Making Mas’ Media
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| These images are the earliest I took on Carnival Tuesday morning, 2019. Sailor Mas' was introduced in TnT Carnival circa 1880, when British, French and America naval ships arrived here. Today, it's popular with the more golden-age generation. Costumes are lightweight and don't cost much to create. Here, these "Bad Behaviour" sailors are in their glee: wearing traditional uniform and often a hat that conceals the eyes. They act like drunkards, reeling and pitching, with the requisite "tin" of baby powder to throw on others. South Quay, downtown Port-off-Spain. |
Mas’: derived from mask and masquerade. 1 a costume. 2 any costumed player, reveler (includes king and queen of a band; or individual in original or traditional costume). 3 a collective costumed band (small, medium, large) created under a theme or story (includes J’Overt and Monday Night Mas’). 4 all Carnival costumes and costumed activities; esp. on Carnival Monday and Carnival Tuesday, preceding Ash Wednesday.
AVOIDING
CARNIVAL is no easy thing when you are a Media professional.
Even
when I worked on the News Night Desk, instead of as a knockabout roving
reporter/journalist, there was the business of getting to work (then from work)
on Carnival Monday and Tuesday, because, of course, “News never sleeps.”
I’ve been chased by men looking for a “wok up yuh waist”
(gyrate emphatically); as if I remotely looked like I was part of the Carnival
swing, and as if there we not bevies of other lasses practically showing off
their nethers who were far more inclined to the wine (waist gyrations of
various kinds).
I was once bodily flung from a band, by a box-shaped woman
twice my then twenty years, when I tried to cross the public street as their
thousands strong masqueraders chipped downtown on their way to cross the “Big
Stage.” (This abuse is totally illegal, but costumed revelers tend to only
know what respect and safety is when asking both for themselves. See post: Feeling Carnival Feverish)
I’ve been stuck fighting to find my way home, because all
the taxis have been re-routed, and I forgot to make sure to have bus tickets handy
(so many years buses sidled tauntingly by me in slow Carnival traffic).
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| In sharp contrast to the sailor's I would photograph after, this fellow was the first reveler I snapped 2019 Carnival Tuesday. He looks like a variation on the Jab Molassie theme (more in later post), or, as with many things Carnival, he was making satirical social commentary on a topic of national or international scope. ALL PHOTOS by JHAYE-Q |
Yes, Carnival has been the bane of my adult working existence in many ways. But don’t be fooled by that statement into thinking – like many Trinis accuse – that I love the festival any less than the most avid of die-hard, Trini-to-de-bone Mas’ season supporters.
Just, people love in different ways.
My Carnival love is deep, fervent, inspired. Also, it is breathless, adoring,
solemn and still. It’s a spectator kind of love, yes; but focused by the
abiding appreciation and wonder at inventive creative expression only another
artist can truly know.
Since I was burned out of the Branded Media, and have been
forging ahead to manifest Open Media, I find my above-described love for “The
Greatest Show on Earth” has advanced, appreciated, altered into something
decidedly sweeter and more comfortable.
Walking alone among the bedecked throng with my hand-me-down,
cracked screen Samsung Mini S3 and borrowed Nikon D40 to visually scoop, seize, snatch
stories at every turn, finds me consistently surprised by joy (My photography story and categories).
I am looking at much that I love. More than that: I am doing what I love.
Better, I get to share such love with the world. There is no one now to censure me with homegrown bigotries, insecurities, questionable agendas or obfuscation intended to protect an unfairly biased status quo. No. Now there is hand, heart, art, showing, knowing, growing.
I love blogging! 💖😘
So Trinidad and Tobago Carnival (yes, we use a capital “C”;
it means that much to us) is here
again: calypsoes, shows, costumes, parades, brass, pan, wine (Trini and literal
sense), song, culture, tradition, sensuality, sexuality, creativity,
camaraderie, competition, contention, celebration and MORE.
I have humble Media gifts to bring to try and convey a
sense of how multi-layered AWE-some this season is home here, and what it means
to my people, even the ones who detest it.
Hey, want to gain insight into how my perspective and love
of this festival varies from other Media professionals in my country? Do a
general Google search for Trinidad and Tobago Carnival images, then look at my
photos on this blog and Jhaye-Q Trinbago photography from Pexels (link below). You’ll see.
Before Carnival 2020 pushes into high gear, allow me to gas
you up with photocentric stories from Carnival 2019: the good, the rad and the
unabashed.
Revel in the mas’!
Shine on
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| "You can't play mas' and 'fraid powdah." we say in TnT. Sailor Mas' gave rise to that term, because they would fling powder, not just upon other masqueraders, but on simple sightseers and standers-by. This is considered par for the course. In other words, you can't object, though you can run away. Even with my camera in hand, this fellah sized me up in as fair game. |
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| What one started, others rushed in to join. "Bad Behaviour" Sailor Mas' mimics how foreign sailors misbehaved when they went carousing and got inebriated. In large bands, players would put arms across each other's shoulders and form a staggering line, taking a few steps left, then right, then left, and so on. This imitated drunken reeling, and was called "rocking the ship." |
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| Not dust, but powder in yuh face. The things we do for the shot. Sailor Mas' is considered the most popular of traditional mas'. There are several variations on the theme, including Stokers/Firemen and King/Fancy Sailors, (more in coming posts) the latter which tend to favour individual costume portrayals. |
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| My Carnival Tuesday baptism by powder made me pause for a cause: to clean my camera and my face. I left my arms and clothes thus bedecked, and no one batted an eye because there were many similarly embellished. I took a moment to breathe slowly and drink in some early morning sweet sunshine before the heat piled on. |
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