of burial and a mausoleum of sorts has been erected to hold the ashes of deceased congregates. I’m not much of a religious man, but I did find my visit to the cathedral relaxing and calming.
NALIS (National Library)
The National Library, which opened to the public in 2003, served as my home base during my daily explorations of Port of Spain. 1) There is a fantastic coffee shop on the ground floor of the library and I need to drink lots of coffee every day. 2) NALIS is gloriously air conditioned. 3) The WiFi is fast and free.
I feel like Colin Laird, the architect who designed the National Library, succeeded where the Hall of Justice (allegedly!) failed. The building is certainly modern- it was intended to look like a cruise ship docked at port- but somehow it fits in with the other buildings around Woodford Square. Despite its massive size, it appears to be light and airy, as if it could collapse in on itself like a child’s toy. Like a ship bobbing along in the bay, the library has an illusion of buoyancy that belies its actual weight.
The Old Fire Station
The Victorian-Style Old Fire Station was the first concrete structure built in Port of Spain when it was completed in 1896. After it outgrew its original purpose for the fire department, the station was transformed into a theater before it was annexed by the library system in 1999. Now it hosts special events and art exhibits sponsored by NALIS.
From this vantage point, you can see how well the new library building frames the Old Fire Station, engendering a harmony between the two structures and the historical center’s skyline as a whole. It’s as if the National Library were the missing puzzle piece with which the Old Fire Station took over a century to interlock.
Central Police Station
The (forgive me) arresting Central Police Station was all but destroyed during the 1990 hostage situation at the Red House next door. The building’s Italian Gothic-Style has since been recreated and this certainly must rank as one of the most unusual police stations I’ve encountered on my travels. I did not visit the museum on the top floor that details the history of Trinidad’s police force, but if that sort of thing floats your boat, it’s there for the taking.
Brian Lara Promenade/Independence Square/Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception
If Woodford Square is the historical center of Port of Spain, then Independence Square and the Brian Lara Promenade, named after a famous Trinidadian cricket player, is the commercial and social hub of the capital. Stretching for blocks, the promenade is lined with clothing shops, souvenir stores, international fast food chains and local hole-in-the-wall eateries (pastries from Lucky Bakery are a must). The bus from the airport drops you off one block south of the promenade, making the square my first impression of the capital. This is a city buzzing with life, whose electrons in the atmosphere can almost be seen dancing with the fireflies and mosquitos. Coming from Scarborough, Tobago’s ultra-laidback capital, stepping off the bus was a bit of culture shock, highlighting how different these two islands are.
At the easterly end of the square is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, whose Gothic-Style twin towers are iconic in Trinidad. Built in 1836, the cathedral had become worse for the wear by the 1990s and a costly restoration process was recently completed to return the building to its former glory.
Fort San Andreas/Museum of the City of Port of Spain
As someone who loves world capitals so much that I started a blog about them, visiting the “Museum of the City of (INSERT CAPITAL CITY HERE)” is always a highlight. A national museum will give you a general overview of a country, but a “city of” museum allows you take a deep dive into what makes the people of a certain urban environment tick. What a bummer to approach Port of Spain’s namesake museum only to find it closed for major renovations! The gates were chained and no one was in sight.
I apparently looked distraught enough that a passerby stopped to ask where I was from and kindly commiserated with me about the museum’s closure. “I’m not going to let this go,” he says to me. “I know someone who knows one of the security guards here. Give me a minute.” Lo and behold, after a few phone calls a guard shows up and lets me onto the grounds! I wasn’t permitted to go inside, but I did get to check out the cannons in the rear courtyard and see the outdoor exhibit of original locomotives from Trinidad’s early railroad days. Everywhere I turned, I met someone who went the extra mile to make me feel welcome in Port of Spain.
The museum is housed in Fort San Andreas, originally built in 1787 by the Spanish to ward off the British. The military complex never saw battle and the British turned it into a (forced) immigration center of sorts; 65,000 African slaves and 30,000 Indian indentured servants were processed through San Andreas, leaving a stain on the island’s legacy.
Memorial Park
Both Independence Square and Fort San Andreas are south of Woodford Square; if you head north, you’ll bump into several parks and green spaces, plus an albatross of a performing arts center. First up is Memorial Park, a quaint little plaza built to honor those from Trinidad & Tobago who lost their lives during the two world wars. Of course, both global conflicts occurred pre-independence and Trinidad & Tobago were crown colonies at the time. Locals were recruited to fight in the British armed forces and the United States was permitted to build military bases on both islands during World War II. (The US did not completely leave Trinidad until 1961.)
National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA)
Perhaps the most controversial building in Port of Spain is the National Academy for the Performing Arts, or NAPA for short. This new, ostensibly state-of-the-art facility opened in 2009 to much fanfare and a whooping price tag of TT$500 million (~US $74 million). NAPA would not only be home to the most prestigious performing arts school on the island, but it would contain several concert halls for theater, dance, opera, the symphony and celebrations of steel pan music, Trinidad & Tobago’s national instrument. It all sounds great, right?
After the grand opening, rumors began to circulate through the artistic community that NAPA wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. This culminated in an exposé being published by one of Port of Spain’s newspapers wherein several heads of the academy ripped the new arts center to shreds. Their complaints ran the gamut from the aesthetic to the functional. The building was designed to look like the chaconia, Trinidad & Tobago’s national flower. This would be all well and good, but the shape of the chaconia can only be discerned from an aerial view of the structure, rendering much of its unusual design pointless to anyone looking at it from the ground.
More critical are the physical flaws, such as poor acoustics in the concert halls, shoddy craftsmanship of the roof and outer glass tiles, the installation of analog as opposed to digital sound boards and recording devices, no loading docks to move scenery into the performance spaces, inadequate orchestra pits, doors so narrow that the largest steel pan drums cannot fit through the backstage areas, and and and…the list goes on and on. On top of all of that, the yearly maintenance fees are astronomical and will surely bankrupt the institution- or repairs simply will not be made.
As cringetastic as all of this is, NAPA remains an impressive structure in the eyes of this tourist. I got the sense that what angered the artists the most was that they weren’t consulted about their needs and wants during the design process of the center. The money was raised and the government just went ahead and built it, as if it were a new set of apartment buildings or a pair of office high rise towers in the financial district. They didn’t think about the unique needs that a theater complex would require and now that the project is completed, everyone involved simply has to make do with what they’ve got.
Queen’s Park Savannah
The largest and most famous green space in Port of Spain is Queen’s Park Savannah, although after nearly one month without rain, I encountered more of the largest brown space, but I’ve viewed photos from other travelers and I can see where the park would be really lovely when well-watered.
Queen’s Park Savannah was originally a sugar estate, but Governor Woodford purchased the land for the city in 1817 during one of several beautification projects. There was a caveat in the sale’s contract that no permanent structure could be built on the land as long as the city owned it, and to this day the park has never seen construction; there are some bleachers that can be moved about for sporting events and concerts held on the lawn.
Royal Botanic Garden
Another Woodford initiative, the Royal Botanic Garden opened in 1818, making it one of the oldest gardens of its kind in North and South America. There are over 700 trees on the grounds, representing flora from every continent as well as a section of plants that are indigenous to Trinidad & Tobago. Admission is free, making this a popular spot for locals to visit just as much as tourists. I had several waiters/shop owners/museum workers all ask me what I’d seen and to make sure I didn’t miss the botanic garden. If the mention of NAPA and the Hall of Justice are met with a wince, the enthusiasm for this park is off the charts.
Powergen Power Station
If you walk west of Woodford Square, you’ll enter the Woodbrook neighborhood, which is equal parts industrial, trendy and atmospheric. The Powergen power plant may be the greatest symbol of 20th-Century industry in Port of Spain, although it has been decommissioned since 2016, with plans underway to turn it into a contemporary art space.
Built in 1895, Powergen was Port of Spain’s first electric power station. In 1961, the four iconic stacks were erected and have not only been a part of the western skyline, but a symbol of the nation’s technological progress throughout the decades since independence. The plant produced energy for the capital for 120 years, but will now be the a center to showcase the works for emerging Trinidadian artists. (I was warned by several locals that this goal would most likely not be realized for another 20 years!)
Hardline Vegetarian
Lonely Planet would love to have you believe that if you’re a vegetarian you’ll starve to death in Trinidad, but let’s debunk that claim, shall we? Yes, the typical Trinidadian diet is meat/fish-forward, but in Woodbrook, I found an exciting and growing vegetarian/vegan population with a string of restaurants to support the community. By far, my favorite was Hardline Vegetarian, a cafeteria-style joint where different dishes are made everyday with whatever fresh produce the cooks can find. You then fill a plate and pay by the weight at the end of the line. Nothing fancy, but truly tasty food. I’ll let my photos speak for themselves…
Lapeyrouse Cemetery
A power plant, and now a cemetery? Believe it or not, I actually had a few people recommend I visit Lapeyrouse, which hadn’t been on my list prior to visiting. The somewhat dilapidated and spectacularly atmospheric urban cemetery is open to the public and is perhaps the greatest embodiment of Port of Spain’s ethnic diversity in the city. Founded in 1813, Lapeyrouse is open to people of all faiths and heritages. Strolling past the plots will reveal a cornucopia of different names on the wide-ranging style of tombstones: West African, Indian, Chinese, Spanish, French, British, and Italian, all mixed together.
Some of the graves have seen better days and the cemetery has been plundered a few times over the decades, but the vibe is decidedly serene and not sketchy. Maybe I’m romanticizing it too much, but I really felt connected to the old world of Port of Spain here; I was shocked when I checked my phone and realized how much time I had spent wandering the lanes of Lapeyrouse. I want to be respectful and not portray this cemetery as some “tourist attraction” on par with a museum or historical building, but don’t fear offending anyone by visiting for the sake of visiting.
St. James
Farther west of Woodbrook, is the neighborhood of St. James. Technically still part of Port of Spain, it feels more like a suburb and I decided to find a cab who would drive me around and take me to St. James’ main attraction, Fort George. Cab drivers line up around Woodford Square and will offer sightseeing tours to any visitor they see. All of central Port of Spain is extremely walkable, so skip the cab tour there unless you’re in a rush or feeling lazy. If you do hire someone to take you to St. James, make sure you negotiate everything before stepping in the cab. Don’t just say, “Take me to Fort George,” because then you haven’t priced out the return trip. Be specific: I want to go St. James, see the neighborhood, go to Fort George, visit the museum and take in the views (30-60 minutes) and then be returned to Port of Spain. After you’ve established what you want to do, be ready to haggle. Don’t be a cheapskate, but don’t get ripped off either. My driver was very friendly and gave me a running commentary about the history of the area; I’d rather give a big tip for great service at the end than pay a lot upfront without knowing what the quality of the experience will be.
Most of downtown Port of Spain is relatively flat, but as you can see, St. James was built on a rather steep incline. The road leading up to Fort George is the most brutal section of road; at times I feared the tires would lose their grip and the car would roll back down the hill.
Fort George
Fort George, not be confused with Fort King George in Scarborough, is perched atop the highest hill in St. James and will treat you to breathtaking views of Port of Spain and the Caribbean Sea below. As a military installation, Fort George was a bit of a dud. It was built by the British in 1804, but never saw any fighting and was eventually abandoned by the troops in 1846.
During one of the British-waged wars against the Ashanti in what is now present-day Ghana, the West African Prince, Kofi Nti was taken prisoner and brought to Port of Spain. In 1883 he designed the signal house that was to become his home in exile, tasked with alerting towns along the coastline of impending storms and approaching ships. Prince Kofi Nti was also an avid stamp collector, the remains of which you can see preserved in the museum that now occupies the building.
It won’t take you long to explore the museum and grounds of the fort, but everything is free and worth a quick look. The main draw is definitely the view; make sure you’ve given yourself enough time with your cab driver to properly enjoy it and take the beauty in.
Back to the National Museum and Art Gallery
To wrap up this post, I’m going back to where we started at the National Museum and Art Gallery. Although the museum brochure only promised to take us through Trinidad & Tobago’s independence from the British in 1962, it ironically brings us closest to present day with its modern and contemporary art on the top two floors in the Art Gallery.
The Art Gallery is divided into two sections: the permanent collection, which showcases 20th-Century artwork from native Trinidadians, and the top floor, which houses rotating temporary exhibits from contemporary artists. Of note in the permanent collection are the works of Boscoe Holder, who was born in Port of Spain in 1921 and founded a dance company with his wife Sheila that would travel the globe, exporting Trinidadian painting, dance and steel pan music the world over. The couple based themselves in London during the 1950s and 60s, where they performed on TV variety programs and in live theater events. Eventually, Holder returned to Trinidad, where he painted until his death in 2007.
Every year, students from the Department of Creative & Festival Arts at the University of the West Indies (UWI) are selected to put on a showcase of their best fine and visual art. Their works touch on themes affecting the youth of Trinidad, such as mental illness, gay rights, self-harm and bullying, as well as larger eco-socico-economic issues such as destruction of the environment, dwindling renewable resources, urban planning and navigating the perpetual shockwaves still felt from colonialism. Truly, theirs was the most exciting art I experienced in Port of Spain.
Discussing mental illness is still a taboo subject in Trinidadian culture, but Marinna Shareef, a bi-polar artist, is setting out to change that, attempting to break down the stigmas surrounding her diagnosis. “The Attack” is an immersive piece meant to capture what it feels like to be in a manic and depressed state at the same time. It’s an hallucinogenic experience: black lights expose garish colors, music plays and strobing beams pulsate periodically. If you’re really still, you can hear a piped in recording of Shareef popping bubble wrap; the soothing sound and tactile, repetitious motion produce a calming effect that helps her cope with a manic episode.
Student Ancil Boodram decided to take on animal abuse in Trinidad with his triangular metal cage. Animal anti-cruelty laws were being debated in Parliament when Boodram created his piece and in 2021 legislation passed that would make animal abuse a federal crime and carry a fine of TT$200,000/one year in prison. This was seen a huge win for animal rights advocates on the island and was a well-received victory for politicians this past year.
Jeanice Briggs made quite the statement piece with “Self,” a composite of rope, tar and splintered glass. She describes this art as a tug of war between self-love and self-hate, a true therapy piece for its creator. The rope itself represents her naturally soft and wavy hair forced into western-style braids as a young schoolgirl. Through art, she accepted who she really is and not what society wants her to be.
I’ll admit that this post has been a little bit (a little bit?!) rambling and all over the place, so I’ll let my conclusion come slightly out of left field too. I set out to demonstrate how I had to supplement my history lesson at the National Museum with places of interest throughout the capital. What I ended up showing you (I hope) was just the tip of the iceberg of how much Port of Spain has to offer.
In my quest for knowledge, I just kept uncovering more and more and more. Despite what Lonely Planet would have you believe (the travel guru lists less than one dozen points of interest in Port of Spain and Scarborough combined), there is more than enough to fill your plate, especially if you want to take your time and enjoy everything. Port of Spain will reveal its story to you, but only at its own pace. Instead of Lonely Planet, let the architecture, museums, forts, parks, art and, mostly importantly, the people be your city guide.
