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History and Culture of Calypso Music comes to FGCU

Steel drum band playing at FGCU.

A presentation on the history of calypso music and a performance will feature three giants from that music scene Tuesday afternoon at Marieb Hall on FGCU Campus.  This afternoon on WGCU, we’ll get to talk with the artists in our studio.  They’re called Monarchs- a title given once a year to the winning performer on Dimanche Gras night. Karene Ashce, won in 2011 at the young age of 26. Devon Seale won the title in 2016 while wearing some interesting headgear. And Duane O’Connor was crowned Monarch of Calypso in 2012.

All three will be on Gulf Coast Live today to talk about their journey through Calypso and how this genre represents Trinidad and Tobago.

Rachel Iacovone is a reporter and associate producer of Gulf Coast Live for WGCU News. Rachel came to WGCU as an intern in 2016, during the presidential race. She went on to cover Florida Gulf Coast University students at President Donald Trump's inauguration on Capitol Hill and Southwest Floridians in attendance at the following day's Women's March on Washington.Rachel was first contacted by WGCU when she was managing editor of FGCU's student-run media group, Eagle News. She helped take Eagle News from a weekly newspaper to a daily online publication with TV and radio branches within two years, winning the 2016 Society of Professional Journalists Mark of Excellence Award for Best Use of Multimedia in a cross-platform series she led for National Coming Out Day. She also won the Mark of Excellence Award for Feature Writing for her five-month coverage of an FGCU student's transition from male to female.As a WGCU reporter, she produced the first radio story in WGCU's Curious Gulf Coast project, which answered the question: Does SWFL Have More Cases of Pediatric Cancer?Rachel graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University with a bachelor's degree in journalism.