Chalkdust gets ORTT, nation’s highest award

Dr Hol­lis Liv­er­pool al­so known as Chalk­dust has be­come the sec­ond ca­lyp­son­ian to re­ceive the coun­try’s high­est award in the na­tion’s his­to­ry.
The list of awardees was re­leased yes­ter­day and Dr Liv­er­pool is the on­ly re­cip­i­ent of the high­est award.
He said he plans to ac­cept his Or­der of the Re­pub­lic of Trinidad and To­ba­go (ORTT) award with a sense of hu­mil­i­ty.
It is not his first award.
In 1976 he re­ceived the Hum­ming­bird Medal Sil­ver for his con­tri­bu­tion to ca­lyp­so.
“I feel very hap­py when I con­sid­er all what I have done, it’s a plea­sure to be award­ed for the work you have done and con­tributed es­pe­cial­ly in the role of Car­ni­val and Ca­lyp­so and ed­u­ca­tion.”
At the Na­tion­al Award cer­e­mo­ny this evening Chalk­dust will re­ceive the award for his work in ed­u­ca­tion, cul­ture and re­search.
Chalk­dust has been singing Ca­lyp­so since the 1960s and has won nine Ca­lyp­so Monarch ti­tles dur­ing his ca­reer. He is al­so a uni­ver­si­ty pro­fes­sor.
“So the teach­ing fra­ter­ni­ty and the ca­lyp­so fra­ter­ni­ty I want to ac­cept this on their be­half be­cause with­out them I couldn’t get this award.”
Dr Liv­er­pool told Guardian Me­dia that he is grate­ful he is re­ceiv­ing this ho­n­our while he is still alive and thanked all those who lob­bied on his be­half.
He hoped that this award can cre­ate pos­i­tive change go­ing for­ward for the art form.
“Many peo­ple do not see ca­lyp­so­ni­ans con­tribut­ing to so­ci­ety many peo­ple see ca­lyp­so­ni­ans on­ly con­tribut­ing to en­ter­tain­ment…I am hap­py to see they award­ing a ca­lyp­son­ian be­cause it means that in the fu­ture many per­sons who singing ca­lyp­so will try to sing good lyrics, will try to sing mean­ing­ful lyrics, will try to sing lyrics that can give peo­ple a sense of pur­pose and up­lift them, ”he said.
He added when­ev­er he sings he tries to give the coun­try a lift and to think crit­i­cal­ly.
The on­ly oth­er Ca­lyp­son­ian to re­ceive the ORTT was Mc­Cartha “Ca­lyp­so Rose” Lewis. Last year for­mer Min­is­ter of Fi­nance and Ath­lete, Wen­dell Mot­t­ley was the on­ly re­cip­i­ent of the na­tion’s high­est award.
The award cer­e­mo­ny starts at 6PM at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA). Source: Guardian, Sept. 24, 2019

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