Need a break from shopping tonight? Well at 8 pm the best of the Creole culture will be on stage at the Bliss Center. It's the second annual Brokdong Competition which has been renamed the Wilfred Peters Brokdong Competition in honor of the living brokdown legend. 10 performers will compete for nearly $8,000 in cash prizes. We dropped in at rehearsals this afternoon and discovered that for the performers, the competition is more about keeping a culture alive than the cash prize.
Keith Swift Reporting,
Last year's runner up and best new artist Alford Butler sang of a fate that should never befall any of us. His song's lament is that he bought everything and his friends came over for Christmas and ate and drank him out. And that's the kind of traditional theme that this year's performers also hope to capture at the Brokdong Competition. Performer Martha Weatherburn told us the essence of a good brokdong song.
Martha Weatherburn, Performer
"What makes a good brokdong song? That's a good question. Well to me a good brokdong song is like something natural. I just sit down and I think about things that I saw happening when I was young and I put it together; stuff like that."
And no one knows that more than reigning champ Leela Vernon. Again, she's brought her "gumbey" drum. She says she is competing, but more than that, she's keeping a tradition alive.
Leela Vernon, Performer
"I do intend to do my best and it has been a part of my tradition to upkeep the brokdong. I don't see anything wrong with participants coming and upkeep the traditional folklore of Belize which is the Creole brokdong, one of our oldest traditional music of this land."
And more than just "songs of this land", challenger Pino Sierra is singing a song about land.
Pino Sierra, Performer
"My song is, 'I noh wah sell no land.' I am trying to let people be aware that we should hold on to what we have. We shouldn't sell our land."
And while sierra tells listeners to protect their land, Denfield "sailor" Augustine is expanding brokdong's boundaries in other ways.
Keith Swift,
How long have you been doing brukdong?
Denfield Augustine, Performer
"I am just starting honestly and I am actually a Garifuna person and I am in tune with Garifuna music, that's what I'm doing, but if you notice the paranda is not too far from the brokdong so its kind of easier for me to do."
And Harry Genus the third, a protege of Leela Vernon, is going old school.
Harry Genus III, Performer
"Brokdong bram is like you have a party where brokdown music is included and it's a bram so I'd like to introduce the bram and I want to introduce tonight my new accordion that I have."
Leela Vernon,
"You know the brokdong come in different style. We have the old style brokdong from the south where we use the ryuthmn drum and of course the (beating on drum) "gumbey." When you want to hear a good brokdong you definitely have the gumbey, the jackass jawbone, and all the traditional orchestration."
And that spirit of brokdong will be in abundant evidence tonight - as it was at the rehearsal today.
Tonight's show begins at 8 pm at the Bliss Center. Admission is ten dollars. $2,500 will go to song of the year which is the top prize. The competition will be judged by a five judges drawn from across the music community.
