LAST WEEK the cultural community was ruing the sudden death of one of TT’s best ever public arts administrators in the making. Marlon De Bique, aged only 45, passed away, snatched from us, while still on his way to realising his full potential as an arts administrator who would really move our cultural sector forward.
I suspect, given his perpetual academic study into arts-related management, including an executive MBA, that he nurtured such an ambition, and anyone with experience of executive management in the sector would know that he had all the necessary attributes to achieve it.
When he left us in the lurch – no acrimony intended – he had already made the transition, in 2020, from cultural officer in the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts to CEO of Naparima Bowl, San Fernando’s cultural arts centre and a national treasure.
Marlon was known as a star performer of operas, dramas and musicals. He sang with the Marionettes and several of our best-known operatic singers, going abroad with them. A two-year international tour that involved 70 performances of Porgy and Bess in such culturally diverse countries as Australia, New Zealand, Russia, Poland and Britain would have taught him the rigours of the artiste’s life on the road, of the professionalism and discipline needed, of mastering the skill of managing his own artistic ego and calming and reassuring that of others.
He learned how a show happened, from beginning to end, and knew that the performance is the final layer of a multifaceted production, and beneath it lies all the mass of infrastructure and preparation that allows that final flash, the brilliance and joy when it all comes together on the night. He also knew and was unfazed by the high degree of accountability needed when operating, especially in the public sector. In fact, he understood the system so perfectly that he excelled at finding solutions to major problems. He was my go-for whenever I hit a bureaucratic block and, judging from the many warm tributes from culture sector practitioners, he did that for everyone.
It is hard to believe that when our paths first crossed he was a mere 31. His confidence and good judgement as a relatively junior public servant (working in the planning and development of cultural festivals) were immediately evident.
I have no idea who exactly cut the deal, but Marlon was the intermediary between the NGO I founded, the Bocas Lit Fest, which is dedicated to the development and promotion of writers and literature, and the the National Library and Information System Authority (Nalis). As a result, the national library became the home of this country’s annual literary festival for the last 14 years. I remember when he informed me that the decision had been made, if I wanted to proceed, and the relief I felt, since I had not imagined such a thing possible, although I had indicated to the ministry our desire to work alongside Nalis.
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It was a very natural partnership, but not