A brief history of the West Indian Day Parade in NYC:

“Some say Trinidad is not a real place, others that God is a Trini, opinions swinging wildly between boasting and the burlesque.” - Ira Mathur, 2022

Forged from the love of liberty:

Attribution

Dey run so far from dialect,
yet dey always comin’ back,
like dey always have de feelin’
dat dey mus’ defend de fact.
Dem who crossin’ river
an’ cussin’ river-stone
does end up cryin’ water,
an’ end up all alone.
For when you run from dialect,
is you runnin’ from you.
So de answer is de maxim:
to thine own self be true.
So I don’t worry take dem on.
I jus’ waitin’ to see
when dey find out who dey are
or what dey want to be.
For dialect don’t bother dem,
is dem dat bother it,
because dialect, it livin’ ‘home’,
is dem dat have to fit.

— from This An’ Dat by Paul Keens-Douglas