West Indian Independence Day Parade, 2012
SubjectPortrait of
Desiann Malcolm
SubjectPortrait of
Harold Springer
(Trinidadian)
SubjectPortrait of
Alwin Cooper
(Trinidadian)
SubjectPortrait of
Ashley Francis
SubjectPortrait of
Clerona Cain
SubjectPortrait of
Mellissa Craig
SubjectPortrait of
Uniqua Jones
Date2012 August 11
Mediumborn digital photography
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.508.1-.17
DescriptionPhotographs of Mas Camp participants and other performers at the West Indian Independence Day Parade on August 11, 2012.
(.1) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One’s banner with the Band marching in the parade behind the truck.
(.2) Image of the Al-Maidah Southern Cuisine food booth at the festival in Bushnell Park.
(.3) Image of the Reggae Kitchen food both at the festival in Bushnell Park.
(.4) Image of a float in the West Indian Parade.
(.5) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's Queen, Desiann Malcolm in the West Indian Parade.
(.6) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's Band in the West Indian Parade.
(.7) Image of Mas Camp educators Harold Springer (left) and Lerry Cooper (right) at the West Indian Parade.
(.8) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's Junior Queen, Ashley Francis in the West Indian Parade.
(.9) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's Junior Queen, Clerona Cain in the West Indian Parade.
(.10) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's frontliner, Mellissa Craig in the West Indian Parade.
(.11) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's masqueraders Mellissa Craig (left) and Uniqua Jones (right) in the West Indian Parade.
(.12) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's Queen, Desiann Malcolm in the West Indian Parade.
(.13) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's Junior Queen, Ashley Francis in the West Indian Parade.
(.14) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's Band in the West Indian Parade.
(.15) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's Queen, Desiann Malcolm in the West Indian Parade.
(.16) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's and Junior Queen, Clerona Cain in the West Indian Parade.
(.17) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's frontliner in Bushnell Park after the West Indian Parade.
NotesSubject Note: A significant wave of West Indian immigration to the United States began in the 1940s. Many settled in the Hartford area because the labor shortage of World War II meant there were available jobs in the tobacco fields along the Connecticut River Valley. Men worked in the fields while women often found work as housekeepers, teachers, nurses, and aides. Local organizations helped transition new immigrants to Connecticut culture and offered friendship, housing, economic opportunities, and community connections. Today, Connecticut’s West Indian community includes immigrants from all the islands in the Caribbean. They have established significant sports, cultural, and social clubs. The community has created vibrant dance and music groups, and produces an annual week-long festival that attracts audiences from all over the Northeast. With Greater Hartford now being home to the third largest West Indian community in the nation, beloved traditions like Carnival have been transplanted and sustained here.(.1) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One’s banner with the Band marching in the parade behind the truck.
(.2) Image of the Al-Maidah Southern Cuisine food booth at the festival in Bushnell Park.
(.3) Image of the Reggae Kitchen food both at the festival in Bushnell Park.
(.4) Image of a float in the West Indian Parade.
(.5) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's Queen, Desiann Malcolm in the West Indian Parade.
(.6) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's Band in the West Indian Parade.
(.7) Image of Mas Camp educators Harold Springer (left) and Lerry Cooper (right) at the West Indian Parade.
(.8) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's Junior Queen, Ashley Francis in the West Indian Parade.
(.9) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's Junior Queen, Clerona Cain in the West Indian Parade.
(.10) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's frontliner, Mellissa Craig in the West Indian Parade.
(.11) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's masqueraders Mellissa Craig (left) and Uniqua Jones (right) in the West Indian Parade.
(.12) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's Queen, Desiann Malcolm in the West Indian Parade.
(.13) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's Junior Queen, Ashley Francis in the West Indian Parade.
(.14) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's Band in the West Indian Parade.
(.15) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's Queen, Desiann Malcolm in the West Indian Parade.
(.16) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's and Junior Queen, Clerona Cain in the West Indian Parade.
(.17) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's frontliner in Bushnell Park after the West Indian Parade.
In 1962, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago claimed their Independence from Great Britain. Since then, the West Indian Parade and Independence Celebration has been a highlight of Hartford’s summer activities. The Hartford celebration, held for a full week in August, is based on Carnival, a pre-Lenten celebration of spring and renewal in the islands, especially Trinidad. Masquerading, or playing Mas is an essential part of Carnival. Mas represents a theatrical adoption and presentation of roles and characters that originally expressed mockery of upper classes. Colorful, often spectacular costumes designed by traditional Mas artists depict fanciful themes or current issues. Gossamer fabrics, plumes and feathers, braiding, sequins and gems used in previous years are recycled to express the new year’s themes. Mas and Carnival serve as central expressions of Caribbean cultural identity and heritage.
During Carnival parades, groups of masqueraders form bands and dance to calypso or soca music. The bands have sections each led by a “frontliner” wearing a costume with a “backpack” frame that supports a headpiece. “Individual” character costumes are bigger still, with wings created from fabric stretched over a wire frame. The most elaborate costumes, the King and Queen, require bent steel frames on wheels so the person carrying the heavy costume can lead the band through the parade.
Subject Note: From 2011-2020, the Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program at the Connecticut Historical Society partnered with the Connecticut Caribbean International Carnival Association to offer an annual summer youth employment program that trains Hartford youth in Carnival traditions central to their ethnic background. At the six-week “Mas Camp,” participants learned about the history and role of Carnival and masquerade. They designed and created their own Carnival costumes under the guidance of experienced Mas artists. The teens along with over two dozen volunteers, formed a Carnival Band that participated in several summer events showcasing Mas costumes totally made in Hartford. Mas Camp has helped to ensure that the Carnival tradition continues by training a new generation in the art of Mas making. In 2017, Mas Camp was selected as one of 50 exemplary youth programs nationwide by the National Arts and Heritage Youth Program.
Mas Camp was both a jobs program and an arts learning experience with social impact. The program mentored students in workplace readiness, social engagement, and cultural knowledge, offering alternative creative activities that fostered community involvement while providing fulfilling employment. Participants learned new skills including Caribbean cultural history, costume design, garment sewing and construction, creative movement, and teamwork. The teens experienced first-hand how to follow an artistic idea from background to completion and presentation, working both individually and collaboratively. Through the program, youth discovered that giving back to their community is an essential part of becoming a productive citizen. They experienced the joy of being part of a larger cultural group, and contributed their new skills to community activities.
During Mas Camp, the teens created their own costumes following themes and color schemes that they chose. The students and staff, along with volunteers from the community, formed a Carnival band they named Exotic One’s. Hartford costume maker Keimani “Q” Delpeche, who grew up in the Mas tradition in Trinidad and Boston, taught design and building of all the types of costumes. Choreographers including Clerona Cain and Coryse Villarouel developed dance routines with the students to train them in “displaying” their costumes in a parade. Some former students became peer educators helping to supervise Mas Camp activities in later years. The mentorship of several committed community educators and cultural leaders supported the teens and provided positive role models. The beauty of the costumes displayed by Hartford’s own masqueraders in the West Indian Parade and other festivals, along with the excitement of their dance routines, bring a tremendous energy and pride to the city’s West Indian communities.
During the summer of 2012, twenty students and over fifty volunteer students, children, and adults participated. Costume maker Keimani “Q” Delpeche created the designs along with experienced assistant Lerry Cooper and volunteer parents. Artistic director Harold Springer, dance teacher Coryse Villarouel, and dance assistant Uniqua Jones trained the students in “displaying” their costumes in a parade. They formed a Carnival “Band” called the Exotic One’s Part II, with seven sections of masqueraders in different color schemes. This year the group created a Queen and two Junior Queen costumes. The Band performed with their costumes in the Taste of the Caribbean Festival at the Riverfront on August 4, and in the West Indian 50th Anniversary Independence Parade and festival on August 11, winning the trophy for Best Costume.
Biographical Note: Clerona Cain is from St. Lucia, where she grew up playing Mas and learning all aspects from building costumes to developing choreography for display. She worked as a tourism professional in St. Lucia and danced with the Silver Shadow Performing Arts Company which toured around the Caribbean and also Venezuela. From 2015-2020, she taught the teens dance movements that she created with them, also instructing on display and dance while wearing the costumes, so they learned performance skills. Clerona’s work was vital for the good presentation of the costumes, and she mentored and supported the teens who were required to perform intensively as the main attraction at the Taste of Hartford event and during the long route of the West Indian Parade. She choreographed the dance routines that the teens performed onstage at the Festival held at Bushnell Park after the Parade, and also developed a routine for them to present at the Wadsworth Atheneum Block Party. Clerona led a public dance workshop at that event. She “carried” (wore) the project’s large Queen costume in the Parade in several years. She also provides in-school programs in Mas costume-making and dance with the arts education organization Hartford Performs.
Biographical Note: Uniqua Jones was an alumna of Mas Camp 2011, where her maturity and ability really stood out. Uniqua attended the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts half day program in Theater, and took ballet classes at the University of Hartford Hartt Community Division. In 2012, she came to Mas Camp to volunteer, and ended up becoming a role model for the teens in costume making and Assistant Dance Instructor in 2012 and 2013, encouraging the girls to develop and follow dance routines. Uniqua helped to choreograph the dance production that won first place at the West Indian Parade in 2013.
Biographical Note: Mellissa Craig is a long-time dance educator and performer based in Hartford. She has taught and danced with Sankofa Kuumba Dance Collective, Cultural Dance Troupe of the West Indies, is Principal Dancer and Founding Member at Island Reflections Dance Theatre Company, Ensemble Member at Justice Dance Performance Project, Inc., Arts Instructor at Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, and a performer with FriendzWorldMusic. Mellissa is an experienced stilt walker and participates as Moko Jumbie for many West Indian events including the Taste of the Caribbean Festival. She carried the Queen costume for the Mas Camp Exotic One’s Band in 2014.
Biographical Note: Desiann Malcolm has been involved in Mas Camp since 2011 when she carried the Junior Queen costume at the Taste of the Caribbean and the West Indian Parade, and in 2012 when she carried the spectacular Queen costume in the West Indian Parade. From Jamaica, she was a student at Weaver High School Hartford, Drew University, and worked at UConn Health Center.
Biographical Note: Ashley Francis carried many Junior Queen costumes in the Exotic One's Band, in most of the years of the program. She was a gifted mas performer. From Hartford, Ashley attended the Classical Magnet School and the University of Hartford. She works as a makeup artist and model in Hartford.
Additional audio, video, and/or photographic materials exist in the archive relating to this community and these events.
Cataloging Note: This project was made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services MA-245929-OMS-20.
Status
Not on view
2011 August 13
