Hear the music and taste the food of the Caribbean Islands at Pellissippi State Community College’s Caribbean Fest.
Pellissippi State’s Access and Diversity Office hosts this celebration, which is 4-7 p.m. on Feb. 28 in the Goins Building College Center of the Pellissippi Campus. The campus is located at 10915 Hardin Valley Road, and parking is available in any lot marked “Open.”
The public is invited to attend this free event, one of several taking place as part of the college’s Black History Month celebration.
At Caribbean Fest, participants can sample jerk chicken with rice, beans and a traditional dessert, Trinidadian black cake. Music will be performed by Carib Sounds Steel Band 4:30-6:30 p.m.
Vere Henry, a native of the Caribbean island of Antigua, directs Carib Sounds. Henry says that the music will move audience members into that “island attitude” with hot calypso and soca beats, reggae, and other arrangements.
The Hotep Dancers, a Knoxville African troupe, will perform two or three dances along with the band.
Caribbean Fest at Pellissippi State mirrors the Caribbean carnivals that originated in Trinidad and Tobago. Henry describes the celebrations as the islands’ version of Mardi Gras. The annual events mark a week of revelry and feasting before Lent. Masquerade is part of the festivities, a tradition that will carry over into Pellissippi State’s Caribbean Fest.
For more information, contact Gayle Wood, (865) 539-7160 or gwood@pstcc.edu. To request accommodations for a disability, contact the executive director of Human Resources and Affirmative Action for Pellissippi State, (865) 694-6607 or humanresources@pstcc.edu.