#sexypink/Traditional Mas

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Sexypink - Adele Todd - Performance 2023 - Jouvert - BABY 

A look at the most vulnerable character in the Baby Doll presentation. Does anyone ever consider THE BABY?

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Sexypink - From Crick Crack Traditional and Folklore Mas Band

From generation to generation....16 year old Jude Charleau portraying the Dame Lorraine "Madame Bosee, the Old Woman and the Shoe" today at the savannah for Junior Individuals, Boys 11-17. His mother Tracey Sankar-Charleau and her sister Nadia Sankar played this Mas with their mother June Sankar.  Tracey's daughter Nathaniel and another of her sons Joshua have also played this Mas. Jude made the amazing shoe that you see on his back. Stunning details. While the Dame Lorraine is played extensively by women today, it is a mas originally played by men.  Jude made his own costume and the attention to detail was striking. What you can't see in this photo is that he had an exquisite shoe on his back. Will share a view of that in another post.

"At the start of the 19th century, Trinidad’s upper-class ladies dressed for masquerade balls in voluminous flowing gowns. Decked with exquisite jewellery, they danced elegantly through the night — observed through the windows by their slaves and servants. Naturally, these aristocratic ladies and their refined airs were prime targets for mockery when the freed slaves held their own Carnival celebrations, and thus evolved the burlesque character of the Dame Lorraine.Copying the ladies’ fine gowns with whatever materials they could find — assorted rags, makeshift fans and hats, shiny objects imitating jewels — the masqueraders mocked the pretensions of respectable society.  Over time, the Dame Lorraine mas became more elaborate. Heavily padded breasts and posterior reinforced the parody, and a large “pregnant” belly hinted at less than immaculate morals. Fine wire mesh masks, with eyes and mouth painted in, lent the masquerader the safety of anonymity. 

In Port of Spain’s backyards, the Dame Lorraine evolved into a theatrical event, enacted at midnight on Carnival Sunday for an eager audience. Imitating the stately scenes at the old plantation balls, a “butler” introduced arriving couples, who then performed exaggerated versions of formal dances, accompanied by small cuatro bands....Beneath the masks were cross-dressing men, many of whom happened to be the descendants of the very French planters they were mocking." 

Photos by Maria Nunes. All Rights Reserved. Copyright 2023.

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Sexypink -

As yuh make yuh bed..

So you go lie dong on it.

One of the words of wisdom passed on intergenerationally in the Afro- French Creole culture. Young girls were instructed by wiser family members of harm it would bring to them when unheeded.

The bed with its trimmings were sacrosanct. It was a metaphor for la vie en rose and to interfere with the elaborate rules would cause damnation to the unwary.

Those who did not obey would experience pure misery. Nonetheless.some enjoyed the bedroom regardless and pursued the lifestyle....some when becoming pregnant would become the Baby Doll...those who did not conceive would be called the derogatory name of MATTRESS.

Indeed, it was literally how a young girl made her bed that she would lie in it for her future life.

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Sexypink - Adele Todd’s Presentation for Jouvert 2023 - Baby - Where she observes the always overlooked main character of the portrayal. 

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Renella’s embodiment of Kali is an expression of remembering and devotion taken outside of temple worship

Global Voices article by Dr. Gabrielle Hosein on the Kali JabJab Performance of Renella Alfred

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Sexypink - A page from the style guide. Amanda T McIntyre looks at the Baby Doll anew.

The Making Dolly Mas Carnival Arts Workshops started two weeks ago and my heart is full. There is so much precious talent among the students. At the end of one session, a girl said, “I want to be a contemporary Baby Doll.” Imagine my pride! This is a term I introduced to the vernacular through reflective essays and lectures. The girls have been writings speeches, building costumes, and choreographing. Trinidad and Tobago Carnival is in good hands. Thanks to the teachers and parents who have been facilitating this dream of mine!

Photographer: Robert Schittko

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SEXYPINK - Trinidad and Tobago Photographer Abigail Hadeed’s recollections of her photoshoot with Black Stalin. Her curiosity and genuine desire to capture her own culture produced these stunning portraits.

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Abigail Hadeed on Photographing the Stars

“We Can Make it IF We Try” In the Mid 80’s I started photographing traditional mas and the steel bands in and around Port of Spain. I was young, in my early 20’s with a passion and desire to learn and explore Trinidad and it’s culture. 

On my own I began to explore South East POS, Laventille, Belmont and the panyards the traditional mas camps, Minshall, you name it I did it.  

 followed my instinct and allowed things to unfold. At the time I did not have a plan and or know that 3 decades would just fly by and along the way I had and have worked with the Regions best and greatest. I have much to be thankful for, being born at the time i have, the people who let me in, and the spaces and people that fed my soul.

 The Black Stalin was definitely one of those memorable shoots at the studio on Long Circular Road.  Black Stalin circa 1991

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Sexypink - Shalini Seereeram - Molassi ...traditional carnival mas.

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SEXYPINK - I missed this wonderful presentation in 2022. Thus I look forward to Crick Crack in 2023.

From the Facebook page of Crick Crack Traditional and Folklore Band  (2022) Sunday at the Coco dance festival a traditional mas character Babydoll decided to take the stage and bring the performance out of the carnival..I've learned alot in this process and will continue my journey in "becoming" you don't choose the mas it choose you! Special thanks to cocc family for allowing me to keep this thing we call art alive. The Uncanny doll

All photos are copyright by Maria Nunes

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Sexypink - Rubadiri Victor took some stellar images of the Kings and Queens of Carnival Preliminaries. This gentleman got into the right spirit of the Dame Lorraine Traditional Mas.

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Sexypink - Makeda Thomas

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PERFORMING TODAY in Chicago! “Is/Not Mas” is an invitation to engage the serious work of play that is at the center of mas and Carnival performance. Archival audio and video, fractal algorithms, sound, and movement collect to experiment with a possibility of performance rooted in and that invokes aesthetics of mas and Carnival, but is yet something else altogether. Kalinda, kinetics, Traditional mas, and Jouvay are called on to gesture towards what we mean when we say, “Mas!

Ah know yuh!”via

Performance Studies at Northwestern University

: Introducing the Graduate Student Spotlight Series, in this series we will be sharing more about the graduate student community that make up Northwestern’s Department of Performance Studies, as well as their work and practice. Ahead of the graduate performances, a key milestone for our graduate students, we will be kicking off the series with our first-year PhD students. Makeda Thomas (she/her) 

Makeda Thomas‘ artistic practice, scholarship and teaching situate at the intersection of dance studies, diaspora theory, and Black feminisms. She is Founding Director of the Trinidad-based Dance & Performance Institute, which has created multiple spaces of intellectual and imaginative inquiry for hundreds of artists, scholars, teachers, and students of the Caribbean and its Diasporas. The Institute spearheads the Artist in Residence Program, New Waves! Institute, and Carnival Performance Institute - programs which have been engaged in Trinidad & Tobago, Haiti, and New York. A 2013 Creative Capital Awardee, her choreography has been presented internationally including at The Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York Live Arts, HARLEM Stage/Aaron Davis Hall, Seattle’s Broadway Performance Hall, Maputo’s Teatro Africa, Port of Spain’s Caribbean Contemporary Arts and Queen’s Hall, The National Gallery of Art and 7 Arts Centre in Zimbabwe, Teatro de la Ciudad in Mexico, and in the context of Carnival. · 

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Sexypink - Look out for traditional mas at its best.

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~Sexypink~ JOUVERT- Monday mas 2020. Abigail Hadeed Photography

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~Sexypink~ I just saw this from Tracey, perhaps you might still get an opportunity to hear her interview.

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~Sexypink~ A beautiful take on traditional mas in Trinidad and Tobago.