Professor of Calypso: Hollis Urban Liverpool

The Genesis of a Calypso

Rituals Of Power and Rebellion

Calypso is changing, the old calypso were classics that live on today. With the new calypsos you cannot remember them from one year to the next.

One of our greatest calypsoniams the Mighty Chalkdust, Hollis Liverpool was one of the first to document the origins of calypso in his book "Rituals of Power and Rebellion"

Hollis Urban Liverpool was the Director of Culture for the Republic of Trinidad & Tobago up to 1999 and is currently the Director of the Carnival Institute, a division of the National Carnival Commission.

He holds a BA and MA in History from the University of the West Indies; a MA in African History and a Ph.D. in History and Ethnomusicology from the University of Michigan, a Post-grad Diploma in Education from the University of the West Indies; and a Certificate of Philosophy from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor.

He has published four books and written several papers on Trinidad & Tobago’s culture, carnival and calypso. As calypsonian Chalkdust, he has been crowned Calypso Monarch of Trinidad & Tobago five times, and World Calypso Monarch in New York on the two occasions the contest was held.



Here's what others had to say about his book;

Editorial Reviews 

 “A highly original. I haven’t seen anything remotely like this. -- Dr. Fred Cooper, Professor of History, University of Michigan

“A vigorous, painstaking, well-researched, critical study of an important and interesting subject. -- Dr. Maxwell Owusu, Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan

“Certainly the best book I have read on Caribbean history.” --Kenneth Tannis, MA Toronto, Canada