The Red Dragonfly team has shot over 50 hours of intergenerational stories and live performances featuring cultural icons including Stanley Jacobs, Esta Williams, King Derby, Bully Peterson, KC Henry, and Karen "Lady Mac" McIntosh-Bruce, who serves as our guide and narrator through this musical journey. 

We are now busy editing the documentary and can’t wait to share stories of joy, resistance, and resilience. Quelbe music is the heart of Crucian identity and the living history of our ancestors. This music was borne on sugarcane plantations during the brutal injustices of slavery. It continues to move people today, and to educate and entertain.

How do we keep Quelbe music alive and well for today’s musicians? Greater exposure to the music is one way. Encouraging people to learn to play Quelbe songs is another. To do this, we’re currently partnering with some of the culture bearers who appear in the documentary to collect Quelbe songs, complete with lyrics and music in a new songbook. The songbook will be available here, in bookstores and in schools on-island.

Our friend, KC Henry, is one of the youngest players in Stanley and the Ten Sleepless Knights. He said, “My main goal is to preserve the culture, and to make sure the next generation of Virgin Islanders get an opportunity to live it.” To help facilitate this shared ambition and collective goal, we are developing a curriculum with local educators to bring Quelbe musicians into the schools where students can gain inspiration and instruction directly from the source.