IT WAS LOVE AT FIRST JAM.
In 1997, Dr Jo-anne Tull could have easily identified with the Trinidad carnival Virgin Blaxx described this year.
“ . . . . When I first saw the carnival in 1997 I said to myself, ‘I not leaving here boy, nah! This is something else,’” she explained.
“I was always sociable and was interested in carnival, but when I?saw it for the first time up close I?realised how wonderful this thing was… Carnival real nice!”
And it would become a decision she would commit to by 1999.
She moved to Trinidad and Tobago in 1996 to study at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine as a way to increase her changes of employment at a time when postgraduate qualifications gave a real leg up on the professional ladder.
Undertaking a postgraduate diploma in international relations the self-described Bajan-Trini didn’t know the role that the love of mas would play in her professional life: “At that stage, I had no idea that I would end up running a carnival studies unit and lecturing in carnival studies [at the St Augustine Campus],” she reflected with a laugh during a telephone interview from her home in Trinidad and Tobago last Sunday evening, slotting in the Easy interview right after taking her daughter Gabriela to a birthday party.
“I stayed to do the master’s and as I was doing it, I realised that I didn’t want to leave here and. . . so I did the PhD.”
Working with the creative industries would come through graduate school mentor Dr Keith Nurse, who was charged to create a strategic profile of the music industries of Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago in 1999.
The stellar work done on the project allowed Jo-anne to nurture her academic standing in the field, and eventually joined the carnival studies unit in 2000. She has headed it since 2002.
“I?would say that I?focus more on the business of arts and culture as well as carnival studies and festival economics. I?place special interest on carnival as an industry and its importance as a cultural form. I?believe there are spinoff benefits for people in the Caribbean in terms of trade, commercial development and reinforcing cultural identity and building our culture,” she said.
The former Queen’s College student also brought a strong social sciences background to bear on her work, adding unique focus to the field of study.
“From an international relations standpoint, carnival studies was about community development and how aspects of culture could be used as trade potential as goods and services that we could export.”
Jo-anne also saw herself as a gatekeeper who worked hard to “develop something that can be passed on my younger colleagues.”
In addition to her work at the university, the natural beauty also had a stint in artist management and also taught at a private tertiary institution in Trinidad.
Through research and other endeavours in and around carnival, Jo-anne has earned her stripes (or beads and feathers perhaps) of stakeholders and students. Barbadian heritage was not a hindrance, she assured, since she knew she had done the work to earn respect.
“I try to remain humble and ensure that I continue to earn their respect. However, I am not a pushover: I give plain talk and [have] very bad manners. If I have to say something I will say it; if I have to write I will write.”
The 41-year-old mother of son Xavier, 14, and Gabriela, six (going on 16) also adopted the same no-nonsense approach to raising her children and to her work. She admitted it was a balance she did not always “get right” but was something which had to be worked on, “but you can’t be too hard on yourself.”
Jo-anne raised the children on her own for the most part, ably assisted by her parents Jewel and Edward Tull, who still live in Barbados, the children’s father and her new partner.
“I am willing to take the blame for them however they turn out: good, bad or in between,” she said with a laugh.
“I humbly work at that parenting thing. It dread, hear? But if you are serious about it and you are committed, you will do a good job.”
The mother recalled a particularly tenuous situation when her son was younger, when a client required her to go to a training session off the island on Mother’s Day weekend.
Although she did go to the airport Jo-anne did not make the flight, choosing instead to stay and spend time with Xavier. During the years, there were other difficult decisions which had to be made for the sake of her children – none of which she regrets.
After making Trinidad home for almost 20 years, Jo-anne felt it was the place she wanted to stay and raise her family. While welcoming any opportunity to assist Barbados in its efforts to raise the profile of the cultural industries, she candidly emphasised, “I am always open to returning home to work on my country, I just don’t believe I have to live there to do it . . . . I?am most comfortable in Trinidad and Tobago and I?feel safe here.
“I know most Bajans will not believe that, but for me it is true. I?have really gotten used to the life and the pace here.”
In fact, Jo-anne has even devised a way to honour her homeland and her home away from home even in death.
“I have always told my children and one of my best friends that if I pass away before them to scatter my ashes in Toco, because there is a point where the Caribbean Sea meets the Atlantic. The Caribbean waters will carry me back to Barbados and the Atlantic could keep some,” she concluded with peals of laughter. (LW)
