The Idakeda Principals

FOUNDER – DARA E. HEALY, MA MASS COMM.

Dara is the recipient of the 2011 University of the West Indies (U.W.I) Felix Harrington prize for Dance. She is an actress, poet, author, storyteller and experienced Communications Specialist. She is the Founder of the Idakeda Group, which includes the Non-Governmental Organisation the Indigenous Creative Arts Network – ICAN, the Chibale Drumming Ensemble and African Legacy Tours of Trinidad and Tobago.

She has toured locally, regionally and internationally with Idakeda Productions as a dancer, choreographer and manager, and is actively involved at a community level with the work of the organisation. She works with the Idakeda team to conduct interventions with vulnerable populations and she draws on her experience in Communications to implement training and development programmes for NGOs and CBOs.

Her corporate work includes Training in Public Relations and consultancy in Event Management and Strategic Corporate Communications.

EINTOU PEARL SPRINGER – CREATIVE FORCE

A.L.A.UK; M.Phil. Lon.

Playwright, performance poet, storyteller, author

Eintou Springer is the Creative Force of Idakeda. One of the most prolific female playwrights of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean region, her plays have been performed internationally to critical acclaim. They focus mainly on the heritage and culture of her birthplace, Trinidad and Tobago. All of her plays from ‘Harmony in Diversity’ to ‘Kambule’, ‘Sesa Woruban’ and ‘Baby Doll meets Midnight Robber’ contain authentic historical information and facts which ensure that her plays are not only educational, but they reveal aspects of the indigenous culture of Trinidad and Tobago which are still largely unexplored.

An award-winning actress, Ms. Springer held the title of Poet Laureate of Port of Spain from 2002-2009. In 2004, she was awarded the Vanguard Award of the National Drama Association of Trinidad and Tobago (NDATT), an organisation that she helped to form. Ms. Springer is the recipient of a national award, the Humming Bird Silver Medal, for her contribution to the development and propagation of Arts and Culture. She is the cultural Director of the Emancipation Support Committee and has a lifelong commitment to and interest in the history and culture of African people.

Ms. Springer is the founding librarian of the National Heritage arm of NALIS; as a librarian she has over 40 years of specialisation in Caribbean bibliography. She has created the curriculum at both the associate and degree level at COSTAAT, and currently teaches the degree level at COSTAAT.

She is a walking encyclopaedia of the culture of Trinidad and Tobago, not at a surface level, but deep within the communities. In the community performance arena in Trinidad and Tobago, she conceptualised and managed the Best Village Junior programme for three years. She is also an historian with an interest in the origins and meanings of words, practices and behaviours in the communities of Trinidad and Tobago.

ATTILLAH SPRINGER –DIRECTOR, YOUTH INSPIRATION

Attillah Springer is a nationally and internationally respected journalist and newspaper columnist who studied Mass Communications at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus. She formerly hosted her own weekly television programme and has served on the Executive of the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago. She has spoken at various national and international fora on media and related subject matter and contributes much of her free time to environmental community work. As a member of the Idakeda team, she facilitates workshops, training programmes and is involved in company projects.

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