Dara E Healy

London is the place for me

London this lovely city

You can go to France or America

India, Asia or Australia

But you must come back to London city

– Lord Kitchener, 1948, on the HMT Empire Windrush, UK

THE FIRST time may be excused as an error in judgement, but the second is definitely the beginnings of a habit. Like the rest of the nation, I looked on perplexed as the bewildering details of a trip to the UK were revealed, involving 100 children, in addition to parents and coaches.

I saw the social media posts with the projected budget – in the millions. Understandably, some fellow artists were sarcastic.

“Boy, we doh dream big enough or wha?”

You see, we know only too well that while going abroad as a group is enjoyable, it is never easy, and it is always expensive.

TT artists have been travelling to other countries for work since the early part of the 20th century, even before Lord Kitchener’s captivating performance aboard the Windrush. Sybil Atteck, sculptor, painter and a founding member of the Trinidad Art Society (as it was then called), exhibited at home and abroad. Beryl Mc Burnie danced professionally in the US as La Belle Rosette.

Winifred Atwell, a piano virtuoso, played her first public concerts at five years old. As an adult she moved to the UK and sold millions of records.

Boscoe Holder danced and exhibited his art in the Caribbean and the US, eventually settling for years in the UK, where he continued to spread TT culture.

TASPO, the Trinidad All Steel Percussion Orchestra, was the first steelband ensemble to perform in the UK, in 1951.

Today, we take for granted that after Carnival calypsonians, soca artists and other performers supplement their income outside TT. As the world of entertainment opens up with opportunities to perform on Broadway, cruise ships and travelling circuses, for artists the notion of work is being redefined.

At the same time the process of travelling for work as an artist has become even more complicated.

In the 1920s the idea of passports emerged as the world attempted to rebuild peace and order after WWI. However, unlike the ancient concept of documents to allow safe passage to a traveller, in many ways the modern passport mirrored global geopolitical imbalances. Developed initially by Western countries, the intention of a passport was not to make it easier to travel, but to control the flow of people across borders.

Thus, as one commentator observed, “Depending on our country of origin, a passport may grant us extreme privilege or extreme distress.”

In today’s climate, imagine the experience of someone travelling with a Haitian passport versus a British one.

Artists travelling to another country often require special visas in order to earn income legally. These often need to be applied for by the person or group inviting the performing artist.

Special visas, particularly for a group, can take longer than usual to be processed, and may cost more. For many countries the cost of the visa is non-refundable, so if you