Kenneth Cladyn Corsbie was born in British Guiana on July 25th 1930, the son of Ivan Dwight Corsbie and Louise Maude Begg. Ken is survived by his wife of 30 years, Elizabeth (Beth) Barnum; daughter Kim Andrea and son-in-law Mark Trotman, son Nigel Bruce Corsbie and their mother Daphne Wright; daughter Karen DeSouza Gallman; Sisters and Brothers-in-law Kathleen and Joe Miller, Lucinda and Dan Barnum-Steggerda, and Jean and Gary Crosby; 9 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren, and nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his parents, brothers Percy and Derek, sister Joyce McComie and son Leonard Ivan “Len.” Ken is mourned by many lifelong friends and his chosen family who he referred to as his “band of brothers”.
Ken was educated at St. Stanislaus College (Guyana) and Rose Bruford College of Speech and Drama (England) but most of all through careful listening and appreciation of the stories people tell in everyday life. His love of the rich and colorful language of the Caribbean is reflected in the stories he told, poetry he wrote and performed, and in his love of a good “gaff.” Ken was a theatre designer and director as well as an actor. He loved the stage. He loved life.
Growing up in the Taitt’s yard in Georgetown, Guyana provided an early introduction to performing arts, creative collaboration, and love of play. His friends went on to become the region’s top writers, artists, musicians, and dramatists. There was a choir, orchestra, steel band, and ballet, as well as athletics. In the yard, they challenged one another to become Guyana’s top athletes and creatives. Ken was a champion hurdler and sprinter but his favorite accomplishment was starting basketball in Guyana.
Ken’s first job was at Cable and Wireless in Guyana where he learned Morse Code and how to type faster than most people can think. Ken’s Cable and Wireless training in 1940’s Barbados gave him a great love of Barbados where he would return to live from 1979-1994.
After returning to Guyana from drama school in the 1960’s, Ken was a key figure in the theatre scene, designing, directing, and mentoring the next generation of theatre practitioners and performers. Ken continued to direct, act, teach, innovate, and advocate for theatre as part of the Theatre Guild of Guyana and as Director of Drama in the Department of Culture.
While observing a performance by Trinidadian Slade Hopkinson at the Theatre Guild in Guyana, Ken noted that the audience responded most enthusiastically to poems in “nation language” or Creolese of the Caribbean. He began performing Caribbean poetry as “He One” in the 1970’s. Later he was joined by Marc Matthews and they became “Dem Two” performing throughout the Caribbean in schools and venues throughout the region. For many, it was the first time they heard poetry in their first language. More than 30 years after these performances, Ken continued to be approached by those who heard Dem Two in school and could still recount a poem or story in part because it legitimized the beauty and music of their first language. Ken’s work was a critical component in the period at the end of the colonial era and first decades of independence as new Caribbean countries forged national and regional identities. Dem Two was joined by Henry Muttoo, John Agard and other musicians and performers including Camo Williams, Eddie Hooper and Keith Waite to become “All ah We.”
While in Barbados 1979-1996, Ken was well-known in local theatre as a designer, director, actor, broadcaster, and arts journalist. He founded Theatre Information Exchange (TIE), collecting Caribbean plays, and introducing Caribbean writers, actors, and designers to each other. He typed scripts of original work on stencils and copied them using a mimeograph machine. Communication was via snail mail before fax and before many people had telephones in their homes. Caribbean writers and artists who attended TIE workshops are among the best known and lauded in the Caribbean. TIE was the beginning of regional theatre activism and celebrating spoken word performances. In the past few years, Ken was able to keep connected through programs online at home in North Carolina. He imagined incredible possibilities for regional art collaborations with the ease of current technology. Ken’s life spanned communication from Morse Code in the 1940’s to Zoom.
Ken wrote “Theatre in the Caribbean “ in 1984 (Hodder Staughton, London). Although designed for use in schools, this book provides a social, cultural, and historical basis for theatre and performing arts in the Caribbean.
Ken was a skilled broadcaster and on-air presenter in radio, television, and documentaries. He travelled around the region with the fledging Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) when he declared “like Columbus” he “discovered the Caribbean.” Ken was involved in many Banyan productions, preserved in Banyan’s extraordinary archive of Caribbean arts and culture by lifelong friend Christopher Laird. Ken’s work lives on because of documentation by Banyan, Judy Singh-Hurston, the CNCF in Cayman and others who filmed and recorded Ken’s performances.
Ken was a Caribbean man who loved and celebrated the tapestry of the Caribbean. From his early days, Ken honed his skills through endless rehearsal, writing and re-writing until his performances appeared natural, fresh and unrehearsed. Ken encouraged generations of aspiring actors, designers, dramatists and storytellers to work for excellence. He performed in almost every country in the English-speaking Caribbean forging lifelong friendships and artistic collaborations.
Ken and Elizabeth met while she was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Barbados (1979-81). When she returned to Barbados for dissertation research (1990-92), Ken’s insights on Caribbean culture and society and the introduction to Caribbean artists and writers in Ken’s orbit provided Elizabeth, as an anthropologist, unique insight into Caribbean arts and culture. They shared a love of the music of Caribbean language, culture, and arts, along with beautiful companionship and love throughout their 30 year marriage.
Ken immigrated to the US in 1996, delighting US audiences, his American family and friends, and Caribbean immigrant communities with his gift for storytelling. Ken was a feature at monthly storytelling at the Cornelia Cafe in New York for many years. His dynamic theatrical approach to story will long be remembered by US audiences and the storytelling community.
Ken received many awards and honors for his accomplishments including:
- The Golden Arrow of Achievement (Guyana)
- Outstanding News/ Feature Presenter/Reporter (Television) Banyan Productions Trinidad by the Caribbean Publishing and Broadcasting Association and Caribbean Broadcasting Union 1991
- Outstanding Lifetime Contribution to Developing the Arts 1992 University of the West Indies (Eastern Caribbean) Center for Management Development
- Earthworks Award – Caribbean Storytelling Festival Award by the Organization of Caribbean Associations Barbados 1994
- The Cacique Award (Trinidad and Tobago) 2003
- Earl Warner Trust Lifetime Achievements Award (Barbados 2016)
Ken performed at the annual Gimistory storytelling festival in Cayman Islands for more than 20 years receiving the Cayman National Cultural Foundation Heritage Cross for his body of creative endeavour and pioneering efforts in Caribbean Theatre as an actor storyteller administrator, broadcaster, TV presenter, designer, director and mentor. And especially for his work performing in and promoting the Cayman Islands International Storytelling Festival Gimistory since its inception in 1998.
Ken also received numerous other awards for set design and production and contributions to storytelling and culture in the Caribbean and New York.
After suffering a stroke in 2018, resulting in aphasia, Ken worked bravely and tirelessly to regain speech and mobility. There is a long list of people who delighted in Ken’s magnetic personality and humor even as they cared for him. We are grateful for the amazing team of UNC medical personnel who supported Elizabeth in the caregiving journey including our compassionate and extraordinary physician Dr. Shana Ratner, a team of nurses, CNAs (especially Amy Swart), physical and speech therapists, Triangle Aphasia Project and the UNC hospice team who supported Ken and Elizabeth in Ken’s final months, and in his final days at the UNC Hospice House.
Ken loved the stage and brought an easy charisma that will remain in the imagination of those who experienced his performances or who were regaled with an impromptu story at a party. His friends and family will long remember his laugh, storytelling riffs, jokes, sense of play, and love of life.
Remember Ken’s legacy and arts activism by supporting live local theatre, storytelling, and poetry performances.
Videos of Ken Corsbie performing are available on his YouTube “CaribVoies” channel. An online memorial tribute to Ken will be announced at a later date.
