Pamella Ferrari-Easter, chairperson of the Entertainment Committee of the Brooklyn-based St. Vincent and the Grenadines Ex-Police Association, USA, Inc., said that her group was on “a new high” after its inaugural “Evening of Entertainment” at the Friends of Crown Heights Educational Center in Brooklyn.
Ferrari-Easter, a Canouan, St. Vincent Grenadines-born former sergeant in the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force, told Caribbean Life that the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Ex-Police Association, U.S.A., Inc., which has been in existence for 37 years, has had “many highs and lows” and is “now on a new high after putting on an “Evening of Entertainment” recently.
Ferrari-Easter — the first women from the St. Vincent Grenadines to join the local constabulary and who, in May, received the President’s Special Award during the group’s Annual Banquet at Glen Terrace in Brooklyn — said many performers “kept the audience entertained” throughout the recent “Evening of Entertainment.”
The wide array of entertainers comprised: Clementina Bailey, Angus “Brigo” Lynch, Oscar James, Ellsworth “Lifeboy” Quammie, Olson Thomas, El Bethel Restoration Ministries Band, and the United Vincie Cultural Group of Brooklyn.
New York Consul General Howie Prince also sang an “ole time” calypso, and Master of Ceremonies, Hailes Castello, a disc jockey, song writer and singer, sang the impromptu “They will rise Up,” as a tribute to Caribbean islands ravaged by recent hurricanes.
“In keeping with our organization’s motto, ‘Staying together to Serve,’ and also in keeping a part of who we are and where we came from alive, some police flavor was added,” Ferrari-Easter said, stating that some members performed a skit, featuring “A Court Scene,” in which the accused, “John Bull,” was charged with stealing “James Blugh’s” cell phone.
Actors were: President Arden Tannis as defense attorney; vice president Beresford Latham as magistrate; Phillip Richards as arresting officer; St. Elmo Ollivierre as the victim/complainant; Lemrey Jack as the accused; and Jack’s twin brother, Emery Jack, as the director of public prosecutions.
“It’s the first one [Evening of Entertainment] we’ve had, and it took some planning,” said Emery Jack, a former sergeant in the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force, who serves as chaplain and sergeant-at-arms in the Brooklyn group. “Generally, it was good in my opinion. We’re hoping that, in the new year, we will start the planning earlier. Our intention is to make it an annual event.
“We’ve observed that other organizations have their cultural evenings, and we’re now doing the same,” he added, disclosing that the skit was planned on the very night of the event.
Ardon Tannis, the group’s president, said he was very pleased with the “Evening of Entertainment.”
“I went well,” he told Caribbean Life. “I think we achieved the objectives. It was planned to bring the supporters of the organization together. We’re trying to reach ex-officers through family and friends.
“It’s another effort to stay visible in the community’s eyes,” he added. “The response was really overwhelming. So, it is something we appreciate very much.”
James entertained with “Jah Light” and “Argyle International Airport”; Bailey sang high octane “I am Redeemed” and “Waiting Down at the River;” United Vincie Cultural Group of Brooklyn rendered the nostalgic “Hairouna, Hairouna, Land of the Blessed,” “Fish Fo So,” “SVG Diaspora” and SVG Suare;” Thomas “Stand Up for What is Right;” and Prince sang “Modern Living,” composed by the late Louis Mandeville, past head teacher at the Lowmans Windward Anglican School in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Lynch also sang “Welcome to St. Vincent and the Grenadines” and “Knock on Heaven’s Door”; and Quammie disclosed that he “Got God in my Life,” and urged patrons to “Hold On” and “Don’t Go to Hell.”
