Diversity on stilts

LCC’s Caribbean Festival turns Lansing into Port-au-Prince for a day

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Lansing is already a hub — that’s why it’s here.But this Saturday, Michigan’s capital will transcendmere state-itude and blossom into a rainbow-hued,grooving international crossroads.

With the biggest and most diverse music lineupyet and a sprawling marketplaceand food bazaar, the 16th annualCaribbean Festival is expected todraw tens of thousands of people tothe campus of Lansing CommunityCollege from noon to midnightSaturday.

In 15 years, the festival hasgrown from a one-hour Wednesdaybreak with punch and cookies to aday-long bash featuring six bands representing “thewhole African-Caribbean music diaspora,” accordingto festival co-organizer Denise Harris.

The only thing this popular, populist festivaldoesn’t have is a cattle pen full of elite VIP boozers.“We exist on the vibe and the love of the day,” Harrissaid. “We don’t have to have a beer tent.”

Master of ceremonies Rootsmon Bird, always abright and beaming presence, said there’s a big differencebetween a mere party and a “celebration” likethe Caribbean Festival.

“A party American-style is when you get a groupof people, some food, and get together,” Bird said.“A celebration has a connection with the past. You’recelebrating the ancestors and life itself.”

At last year’s festival, Bird watched a cohort ofgrandmas set up chairs around 11:30 a.m. Theystayed all day as the kids and mid-lifers dancedaround them.

“They were so cool about it,” Bird said.  “They’donly get up to go to the bathroom or get more food.”

When it comes to languages, food and music, theCaribbean is a nexus of dotted lines stretching acrossthe blue from Africa, Latin America, Indiaand Europe.  To navigate the waters, thefestival called on Bird, host of WLNZ-FM’s“Natty Dreadlock Rock Show.”

Bird picked a musical line-up that coversthe waterfront pretty well. RepresentingTrinidad and Tobago, the Trinidad TripoliSteel Band has played the festival every yearsince it began, developing its own fan basealong the way. “They are the foundation, thegluten of our festival,” Bird said.  On the Latin side,Orquesta Tradicion will serve up salsa in classic andupdated form.

How updated? “I heard them do a hot cover of anAlicia Keys tune that just blew me away,” Bird said.

Kids are sometimes rendered saucer-eyed by thestilt dancers and drummers of Zulu Connection, representingHaitian history and culture, but apprehensionusually turns to fascination.

The meat of the festival for many will be a two-hour thump session with reggae favorites Fyah Wyah, Donovan and the Universal Roots Band. For a closer, Detroit’s Universal Expression will break out a dance-intensive mix of reggae, soca and calypso.

“They will have you roll your belly and do the helicopter,” Bird said.

Grandma will probably be in bed by then.

Over the years, the festival has turned into a “brand” for Lansing Community College, Harris said. It kicks off a new academic year, shows off the campus, and draws a broad cross section of the community, many of whom vote for LCC millages.

Harris said two marriages and one child “have resulted from” the festival (is the music that sexy?) and many out-of-town visits are scheduled around it.

Each year, more and more folks come for the ginger beer, fried plantains, curry goat, ox tail, Jamaican jerk chicken and other Caribbean delicacies that are becoming as American as pizza and chow mein. When T.G.I.Friday’s, a new vendor this year, introduces a Caribbean menu, you know the culture is going mainstream.

Racial commingling is one thing, but the Caribbean Festival even has management and labor jamming together. This year, the list of sponsors grew to include Lansing’s GM Delta Grand River plant and two UAW locals (602 and 652).

“Politicians talk diversity, but they can’t bring it,” Bird said. “Here is the festival that brings diversity without a struggle.”

Caribbean Festival. Noon-midnight Saturday, Aug. 28.
Washington Square Mall, Lansing Community College. www.lcc.edu

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