By Lincoln Depradine
Brother Valentino, one of the world’s calypso legends, will be returning home to Grenada for a weekend of entertainment in St Patrick, the country’s northernmost parish, in next week.
Valentino will be joined by Black Stalin and 2011 Grenada Calypso monarch Pamela Courtney, among other artists. for the Camerhogne Folk Festival in Low Town, Sauteurs.
Valentino, whose real name is Emrold Phillip, was born in 1941 in Cherry Hill, and is popularly known as “The People’s Calypsonian.”
Black Stalin, who holds an honourary doctorate from the University of the West Indies, is a longtime friend of Valentino; although he was born in Trinidad, his father was Grenadian.
The festival, which has received financial backing from the government of Finland, is aimed at providing “a platform for sustaining and preserving important elements of traditional culture in attire, food, dancing, singing and drumming,” according to the Ministry of Tourism.