BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – PERFORMERS at Island Xpressions (IX) last evening (Mar. 29) were not only able to share their talent and thoughts with the patrons, but they also received prizes and cash after performing.
The performers ranged from the poetically-inclined Jihan ‘The Universal One’ Williams, Steve ‘Whitty’ Whittaker, Patrick Walters and Stephen LOV Smith, to performances by the lovely Even-3 who first did an a capella rendition and then sang Adele’s ‘Someone Like you’ while Desi Brown danced.
Other performers included the Fireman, Ras Khalid who reminded and encouraged everyone to be faithful and true to their partners as he expressed his “perfect” love to his wife in song.
There were also performances by salsa dancers, Adrian Scantlebury, Avery Li, Addison Harvey and Tabitha Jenkins.
After each performance, host Sheldon Hendrickson allowed them to pick a prize from a bag and several persons won themselves $20 and $50 while others won vouchers from Caribe Café and El Fredo’s Restaurant.
Samal Duggins, IX creator, said that the plan was to capture some of the most memorable moments over the four years of IX’s existence, noting that the night truly did.
“I thought it was a wonderful night, it had that good ol’ Island Xpressions vibe. Sadly, some of the performers couldn’t make it to perform. They had other obligations but we still appreciated the performances. From what I saw, we really were celebrating the moment,” he said.
Duggins said that in terms of the giveaways they decided to extend the prizes to all performers, as they have given away tokens in the past to persons who have significantly helped to build the event and even a guitar to gifted artiste Charles Emmanuel.
“I wanted to spread the focus to everybody. I decided to give all those performers something and I think people really appreciated that and enjoyed themselves,” he said.
IX provides a platform to “Be You, Be Free and Express Yourself”, as many of its performers have gone on to perform at various events in the Federation and also regionally.
“The whole idea is for persons to recognise their potential. We’ve provided the audience, so I hope it will serve as some kind of encouragement for these performers to now recognise that they can step out and do stuff. They can write a book, audios, DCDs, because not only did they have the courage to perform but now have a crowd that will support.”
He also extended gratitude to Caribe Café, El Fredos and Guinness for their contributions to the event.
