Wyoming Arts Council

Manmay La Kay Folk Band of Saint Lucia visits Wyoming Sept. 30-Oct. 3


Manmay la Kay photo 1 jpg

Manmay La Kay from Saint Lucia.

From Wednesday, Sept. 30, to Saturday Oct. 3 Worlds of Music will present a series of school visits, workshops, performances, and talks along with a community dance featuring the Manmay La Kay (pronounce maw-my-law-ky) Folk Band of Saint Lucia, West Indies.  All events will take place in Buffalo and are free and open to the public.  Accompanying Manmay La Kay at its Wyoming dance will be Buffalo’s community steel drum group Pan Buffalo.

On Thursday, Oct.1, Manmay La Kay will play for a Main Street stroll on Buffalo’s two downtown blocks, appearing between 6:30-8p.m. first at Up In Smoke then on to the Clear Creek Brewery and the Occidental Hotel Saloon.  Each stop will include an intimate performance of Saint Lucian music.

On Friday, Oct. 2, Manmay La Kay will perform and talk about their music and lives from 12:45-2 p.m. at the Buffalo Senior Center, 671 W. Fetterman.  On Saturday, October 3, they will play for a dance at 8 p.m. at the Buffalo American Legion Hall, 18 Veteran’s Ave.

Also on Saturday, Oct. 3, Manmay La Kay will direct a free workshop at the Bomber Mountain Civic Center (Old Clear Creek Middle School), 63 N. Burritt in Buffalo, from 10:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m.  While the members of the band play fiddle, banjo, guitar, a conga style hand drum, and shak-shak (a wicked cool shaker), players of all instruments are welcome.  Manmay La Kay’s music also includes singing and often accompanies Caribbean style kwadril dancing so singers and dancers are also welcome.

The workshop is open to people of all ages and skill levels and workshop participants will have the opportunity to play at the Saturday night dance.

Of his music Manmay La Kay’s fiddler Augustin “Charley” Julian says, “What we play is strictly folk.  An orchestra is good, that’s their field.  Jazz is good, that’s their field.  But neither of those is my field.  My field is folk music.  This is what I’ve learned, this is what I was raised in, and this is what I continue in, folk music, nothing else.”

The band’s music reflects the historical collisions that have created the nation of Saint Lucia with influences from the original native peoples, from Africans who were brought as slaves during the colonial period, and from the two primary colonial powers that ruled Saint Lucia — the British and French. The first recorded inhabitants of Saint Lucia were the Arawak who migrated from northern South America around 200 CE. Around 800 CE the Carib people arrived and displaced the Arawak, and in 1635 the French claimed the island though the first European settlers were English. During the colonial period, Saint Lucia went back and forth between English and French control fourteen times. One of the legacies of that complex history is that while Saint Lucia’s official language is English, 95 percent of the population also speaks Saint Lucian Creole – kweyol — a language that mixes the syntax of African and native languages with a largely French vocabulary and more recent loan words from English, Spanish, and Portuguese.

Manmay La Kay’s name is a creole phrase that means Children at Home or Children from Home.  Manmay is child, La indicates the plural, and Kay is home from the Spanish word for house — casa.  While Manmay La Kay plays calypso and soca influenced social dance music the band’s repertoire also includes the syncopated Afro-Caribbean music that is used for kwadril set dancing — a French derived dance for four couples that looks something like square dancing crossed with salsa.

Whether they play for couples dances or the sets, Manmay La Kay’s music is joyous and infectious.  Richard Payne, who directs the Saint Lucian School of Music, has said of Manmay’s fiddler, “When Charley holds his instrument, his relation with the violin is one of love and passion.  He radiates joy and joy is the name that allows us to touch the face of God.  When Charley plays, he is touched by and he touches this thing of joy.”  Violinist Marie Medina has said of Charley and the band that what is most beautiful about them is the love they show for the music. “They love what they are doing and it feels as if every time they play it is for the first time.”

In Buffalo, Manmay La Kay will share their performance with local community steel drum group Pan Buffalo.  Pan Buffalo lead player Suzi Black said, “We’re really excited to play with a group from the Caribbean — musicians who have spent their lives playing the melodies and rhythms that we are trying to represent here in Wyoming.  It’s an honor for us to play with Manmay La Kay.”

And Worlds of Music organizer David Romtvedt noted that while the group plays music that shares a lot with other Caribbean islands, it is purely Saint Lucian.  “Manmay La Kay is keeping alive the spirit of a particular music and it is a pleasure to be able to bring that music to Wyoming.”

The appearance of Manmay La Kay in Wyoming is made possible by Worlds of Music, a not for profit organization that seeks to understand what music means to people.  Worlds of Music performances, lectures, and workshops look at the role music plays in our lives, and how music changes over time and across cultures.  Above all, Worlds of Music programs examine the ways that music is unique to particular communities while remaining a universal human phenomenon.

Support for this program comes from the Johnson County Tourism Association, the Johnson County Recreation District, and from a generous private gift that has covered the costs of bringing a group to the United States from another country.

For further information on the performances or to sign up for the workshop, call 307-684-2194 or 307-217-2812.

View Manmay la Kay poster


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