Carnival Reflections

Our Carnival: Playing the Past, Playing the Present, Previewing the Future

Reading Time 2 minsVarious interviews with Entertainment Agents, Promoters, Carnival Organizers, Calypsonians to support this theme. We are starting out the interview series with Mr. Angus Steele, Entertainment Agent and Owner/Manager of Spice Concoction   BIGDRUMNATION: What brought you to this often- maligned business of calypso, soca, and carnival? Angus:  think it’s more about my love for music since I was growing up (learned to play drums with the Pitt brothers – Richard “Sabina” and Selwyn “Kung Fu”, looking on keenly at the years with Rodney “Doc” Rapier and Eddie Bullen and loving the Classical Guitar around the same time to… Read More »Our Carnival: Playing the Past, Playing the Present, Previewing the Future

Vincy Mas in USA Launches with Big Win for New Artiste

Reading Time 3 minsNew Soca Artiste Wins big During Launch of Vincy Mas in USA By Maxwell Haywood Michelle ‘Hibiscus’ Hillocks created history by spectacularly winning both the New Song Competition, and the first ever New Break-out Artiste prize during the tenth staging of the launch of Vincy Mas in the USA. All this sensation took place on Saturday, May 7, 2016, at Bamboo Gardens in Brooklyn, New York, and was organized by Level Vibes, ably led by Ainsley Primus and Caiphas “Super Eyes” Cuffy. After the singing of the national anthem of both the United States and St Vincent… Read More »Vincy Mas in USA Launches with Big Win for New Artiste

Carnival Documentary Premieres in Brooklyn

Reading Time 2 minsCaribbean Awareness Committee (NY) Presents: “Our Soul Turned  Inside Out!”  a NY premiere film screening “Our Soul Turned Inside Out,” a documentary film that examines traditional Carnival characters created in the 19th century crucible of slavery and emancipation and the psychic impulses behind them, will have its New York premiere on Friday, October 30, 7 pm at Medgar Evers College auditorium, 1650 Bedford Av. Brooklyn.  The film, which runs approximately one hour, focuses on traditional carnival characters – the Pierrot Granade, blue devils, stick-fighters and jab jabs – highlighting the depth of conflict, physical and verbal aggression, inherent in these contested… Read More »Carnival Documentary Premieres in Brooklyn

Carnival: A Mass Plays Mas’ [Caldwell Taylor]

Reading Time 1 minsCarnival: A Mass Plays Mas’   [Part 1 of 2]  ***Draft: Not for Quotation, Citation or Distribution*** Carnival seeks to regain a lost Paradise ; it plays to recover the world that predated the Fall. Carnival reveals the two faces behind a wire-mesh mask :”the Agony of Exile”and the “Joy of a Certain Return”. Carnival is Wilson Harris‘ “infinite rehearsal”; it is calypsonian Lord Shorty’s “Endless Vibrations.” Carnival is the surfacing of the submerged! “Carnival is that time when every joke is allowed,” say the Italians.   “Life is a Carnaval”, sings Celia Cruz [1925-2003] in “La Vida es un… Read More »Carnival: A Mass Plays Mas’ [Caldwell Taylor]

A Carnival Story by M. Martin Lewis [part 2 of 2]

Reading Time 2 mins[Continued: Link to part 1 Like everything Shortknee their songs were just as much a mystery. Unlike Jab Jab songs, they were not created in any village on some moonlight night; no one claimed authorship, heck they were not even in our language. They seemed to have verses where chorus should be and they referenced things, places and people that were outside the known universe. There are Shortknee Q & A’s that have troubled me all my life. Why their sleeves were so big? And was there any significance to the colors of their costumes? Who made… Read More »A Carnival Story by M. Martin Lewis [part 2 of 2]

A CARNIVAL STORY by M. Martin Lewis [part 1 of 2]

Reading Time 2 minsA CARNIVAL STORY By M. Martin Lewis Note well: I’m not talking about this lovable cuddly Shortknee in New York that Val and company play every year, advertising in Carib News and lifting their masks to peer into NBC cameras on Eastern Parkway. As anything in New York, that’s the watered down version of my earliest fears. A real Shortknee’s face was never exposed; you guessed at who it was. Exposing the identity of the Shortknee was a no no. Not one part of a Shortknee body’s could ever be exposed, and therein lay the evil; how… Read More »A CARNIVAL STORY by M. Martin Lewis [part 1 of 2]

CARNIVAL PROCLAMATIONS

Reading Time 1 minsBakhtin wrote: “Carnival is a pageant without floodlights and without a division into performers and spectators.”   Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975) Russian philosopher, literary critic, semiotician, and the putative “father of Carnival Studies.”   “Carnival Proclamation”, the title of a Lord Melody composition. Melody [aka Fitzroy Alexander] was born in Trinidad to a Grenadian mother. A handful of Melody’s calypsoes were performed and recorded by Harry Belafonte. Belafonte’s likeness is featured on a Grenadian postage stamp. Melody’s “Carnival Proclamation” NOTICE   CARNIVAL REGULATIONS THE public is hereby warned that the following acts constitute offences against the law:- (a) Celebrating… Read More »CARNIVAL PROCLAMATIONS

Grenada’s Carnival Tradition (Hudson George) pt. 1

Reading Time 2 minsThe tradition of carnival will always remain, but the big question is: Why do we still play mas, even though the festival has become corrupted with domestic politics, foreign influence,  and some artistes always fighting among themselves for money and prestige during national competition events? During the colonial era, carnival had a vibrant rural influence. Villagers came together and organised themselves;  and play mas. The songs composed by the masqueraders were as political as they are today, but there were less repercussions from the authorities against the artistes, who sung those anti government songs. Today our political… Read More »Grenada’s Carnival Tradition (Hudson George) pt. 1