Mighty Sparrow symposium at Brooklyn’s Medgar Evers College

From NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Sunday, March 13, 2016, 4:00 AM A A A

The Mighty Sparrow at the 2011 West Indian American Day Carnival Parade’s VIP pre-event breakfast in Brooklyn.

The Mighty Sparrow — the now-legendary calypsonian who burst on the Caribbean music scene in 1956 and soared into music history — is the subject of the free “Just Like That, Sparrow Turned 80” symposium, coming to Brooklyn’s Medgar Evers College, 1637 Bedford Ave. (between Crown and Carroll Sts.) on April 8.

City College art Prof. Lawrence Waldron, educator Martin Felix, calypso/steel band researcher Khalick Hewitt and poet Mervyn Taylor are presenters for the event, which looks at Sparrow’s long and momentous career. The event is being presented by the Trinidad and Tobago Folk Arts Institute, in collaboration with the Medgar Evers College School of Professional and Community Development.

Before his 21st birthday, the Mighty Sparrow shocked and amazed patrons and performers by winning the prestigious Calypso King and Carnival Road March titles at Trinidad Carnival in 1956. The winning tune was “Jean and Dinah,” an international hit about the Trinidad prostitutes coping with the loss of patrons when American military bases closed on the island.

Deftly handling people, relationships, politics and other subjects in his songs, Sparrow has won eight Calypso King crowns, captured eight Road March titles and amassed a host of other awards and honors along the way.

The symposium will be held from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. in the college’s Mary Pinkett Lecture Hall. For further information: (718) 252-6161 or (718) 804-8815.

IMAGES:

The Mighty Sparrow at the 2011 West Indian American Day Carnival Parade’s VIP pre-event breakfast in Brooklyn. HAYDEN ROGER CELESTIN

The Mighty Sparrow performs for European fans at the Melkweg music venue in Amsterdam in 1989. FRANS SCHELLEKENS/REDFERNS

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