Twelve junior steel bands to compete at CLACC-C Youth Pan Fest in Crown Heights
The 14th annual festival on 29 August takes place outside the former Shirley Chisholm campaign house bought by carnival founder Carlos Lezama.
NEW YORK, United States. The Brooklyn-based Carlos Lezama Archives and Caribbean Cultural Center (CLACC-C) will hold its 14th annual Children’s Festival and Youth Pan Fest on Saturday 29 August, from noon to 8pm, on St John’s Place between Brooklyn and Kingston Avenues in Crown Heights.
CLACC-C said the event, which began 14 years ago with three junior steel bands, had grown into “a movement”.
The competition
This year 12 junior steel bands, with roughly 250 young musicians aged four and up, will compete in performances judged on rhythm, the foundation of pan, and song.
The soloist competition has grown so large that a preliminary round was needed: 30 young soloists aged six to 21 competed on 14 August at Metro Pan Yard for a place on the festival stage. Every participant received a monetary award, CLACC-C said.
A historic homecoming
The festival takes place outside 1028 St John’s Place, the house where Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm ran her presidential campaign. It was bought in 1973 by Carlos Lezama, the founding force behind New York’s West Indian American Day Carnival.
On the morning of the festival, CLACC-C will open a new gallery and learning centre in the building at an invitation-only reception, alongside the relaunch of the Carlos Lezama biography and archive collection.
Guests include the interim consul general of Trinidad and Tobago and representatives of Medgar Evers College, CLACC-C’s cultural and educational partner. A seven-year-old steel pan player will open the reception with the national anthem.
“It’s such a joy to see the children carry the steel pan culture forward,” said CLACC-C President Yolanda Lezama-Clark, daughter of the late Carlos Lezama.
Festival organiser Leah Clark-Brisard said: “The festival has grown so much over the years.”
The event is supported by the New York State Council on the Arts and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, with sponsorship from EmblemHealth, Spectrum, Cypress Hills Cemetery and Boatswain CPA.
