An Evening with Rawlston Charles

Soca music, the upbeat descendant of calypso, originated in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) turned 50 last year. Rawlston Charles, a T&T immigrant and long standing Brooklyn resident, is a pivotal figure in popularizing calypso and soca internationally, through his record shop Charlie’s Calypso City, record label Charlie’s Records and recording studio, which was also essential to the development of hip-hop earliest recordings.

 

Charlie’s Records has distributed calypso/soca records throughout the world while Charlie has produced many of those genres’ biggest hits including Calypso Rose’s barrier breaking “Tempo”, Superblue’s sacred/secular blend “Soca Baptist,” and Explainer’s “Lorraine,” which cracked the UK top 40.

 

Rawlston Charles was the subject of a 2019 documentary Charlie’s Records, directed by his daughter, WNBA veteran and 3X Olympic Gold medalist Tina Charles, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.

 

BPL, in association with Brooklyn based Caribbean cultural organization Tropicalfete will present a Q&A session with Rawlston Charles and excerpts of the film Charlie’s Records.