Profiles: Heroes, Role Models and Pioneers of Trinidad and Tobago - by Nasser Khan

47 a member of the Committee that designed the emblems for the new nation. • 1969: Humming Bird Medal Silver LIONEL ‘LANKY’ BELASCO (1881-1967) L ionel Belasco was one of the pioneers in the recording of T&T music. He was a musician, composer and calypso entrepreneur. He played the piano to accompany the early silent films shown in Trinidad from 1911. He copyrighted several hundred West Indian songs, and made many recordings from 1914 onward. He also produced music for dances and concert audiences in the Caribbean and the Americas and in Europe. He was one of those responsible for promoting calypso outside of Trinidad and Tobago and helping calypsonians to record in New York when he migrated to the USA. WAYNE BERKELY (1940-2011) B elmont’s Wayne Berkeley first attracted national attention in 1965 when he designed the costume for the winner of the Jaycee’s Carnival Queen contest. From a very early age, he loved to draw and paint, winning a children’s Commonwealth-wide competition. While attending St Mary’s College, like so many of T&T’s young creative minds of his generation, he was influenced by the renowned artist MP Alladin. As a mas designer and bandleader, his focus was always to portray and represent the spirit of Carnival, the creation of fantasy costumes sticking to his philosophy that carnival costume designing is