Keeping Virgin Island’s Culture Alive
With its Annual Folklife Festival, Ten Sleepless Knights are sustaining the Virgin Islands’ vibrant culture.
Written by Karen C. Thurland, Ph.D.
Edited by Dessane Lopez Cassell
The Virgin Islands Council on the Arts (VICA), established in 1966 by the U.S. Virgin Islands Legislature, has assisted artists and arts organizations in promoting and showcasing the talents of island residents. One organization that has received funding over the years is the Ten Sleepless Knights (TSK), a musical group that has performed Quelbe music for over 55 years. In 2003, the Virgin Islands Legislature declared Quelbe as the official traditional music of the Virgin Islands and defined it as the vocal and instrumental style of Virgin Islands’ folk music, which traces its ancestry to Africa and Europe and is a fusion of bamboula rhythms and chants, Cariso songs and melodies. Bamboula is a dance with a drum rhythm that originated in Africa and was popular in the Virgin Islands many years ago.
Stanley Jacobs, leader and an original member of the Ten Sleepless Knights, said that while growing up, the music was simply called “down the road” music. He explains that Cariso is just drum and voice, and that all music includes commentary or satire, humor, and gossip. The TSK band’s versatility is highlighted in their repertoire of jigs, waltzes, polka mazurka, Quadrille melodies, calypso, and Latin music. The band’s mission is to preserve and perpetuate Virgin Islands music so our children can carry on the tradition. In that spirit, TSK established an annual scholarship to sponsor the college tuition of a high school senior music student, with the intention that the recipient return to teach music in the schools.
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Image: Stanley Jacobs, leader of Ten Sleepless Knights, performing in 2022 at the Folklife Festival on St. Croix, USVI. Credit: Karen Thurland, PhD.
Kendell Henry, the youngest member of the TSK, and the special projects coordinator for VICA, has attended many festival workshops and made arrangements for the band to participate in several Folklife Festivals on the United States mainland. It was he who first recommended that a Folklife Festival be held in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The first festival was held at the Estate Whim Plantation in 2022 and has continued as an annual event on both St. Croix and St. Thomas, and is a community event that unites music, dance, and heritage.
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Image: Careem Smith and Kendell Henry demonstrating head tying techniques at the VI Folklife Festival at Estate Whim Plantation on St. Croix, USVI. Credit: Karen Thurland, PhD.
Patricia Browne has worked with the Virgin Islands Folklife Festival since its inception and states that the idea of a festival came out of the Ten Sleepless Knights’ cultural committee as another way to showcase the culture of the Virgin Islands. She assists with the mask-making station, where participants construct face masks using mesh, gems, fabrics, and other materials. Browne shares, “We provide all the materials, and the participants are allowed to take their masks home. Both young and old enjoy this activity.”
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Image: Patrician Browne, Member of the Ten Sleepless Knights’ cultural committee and AyAy Cultural Dancers. Credit: Karen Thurland, PhD.
Gilbert Hendricks, a bass guitar and pipe player who has played in the TSK band for 31 years, states that the Folklife Festival has brought cultural bands from Tortola, Puerto Rico, St. Maarten, and other Caribbean islands for the festival’s nighttime performances held in Frederiksted for the July 3rd Emancipation celebration. Hendricks also notes that the festival offers activities such as food demonstrations, tying madras head ties, woodworking, basketmaking, Moko Jumbie performances, and plaiting the Maypole. Additionally, the AyAy Quadrille dancers demonstrate their steps and invite participants to join the group for a few dance numbers. With each festival offering, TSK strives to keep Virgin Island culture alive and vibrant. As Hendricks stresses, “If you lose your culture, you lose your island, and you lose yourself.”
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Image: Gilbert Hendricks, the bass guitarist and pipe player for the Ten Sleepless Knights. Credit: Karen Thurland, PhD.
Rena Francis, daughter of Tino Francis—a former keyboard player for the TSK— likewise worries that we are becoming too far removed from our cultural traditions and believes it is critical to have the Folklife Festival. Focusing on how to keep our culinary traditions alive, she has conducted food demonstrations in the small cookhouse at Estate Whim for several years and shows spectators how to make pigtail souse, red peas soup, salmon balls, saltfish gundi, and cornmeal fungi. At future festivals, Ms. Francis hopes to bring her cooking outside, with demonstrations on a coal pot to allow for more interaction with spectators. She engages participants by naming the ingredients she uses and highlighting similarities and differences between St. Croix cuisine and other islands’ cuisines.
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Image: Rena Francis demonstrates Crucian cuisine at the Folklife Festival on St. Croix. Credit: Karen Thurland, PhD.
Plans for the Virgin Islands Folklife Festival in 2026 will coincide with celebrations of Virgin Islands History Month, with events scheduled throughout the month of March. This year, the festival will focus on workshops at schools to teach quadrille dance steps and masquerading, including costume and mask-making. Additionally, the cultural committee will incorporate summer camps into the Folklife Festival in July, where students can learn the quadrille, the history of Quelbe music, see local dishes prepared, and even learn how to prepare local fruit drinks. The goal is to highlight Virgin Islands culture so that it can be preserved for future generations.
