"Chalkie" 1989


1999


Carnival 2001



Carnival 2004

MIGHTY   CHALKDUST
REAL NAME: Hollis Urban Lester Liverpool
DATE OF BIRTH: March 5, 1941
PLACE OF BIRTH: Chaguaramas, Trinidad
EDUCATION:
  • Nelson Street Boys' RC School
  • St. Mary's College
  • Government Training College
  • University of the West Indies (B.A.)
  • University of Michigan, Michigan, USA (Ph.D. in History and Ethnomusicology, 1993)
    • CAREER:                                   Chalkdust won nine Calypso Crowns: 1976 ("Three Blind Mice" and "Ah Put on Meh Guns Again"); 1977 ("Juba Dubai" and Shango Vision"); 1981 ("Ah Can't Make" and "My Kind of Worry"); 1989 ("Chauffeur Wanted" and "Carnival Is the Answer"); 1993 ("Kaiso Sick in de Hospital" and "Misconceptions"); 2004 ("Fish Monger" and "Trinidad in the Cemetery"); 2005 ("I in Town Too Long" and "Ah Doh Rhyme"); 2009 ("My Heart and I"); and 2017 ("Learn From Arithmetic"). He made the Calypso Monarch Finals in 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, and 2018. Liverpool also has served as Director of Culture in the Trinidad & Tobago Government's Ministry of Culture. In the fall of 1999, he spent 5 weeks in residence at the Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College Chicago, Illinois, USA. Liverpool has performed and lectured extensively in the Caribbean, Europe, and North America. His other calypsoes include:
    • 1968 - Brain Drain; Devaluation
    • 1969 - Reply to the Ministry
    • 1972 - Ah Fraid Karl; Goat Mouth Doc; Immigration Problems; Our Cultural Heritage; Somebody Mad; We Is We; We're Ten Years Old; Who Next
    • 1974 - Ah Thief It From Kitch; Bernard; Clear Your Name; Joanne; Let The Jackass Sing; Massa Day Must Done; Old Creole Way; Stay Up; Telephone Call; We Blight
    • 1975 - Calypso Disease; The Energy Crisis; Nixon's Mistake; Spare The Children; Straker's Boat Ride; To Spree With Love; Traffic Solution; Why Milo
    • 1976 - Chalkie The Teacher; The Essence of Love; Hang Him; Message to George Weekes; Too Much Tempo; Twentieth Century Greats; You Can't Judge Culture; No Smut for Me
    • 1977 - The Cubana Crash; The Message of '70; My Way of Protest; To Lloyd With Love; Theme for African Liberation; Why We Attack
    • 1978 - Ban Them Kitch; Brooklyn Tourist; Calypso vs. Soca; Mastana Bahar; Money Ain't No Problem; Rasta Language; St. Thomas Singers Too Fresh; Letter to Eric; That Good, That Bad
    • 1979 - Black Inventions; Caricom; De Spirit Gone; Eric Loves Me; Jonestown Massacre; Tantie Merle; Thanks Geddes; Trinidad Money
    • 1980 - Bring the Ayatollah; Uncle Sam Own We
    • 1982 - How to Sing Calypso; Respect We Ting
    • 1983 - Ash Wednesday Jail; Let's Learn to Laugh; Black Child's Prayer; National Pride; No Toilet In Town; Watch the Mixture
    • 1984 - Ah Love Trinidad; The Drunk Monk; Learn to Laugh; Ram the Magician; They Ent African At All; When the Roll Called Up Yonder
    • 1985 - Grand Pa's Back Pay; It Ain't Have Man Again; Rum Mania; St. Thomas Heroes; Sweet Pan War; White Man's Plan
    • 1986 - Too Much Quacks; Port-of-Spain Gone Insane
    • 1987 - What the Hell You Want; We Kinda Leader; The Drug Report; Children World; Last Jour Ouvert; The Scape Fox; Them People Laughing At We
    • 1989 - They Can't Beat We; Try Obeah; Twenty Years 'N Twenty Strokes
    • 1990 - Bush Yard; Come Back Home; Con Dom Mania; People's Army; Soca Is the Cure; Soca Jam; That Good: That Bad
    • 1991 - You the Jury
    • 1992 - One for the Savannah
    • 1996 - National Unity; Selwyn In The Garden Hiding
    • 2000 - Tug O War Society; For Kitchener's Sake
    • 2001 - The Tent Is It; A Shortcut Society; Kitch 2001
    • 2002 - Ah Lost Roy; From Naipaul to Shame
    • 2003 - Letter to Keith Rowley; Just So
    • 2006 - Placed 3rd in Calypso Monarch competition with "The Bandit Factory" and "Chalkie the Mailman"
    • 2007 - Soca Warriors
    • 2009 - Ah Not in Dat
    • 2010 - Mas Is Mas
    • 2011 - Manningitis
    • 2012 - Shame Mr. Shak; How's Dat
    • 2013 - Prodigal Son; Virginia's Alzheimer
    • 2014 - Ah Miss De Bards; De Guest List
    • 2016 - The Bad Road; When Trini Get Vex
    • 2018 - Eulogy
    • Also - Making the Greens; Kaiso Power; Man Want To Dance; Sea Water and Sand; Trini Does Lie; Uncle Sam's Policy; CNN Society; Korean Store

    Publications
    In addition to being a calypsonian, Chalkdust is a teacher, historian, and writer. In 1979, he published his Education Diploma dissertation "Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago: Its Implications for Education in Secondary Schools." His other publications include:

    • 1986 - Kaiso and Society
    • 1987 - Calypsonians to Remember
    • 2001 - Rituals of Power & Rebellion: The Carnival Tradition in Trinidad & Tobago 1763-1962

    AWARD:
    • 1976 - Trinidad & Tobago Humming Bird Medal Silver (for Contribution to Calypso)
    • 2020 - Trinidad & Tobago Order of the Republic
    Compiled by Ronald C. Emrit