Schools throughout the territory are celebrating Caribbean music,food and culture through the rest of May, according to the Education Department.
– Elena Christian Jr. High School will host a "Cultural Extravaganza" on Thursday and Friday, May 14 and 15, for the whole school day. Thursday, V.I. culture bearers will conduct about 20 workshops on everything cultural from plaiting the Maypole to making red grout.
– Friday, students will get the opportunity to apply what they learned on the previous day. There will be Quadrille dances, masquerading, mocko jumbie stilt walking and lighting the coal pot. Music will be provided Friday by ECJH Simbas Steel Orchestra and Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights.
– From noon to 7 p.m. Saturday, May 16, several schools will hold a “May Day: Bring Back our Maypole Tradition,” celebration at the Department of Agriculture fair grounds. Ricardo Richards, Elena L. Christian, Evelyn Williams, Alfredo Andrews and St. Mary’s will perform Quadrille and plaiting or braiding the Maypole.
Live music will be performed all day by Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Nights, Bully and the Kafooners, the Renaissance Band and the Digital Band. Other entertainment will include local games and bouncy houses for the children.
Food and drinks will be on sale. Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for students. Proceeds will go to the participating schools and to the TSK Scholarship Fund.
– St. Croix Educational Complex High School is holding the DiVinci "Tino" Francis Pan on the Green Competition, Sat. May 23, 2015, beginning at 6 p.m. The Superior Court Rising Stars, ECJH, Alfredo Andrews, St. Patrick’s, Claude O. Markoe steel orchestras and the University of the Virgin Islands steel orchestra will all be there.
Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for students. The competition is held in honor of the late TSK keyboardist and composer Tino Francis, whose song Budhoe will be the test tune for the steel orchestras.
– St. Croix Central High will host the Bertha C. Boschulte Jr. High School Flambo Combo from St. Thomas and about 16 other territorial schools in a "Diamond Celebration of the Revival of Quadrille in Our Schools," from 4 to 7 p.m. May 30 at the St. Croix Central High School gymnasium.
Admission is $5 for adults and $3 for students. Music will be provided by TSK.
