The 3canal Collection [1994 – 2024]
“Oh People What Do We Know. We Know Dat The People Know. We Know Dat You Know Yuh Know.
Oh People What Do We Know. We Know Dat The People Know. Time To Show Dat You Know You Know.”
1998 – Written by Manwarren and Roberts
Based on an Original Melody by Cesaria Evora
For the People
Arranged and Mixed by Carl “Beaver” Henderson.
Recorded at Klub Karnival. Background Vocals – Lesley-Ann Wells.
Steelpan – Selwyn “Congo” Henry. Harmonica – Arthur Marcial.
Guitar – Dean Williams. Percussion – Jah Jah
Archive
It holds the 3canal collection which is a research resource comprising 7 primary data sources. This preserved contemporary collection covers the 3 decades between 1994 – 2024.
Trinidad carnival has a long history, in which 3canal has continued its traditions. This collection is a sample of an aspect of the T&T culture, as expressed in the Arts at the turn of the 21st century. This archive preserves a little slice of time within the broader timeline of carnival.
It is a thematically connected collection of documents and artefacts specific to the artistic areas of Mas, Music, and Theatre. Formed in 1994 by artists Wendell Manwarren, Steve Ouditt, and Roger Roberts, they created their own Jouvay Band
– Jocks-Tuh-Pose.
Ouditt decided that the trio be named 3canal. A 3-canal cutlass or three-channeled machete has a weighted broad blade. The three grooves in the blade are designed to allow the metal to flex and not break when subjected to extreme stress. In 1997, artists Stanton Kewley and John Isaacs joined the group and 3canal recorded their first song ‘Blue’ – written by Kewley and Manwarren.
‘Blue’ was a “monster hit” and also the theme song for their Jouvay Band that year. In 2004 the 3canal Carnival Show was first staged, and in 2014 The Big Black Box was established as a performance arts space at 33 Murray Street, Woodbrook, Port of Spain.
Mind Yuh Business
1999. Written by Manwarren, Kewley, and Roberts
Programmed, Arranged, & Produced by Carl “Beaver” Henderson,
and Ken Holder.
Recording engineer Mark “Marka” Wright. Mixed by Martin Raymond.
Recorded & mixed at d’Yard. Horn Arrangement Pedro Lezama.
Percussion Ronnie Sylvester.
Trumpet 1 & 2 Enrique Moore. Trombone David Jacob.
Tenor and Baritone Saxophone Pedro Lezama
welcome to the digital repository
OF THE 3CANAL COLLECTION - Open Access, and Non-Commercial
Selected items in this collection have been digitized and displayed in this Digital Repository for non commercial use, and non-profit research purposes. Any reuse of these items in excess of fair use requires permission from the copyright holder[s].
Attribution and Copyright honours the work of the creator. It supports provenance, and ensures the integrity of historical documents and artefacts as they move through time and are accessed by researchers.
Copyright
Act No. 8 of 1997
The Trinidad and Tobago Copyright Act (Act No. 8 of 1997, as amended up to Act No. 5 of 2008) provides automatic copyright protection. Registration is not required to obtain copyright protection in Trinidad
and Tobago. Copyright – Office of The Attorney General and Ministry of Legal Affairs
The resources disseminated here may include various intellectual property protections, from public domain materials to copyrighted materials. The user is cautioned that intellectual property laws may restrict the use of materials disclosed in our digital repository. Any user who reproduces or distributes this protected material for any purpose other than fair use may be prosecuted for copyright infringement.
You, as a user, are responsible for making a final determination about the copyright protection status and must obtain permission from the copyright holder to reuse, publish, or reproduce the object beyond the limits of fair use, fair dealing, or other exemptions to law, and assume responsibility for any possible violations of copyright law that may arise from the reproduction and use of the resources. To learn more about intellectual property and copyright, fair dealing, and fair use, we again invite you to consult the Link above from the Ministry of Legal Affairs
2001 – Written by Manwarren, Kewley, Roberts, Ashby, and Bishop.
Produced & Arranged by Omari Ashby.
Engineered & mixed by Mark “Marka” Wright.
Programmed by The man called Shaft. Guitar by Dean Williams.
Recorded at d’Yard.
Welcome
Visit the Archive
By Appointment only.
Please contact us in advance to make an appointment
Cost TT $200.00 per visit
“Ah believe in the need to believe in something
Ah believe in the power of believing
but most of all I believe in Love
Ah believe in the Love dat ah feeling
and all of the Pain it revealing
but most of all I believe in Love”
I Believe
1999. Written by Manwarren and Roberts.
Produced, Arranged, Programmed, Engineered and Mixed by
Carl “Beaver” Henderson. Assistant engineer Mark “Marka” Wright.
Mixed by Martin Raymond. Recorded & mixed at d’Yard.
Guitars by Dean Williams. Drums Joey Samuels. Steelpan Selwyn Henry
Background vocals – Nakeisha Adams, Kimberly Akow, Elise Arneaud,
Kristy Arthur, Shannon Best, Khadija Bourne, Shimelle Danclair, Kim Gaskin,
Jameila Gay, Genelle Hernandez, Renell Nurse, Adafih Padmore, and
Patrice Stewart
“Ah believe in the need to believe in something
Ah believe in the power of believing
but most of all I believe in Love
Ah believe in the Love dat ah feeling
and all of the Pain it revealing
but most of all I believe in Love”
I Believe
1999. Written by Manwarren and Roberts.
Produced, Arranged, Programmed, Engineered and Mixed by Carl “Beaver” Henderson. Assistant engineer Mark “Marka” Wright. Mixed by Martin Raymond. Recorded & mixed at d’Yard.
Guitars by Dean Williams. Drums Joey Samuels. Steelpan Selwyn Henry Background vocals – Nakeisha Adams, Kimberly Akow, Elise Arneaud, Kristy Arthur, Shannon Best, Khadija Bourne,Shimelle Danclair, Kim Gaskin, Jameila Gay, Genelle Hernandez, Renell Nurse, Adafih Padmore, and Patrice Stewart
The opening of the 3 Canal Collection
The opening of the 3Canal Collection
If you own the rights to materials in our digitized collections that are not attributed, please let us know so that we can both obtain and maintain accurate information about these materials.
The items in this collection are from the personal archive of 3canal – Wendell Manwarren, Roger Roberts, and Stanton Kewley.
Broadly, the materials are specific to the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival Festival. These historical documents are a record of the work of 5 artists with an enduring name – 3canal, as well as the work of over 200 artists who have worked with 3canal along their 30-year artistic journey.
In this way, numerous names emerge at different periods in the collection in the artistic areas of Mas, Music, and Theatre. They are Actors, Choreographers, Writers, Dancers, Designers, Producers, Musicians, Vocalists, Photographers, and Journalists. The 7 primary data sources are comprised of Discography & Liner Notes, Sheet Music & Lyrics, Newspaper & magazine articles, Documents such as Scripts & Production notes, Awards & Correspondence, Costumes, and Photographs.
This thematically connected collection is signposted with over 1000 newspaper articles which connect to the other 6 components in the archive. It is a unique collection of items which are not held in any other institution in our Republic. Archives such as this register the importance of primary data specific to the arts of the Caribbean region.
For the astute researcher, these remains can add a little more understanding of the creative imagination in Trinidad Carnival. For the archivist, who thinks in terms of centuries: how will this collection/data be accessible in the future? Sustainable preservation and access rely on money, politics, location, copyright, condition of the records, obsolete technologies, and “cloud rent” [Varoufakis, 2024].
The digital world is both fragile and ephemeral. Servers and websites disappear, computers crash, and backups get corrupted. In this way, the HARDCOPY will be our only defense against the merger of bureaucrats, Tech-bros, and “influencers”, who erase and rewrite the past; and disregard any meaningful attribution and citation. Heritage preservation is close to the bone of any meaningful civilizational development – “… rituals of regard” [bell hooks, 2009]. Even if one music score, one painting, or one verse of a song survives the end of all things, it will be a testament to what we were. It will matter more than any Petro-Dollar ever printed. This digital repository was made possible courtesy the Caribbean Digital Scholarship Collective at Yale University. [Kwynn Johnson]
Archives as Liner Notes
1998 – Written by Manwarren, Kewley, and Roberts.
Mud Madness
Arranged by Graham Wilson. Mixed by Martin “Mice” Raymond.
Background Vocals: Mairoon Ali, and Cecilia Salazar.
Recorded at GW Music Productions
Discography
Physical media continues to be an artefact of significant historical importance. Liner Notes and credits are a literary form and artistic medium. The subtle erasure of access denies a deeper appreciation and connection of a music’s context, and who made it possible. The design to kill off the hard-copy lessens our mark on our world so that histories evaporate, like a “cloud”.
Music Scores
3canal performed at the Spektakula Calypso Tent on Henry Street, during which several music scores were produced. These works of art – sheet music, are signed by Winston Scarborough, while others are stamped – BRASS INSTITUTE and signed “Woody”.
Lyrics
3canal wrote all their songs, excluding a small few such as Ben Lion by Andre Tanker, Irie Tempo by Kenneth Lara, and Umbayao by Merchant. This holding feature lyrics in its early stages, both handwritten or typed, with edits, or songs which may not have been recorded, or remain unreleased. The collection also preserves 20 journals with handwritten lyrics by Stanton Kewley. Of note, in a January 2002 Trinidad Express newspaper column, Debbie Jacob featured the Ben Lion lyrics.
Newspapers and Magazines
The repository features approx. 1000 digitized articles. The clippings come from our daily and weekly papers, some of which are no longer in circulation. The collection also includes articles from presses such as the Jamaica Gleaner, The Washington Post, and DNA India, and magazines such as Soca News, and Time Out, London. In a November 2003 Trinidad Express Editorial, Keith Smith discussed the lyrics of Good News, it appears alongside a column by Lloyd Best –“How Caribbean economy works”.
Documents
This is another paper-based collection which comprises Scripts, Programmes, Flyers, Letters, Production notes, and ephemera. E.g. The 3canal Show, a coffee-stained minutes of a meeting, and a 1994 Jouvay note which includes “Mauby, and Cockset”.
A collection of physical photographs from photographers such as Jeffrey Chock, Sean Drakes, Abigail Hadeed, Selwyn Henry, and Mark Lyndersay.
Awards and Correspondence
This series features 2 categories: Trophies, such as the NYC Sunshine Award, and the iconic NDATT Cacique Award. The other category is a collection of correspondence: Fan mail [Tobago, St Vincent, Antigua, Toronto, and London], Thank You and Congratulations cards, and printed emails from 1999 – 2001.
These printed emails from a quarter-century ago are the fortuitous administrative work of Lesley-Ann Wells.
It is here that the artist John Isaacs is centred in the collection – Condolence cards and letters, and printed emails which were sent to now deactivated addresses, such as
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
[email protected]
Costumes
This is T&T’s first collection of a Jouvay band to be accessioned, catalogued, conserved, and archived. The costume collection holds 120 items such as the 3canal Jouvay T-shirts & tags, most of which were designed by Roger Roberts. There are also items from designers such as Meiling, and The CLOTH – used in a Music Video or part of the wardrobe for the 3canal Show. E.g. The 1998 Mud Madness Music Video – Tunic designed by Meiling. Wendell Manwarren: “I used this for both the music video and for Jouvay”.
The 3canal show, 2004. Photo by Jeffrey Chock
“As sources fill the historical landscape with their facts, they reduce the room available to other facts. Even if we imagine the landscape to be forever expandable, the rule of interdependence implies that new facts cannot emerge in a vacuum. They will have to gain their right to existence in light of the field constituted by previously created facts. They may dethrone some of these facts, erase or qualify others. The point remains that sources occupy competing positions in the historical landscape. These positions themselves are inherently imbued with meaning since facts cannot be created meaningless. Even as an ideal recorder, the chronicler necessarily produces meaning and, therefore, silences”.
[Michel-Rolph Trouillot, 1995]
CUSTODIAL HISTORY
The 3canal collection begun at 64A Carlos Street, Woodbrook, and in 1997 it moved to the Rituals Music office at 5 Longden Street, Kew Place.
In 2003 it then moved to 6 Hunter Street, and in 2004 to 67A Ariapita Ave, Woodbrook.
In 2014 the Big Black Box became its new home. The collection has moved to 4 locations over its 30 years.
CUSTODIAL HISTORY
The 3canal collection begun at 64A Carlos Street, Woodbrook, and in 1997 it moved to the Rituals Music office at 5 Longden Street, Kew Place
In 2003 it then moved to 6 Hunter Street, and in 2004 to 67A Ariapita Ave, Woodbrook
In 2014 the Big Black Box became its new home. The collection has moved to 4 locations over its 30 years.
