Out Of The Caribbean: Dawad Phillip “The Painted Bulls” Book launch
“The Poem Is the Calypso Is the Poem” … Dawad Philip is a poet, journalist, calypso tent devotee, and for nearly four decades has been the heartbeat of Brooklyn’s Trinidadian cultural scene. His last title, Ayedemah: History and Profiles of the San Fernando Carnival, is a comprehensive cultural memoir documenting the fundamental history of San Fernando, […]
Black News 
“The Poem Is the Calypso Is the Poem” …
Dawad Philip is a poet, journalist, calypso tent devotee, and for nearly four decades has been the heartbeat of Brooklyn’s Trinidadian cultural scene. His last title, Ayedemah: History and Profiles of the San Fernando Carnival, is a comprehensive cultural memoir documenting the fundamental history of San Fernando, Trinidad; mas, pan, and calypso. It highlights iconic figures like Black Stalin and the Kalicharan dynasty, while preserving the legacy of lesser-known contributors, providing crucial research on the city’s unique carnival heritage.
On April 18, as part of National Poetry Month, Philip will be in conversation with Patricia Meschino, a 28-year veteran of Billboard magazine and one of the most knowledgeable writers on Caribbean music in the United States, at Tropicalfete in New York. The event is a book launch and a public dialogue with a figure who has moved through too many Caribbean cultural worlds to be easily categorised.
His latest collection, The Painted Bulls, is the latest in a body of work that stretches back to Invocations in 1980 and includes the celebrated A Mural by the Sea.
What is remarkable about Philip is not simply the coherence of his writing, but the breadth of his knowledge, his CV is stellar: managing editor of the Daily Challenge, New York’s only Black daily newspaper for much of its life; organiser of Caribbean Theatre Week in New York; mas designer; costume maker; manager of a calypso tent. His poetry has always understood that calypso and verse are kin: both oral forms, both political, both rooted in a tradition of bearing witness on behalf of those the mainstream refuses to see. His poems, he has said, issue passports for escape, for visitation, or for the inevitable return.
The Painted Bulls, by all accounts, continues this. This new collection captures the “Trinidadian tone of voice,” featuring themes of calypso, carnival, dance, and jazz. Philip explores the experiences of Caribbean people, including the “quiet grief of loss” and the “trauma, the misery, and the contradictions of life.”
Dawad Philip has survived long enough to be celebrated. This special event in his honour will feature readings, reflections, and an intimate moderated conversation highlighting powerful literary contributions.
Dawad Philip divides his time between his hometown of San Fernando, Trinidad and Tobago, and Brooklyn, New York, where he has lived and worked for nearly four decades as a poet, journalist/editor, and carnival artist. Philip keeps an active hand in Trinidad Carnival and further afield as a prize-winning costume designer and cultural voice. The documentary A Mural by the Sea (2018), by the late playwright/filmmaker Tony Hall, based on selected poems from Philip’s book of the same title, pays tribute to the southern city of San Fernando.
Philip holds a Master of Arts (Carnival Arts) degree from the University of Trinidad and Tobago and is the author of Invocations (1980), A Mural by the Sea (Anaphora, 2017), City Twilight (Anaphora, 2020), Jayden and the King of the Brooklyn Carnival (co-authored with Yolanda Lezama-Clark, 2019), Ayedemah: History and Portraits of the San Fernando Carnival (2023), and The Painted Bulls (2026). His poems have appeared in several international anthologies, and he is a recipient of a New York State Fellowship in the Arts (Poetry).
Philip has won over 50 Carnival Band of the Year titles in Brooklyn, Atlanta, St. Thomas, Miami, and Trinidad, and has performed his poetry in the Caribbean, U.S., Canada, Riga (Latvia), Moscow, and St. Petersburg. His play Sunday with The Warlord – Lord Blakie in Brooklyn enjoyed critical success in 2024, with plans underway to produce the work in both New York and London.
