Canadian Prayers And Best Wishes To Calypsonian Stalin

By Lincoln Depradine
Pride Contributing Writer

TORONTO, Ontario – Caribbean national residents in Canada are sending get-well wishes and organizing prayer services for one of calypso’s all-time greats, Black Stalin of Trinidad and Tobago.

“It was really nice,” cultural historian Caldwell Taylor said Sunday, after a Scarborough service that referenced the illness of Stalin, whose real name is Leroy Calliste.

The 73-year-old Calliste, a five-time winner of the Calypso Monarch competition of Trinidad and Tobago – as well as the 1999 Calypso King of the World – has been hospitalized with a stroke for more than a week.

He began displaying signs of the stroke shortly after returning to his San Fernando home in south Trinidad, after performing at a concert.

His daughter, Keina, describing the moments before her dad was transported to the hospital, said: “He just came and lay down for a bit and then from what we observed, it just looked like he was having a stroke. He sort of froze a bit and he was not responding; so we had to contact the ambulance”.

In the aftermath of Stalin’s illness and hospitalization, a Canada-based bloggers’ group called “Limers” – limers@yahoogroups.com – appealed to members “to send greetings of encouragement to the great cultural icon, Black Stalin. These will be forwarded to Stalin and his family to let them know that, as patrons of the Calypso Art Form, we are all concerned and hoping for a complete and speedy recovery”.

There have been messages from calypsonians living in Toronto and Montreal, as well as from others such as well-known Trinidad-born librarian Rita Cox.

“I’m sad to hear of the illness of our beloved ‘Black Man’ Stalin,” Cox said.  “I convey my sincere wishes for a speedy recovery, and join in the prayers for his return to good health.”

Taylor, a former junior culture minister of Grenada, is a huge fan of both Stalin and Brother Valentino, one of Black Stalin’s best friends.

“The calypso is a lyrical unity of the sacred and the profane. This unity breeds creativity. Black Stalin is one of the great masters of the Calypso Arts,” said Taylor. “My thoughts and prayers are with him for a full recovery.”

Stalin’s fans have been working on plans for a service, dedicated to lifting up prayers on the calypsonian’s behalf. It will be held Sunday, October 5, at the Caribbean Catholic Church in Toronto.

Black Stalin, the 2008 recipient of an honourary doctorate from the University of the West Indies, has a string of hits that includes Black Man Feeling to Party; The Caribbean Man; Wait Dorothy Wait; and Bun Dem.