“The target date for the school is 2006, summer,” said
Walker, who has long believed an educational institution would be
an effective vehicle to give children of all backgrounds a solid
foundation in educational basics and offer them an opportunity to
delve into theatre, the arts and Caribbean culture.
His return to New York -- he lives in Flatbush when not visiting
his daughter in Jersey City -- is more than a return to the city
he emigrated to from Trinidad back in 1969. It’s also a return
to his first job, teaching.
Walker, as part of his Caribbean Experience Theatre, is running
several workshops out of Space 24 (241 E. 24th St. in Manhattan),
grouped around the theme “How To Make It in Movies, Theatre
and Television -- Even With an Accent!”
“You can go to school and learn not to speak with an accent,”
said Walker, who intentionally retained the slightly British lilt
to his voice.
“I chose to keep mine. It gives me an edge.”
The workshops are a preface to Walker’s real dream: a School
for Caribbean Arts and Culture that he hopes to open next summer
as a charter school.
The institution would use dance, theatre and literature to give
a “deeper understanding of the rich, complex cultures and
values of the Caribbean”.
“There is more to Caribbean culture than steelpans (drums),
reggae and calypsonians,” Walker said.
“Our cultures are rich and diverse. I want to take Caribbean
culture mainstream.
“We have much to share with the world.”
Walker came to the US after a one-man show he created placed third
in a Scouting for Talent contest in Port of Spain, the Trinidadian
capital.
“First prize was a car, second a room of furniture, third
was a trip to New York,” he said.
He left the grandparents who raised him and flew to New York, settling
in a Harlem that was gripped by the civil rights struggle and heroin.
Harlem also was home to a vibrant Black theatre.
“I got dumped right in the middle of it, with no family or
friends,” Walker said.
“I learned pretty quickly how to make a way and how to make
decisions.”
It took three months of walking the callback trail by day and delivering
packages, washing dishes and working in mailrooms before he landed
his first role, a $75 a week gig in the play, A Season in the Congo,
running at the Harlem School of the Arts.
“Seventy-five dollars a week. I thought I had arrived,”
he said.
But the run ended and Walker decided to use all of the sudden time
on his hands to write some of the stories his grandparents, Adam
and Clementina Deacon, told while raising him.
He wrote them, then performed the works at one-man shows about town.
Around the same time, Walker used his training in early childhood
education -- he’s reluctant to give his age but notes he earned
an education degree before moving here -- to run an after-school
programme at the Williamsbridge NAACP Centre.
He did a lot of theatrical work before landing a role as an understudy,
first to James Earl Jones and then to Delroy Lindo in Master Harold
and the Boys.
This time he was really on his way.
He moved to Los Angeles almost 10 years ago, nailing starring roles
in the short-lived Where I Live, and Earth 2 television shows while
continuing to work in movies and theatre.
But Walker returned to New York in April, intent on opening a school
where he could share the lessons he’s learned about his craft
with others, particularly Caribbean immigrants interested in the
arts, but also with people who work closely with them.
“We have to take the responsibility of educating America as
to who we are,” he said.
“All you have is yourself, and your belief in yourself has
to be greater than anyone else’s disbelief in you.”
Walker has lined up an impressive group of individuals to serve
as the school’s board of directors.
They include Grace Blake, film producer and former manager of the
Apollo Theatre Foundation; Alston Pilgrim, adjunct professor of
Mathematics at Medgar Evers College and an instructor at John Jay
High School; attorney Gemma Thomas; attorney Rosemary Kilkenny,
assistant to the president of affirmative action at Georgetown University,
and educational consultant Sheryl Baldwin. |
