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Trinbagonian VIibes
Discovering cultural and natural wealth in Trinidad and Tobago
Story & Photography by
Maribeth Mellin
eens, grownups and elders drummed and danced, girls’ hair whip-
ping side to side and grins growing ever wider, as the Invaders played
an exuberant version of Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me.” They coaxed an
Timpossible range of notes and melodies from rows of shiny steelpans
balanced on perches in a barren back lot on a dusky Trinidanian evening. Onlook-
ers swayed their hips and shuffled their feet as the band segued into Glenn Miller’s
“In the Mood.” A few reggae favorites made it into the mix, and the air rang with an
irresistible vibe. The steelpan, a local invention from the 1930s, became my new
favorite instrument, playing in the background during a weeklong writer’s confer-
ence that included several excursions in the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
154 WDT MAGAZINE SPRING 2017
