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Byron, Cheryl, Oral history interview conducted by Michael Roberts, August 8, 1994, West Indian Carnival Documentation Project records, 2010.019.07; Brooklyn Historical Society. Access Oral History Interview with Cheryl Byron West Indian Carnival Documentation Project records, 2010.019.07 Interview conducted by Michael Roberts on September 29, 1994 in Brooklyn, New York ROBERTS: Ms. Byron, where were you born? BYRON: In Trinidad. ROBERTS: And how long have you lived in Brooklyn? BYRON: Well, I would say I have lived in the United States for approximately twenty years. I have been living in Brooklyn for about two months, but I always say that I sleep in Manhattan but I live in Brooklyn because even while I was living in Manhattan, I'm working in Brooklyn every day. ROBERTS: What part of Brooklyn do you work? BYRON: At present, I'm working several places, at Fort Green Senior Citizens Center which is on Fulton Street, and also at Medgar Evers College, and at John Houseman Berean Church where we have Saturday classes. ROBERTS: What do you do at Medgar Evers College? BYRON: I teach English, and I have also taught a speech class there. ROBERTS: You went to school in New York City, so what were your qualifications? BYRON: I went to City College. There I did my B.A. and M.A. And I also went to New York University where I did work on my PhD. I just have to write the dissertation. ROBERTS: Your dissertation will be on what, on what field? BYRON: Brooklyn Carnival, theater and art. ROBERTS: When you came from Trinidad, in what year and what were your first impressions of Brooklyn? BYRON: Well, I came here in 1974 and, at that point, I was doing visual art. I was a painter. And so my work was on exhibition at Restoration, in the art gallery there. And I 3 This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only. Byron, Cheryl, Oral history interview conducted by Michael Roberts, August 8, 1994, West Indian Carnival Documentation Project records, 2010.019.07; Brooklyn Historical Society. Access thought Brooklyn was exciting and big in comparison to Trinidad because it seemed so huge. ROBERTS: And what was important to you when you first came here? BYRON: What was important? It was a vacation and I was extremely impressed by the number of museums and the amount of different kinds of works that I saw at, for example, Brooklyn Museum and at the Met and the other museums. So that's what was really exciting to me, the amount of art galleries and the variety of cultures that I was exposed to. ROBERTS: Back home in Trinidad, have you participated in Carnival? BYRON: Yes I did. I played Mas. I had relatives who made and also played Mas. I was involved in performance for the Dimanche Gras Show, as a dancer. And then later on I performed doing my poem on Carnival. So I was the first poet to perform in a calypso tent which I did in 1976. ROBERTS: I wonder if you can tell us a little bit more of your experience with Carnival and playing mas in Trinidad and Tobago. BYRON: Well, I would say, my earliest impressions of Carnival, as a child, I remember being really afraid of Jab Molassie and the other devil with the whip, you know, that would sing through the air. I remember by uncle, my mother's brother, making huge Carnival costumes. At that time they made the costumes with a lot of wire-bending and hundreds and thousands of little beads, and feathers because he used to play, one of the characters he depicted was an Indian. So I just remember Carnival being full of color. A lot of steel bands and at times I remember having to move quickly with my mother because there were bottles flying in the air. I remember one incident like that too. But then as I grew older I became, I played Mas with Peter Mitchell and River, and his depiction of Carnival was on an entirely different basis. It was more performance related. Even though Carnival is performance in terms of the character, whether they see the dance or you're playing a bat. The character you depict almost determines the 4 This transcript is hereby made available for research purposes only. Byron, Cheryl, Oral history interview conducted by Michael Roberts, August 8, 1994, West Indian Carnival Documentation Project records, 2010.019.07; Brooklyn Historical Society. Access movement that you do on the street. But I would say that being involved in Carnival is a wonderful experience. You're very tired, you keep dancing, when you stop, that's when you feel the pain in your feet. And I just generally had a good time when I was exposed to all kinds of different cultures, again through Carnival, because different bands would depict different eras and cultures. ROBERTS: When you came to New York, at what period did you get involved in the now famous West Indian American Day Carnival parade and its festivities during that Labor Day period? BYRON: I would say I became involved in the '70's, which was when I did the poetry. And so I was involved then in performing in the calypso tent. At that time, Brutus from Breadbasket on Fulton Street had a calypso tent upstairs in one of those buildings on Fulton Street, and Calypso Rose and other people were there performing, Duke. Later on I was involved again doing, not that particular piece, but other poems that I wrote with Frank Smith at Rainbow Terrace which was where the calypso tent was held several years later. After that, I became involved with the performing arts company that I have, called Something Positive, where we play old Mas and we've won for the past four years in succession, and we've also perform for the Carnival shows at the back of the Brooklyn Museum. And in addition to that, we've brought a children's band. We've also done a regular band on Monday, and then this year, for the first time, we did a spiritual procession to open the parade. ROBERTS: So you do have wide experience not only in playing Carnival in Trinidad, but also in New York. Tell us a little bit, you're known all in the Carnival circles for being one of the talented women who produce an old Mas band.