Mas Camp Performers at Taste of the Caribbean Festival, 2013
SubjectPortrait of
Keimani Delpeche
(Trinidadian)
SubjectPortrait of
Harold Springer
(Trinidadian)
SubjectPortrait of
Clerona Cain
SubjectPortrait of
Ashley Francis
SubjectPortrait of
Uniqua Jones
Date2013 August 3
Mediumborn digital photography
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.510.1-.23
DescriptionPhotographs of the Mas Camp performers at the Taste of the Caribbean Festival on August 3, 2013.
(.1) Image of Mas Camp masqueraders gathering at the Phoenix Plaza before going up to the festival.
(.2) Image of Mas Camp costume designer Keimani "Q" Delpeche with his Junior Queen costume.
(.3) Image of the Mas Camp frontliner backpack costumes.
(.4) Image of Tyana "TT" Baker, the youngest Mas Camp masquerader, with her father Q Delpeche.
(.5-.6) Images of members of the Mas Camp Exotic One's band adult section.
(.7-.12) Images of the Mas Camp masqueraders.
(.13) Image of the Mas Camp Junior Queen with TT Baker.
(.14) Image of Tyana "TT" Baker, the youngest Mas Camp masquerader.
(.15) Image of Mas Camp artistic performance advisor Harold Springer.
(.16-.17) Images of the Mas Camp Junior Queen with Exotic One's Band behind marching in to the festival.
(.18) Image of the Mas Camp Exotic One's Band marching in to the festival behind the banner.
(.19) Image of festivalgoers wearing St. Lucia traditional dress. Clerona Cain is on the left and Nicole Taylor is on the right.
(.20) Image of the back of the Mas Camp Junior Queen backpack.
(.21) Image of the Mas Camp masqueraders.
(.22) Image of Mas Camp masqueraders Ashley Francis (left) and Uniqua Jones (right).
(.23) Image of a stilt walker leaning against a wall down by the river at the festival.
NotesSubject 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.(.1) Image of Mas Camp masqueraders gathering at the Phoenix Plaza before going up to the festival.
(.2) Image of Mas Camp costume designer Keimani "Q" Delpeche with his Junior Queen costume.
(.3) Image of the Mas Camp frontliner backpack costumes.
(.4) Image of Tyana "TT" Baker, the youngest Mas Camp masquerader, with her father Q Delpeche.
(.5-.6) Images of members of the Mas Camp Exotic One's band adult section.
(.7-.12) Images of the Mas Camp masqueraders.
(.13) Image of the Mas Camp Junior Queen with TT Baker.
(.14) Image of Tyana "TT" Baker, the youngest Mas Camp masquerader.
(.15) Image of Mas Camp artistic performance advisor Harold Springer.
(.16-.17) Images of the Mas Camp Junior Queen with Exotic One's Band behind marching in to the festival.
(.18) Image of the Mas Camp Exotic One's Band marching in to the festival behind the banner.
(.19) Image of festivalgoers wearing St. Lucia traditional dress. Clerona Cain is on the left and Nicole Taylor is on the right.
(.20) Image of the back of the Mas Camp Junior Queen backpack.
(.21) Image of the Mas Camp masqueraders.
(.22) Image of Mas Camp masqueraders Ashley Francis (left) and Uniqua Jones (right).
(.23) Image of a stilt walker leaning against a wall down by the river at the festival.
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 2013, eighteen young people and over thirty volunteer adults and returning students 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 with five sections of masqueraders in different color schemes portraying the theme of “Elements.” The Band performed with their costumes in the Taste of the Caribbean Festival at the Riverfront on August 3, and in the West Indian 51st Anniversary Independence Parade and Festival on August 10.
Subject Note: In 1962, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago claimed their Independence from Great Britain. Since that year, the West Indian Parade and Independence Celebration has been a highlight of Hartford’s summer activities. The week of activities includes many events taking place at the different island clubs around Hartford, and features headlining musicians who perform at the West Indian Social Club. The celebration concludes with a parade and festival in Hartford featuring floats, steel band performances, and masqueraders displaying brilliant costumes.
The Taste of the Caribbean and Jerk Festival began as a single evening event and expanded into a day-long festival held since 2006 at the Riverfront Plaza at the beginning of Celebration Week. Billed as a “One day festival of Caribbean food, culture, music, games, traditions” the festival includes local and visiting performers, food vendors from a variety of Caribbean cultures, information booths, arts and crafts vendors, local and visiting dance groups, and since 2011, a procession of Mas dancers from CCHAP’s Mas Camp program in collaboration with CICCA, the Caribbean International Carnival Cultural Association.
Biographical Note: A Trinidad native and now a Hartford resident Keimani “Q” Delpeche was a member of the world renowned D’Midas and Associates Mas Band for 25 years. He started at age 11 hanging around the Mas camp like many Trinidadian kids do and took a liking to making carnival costumes. He learned from the teaching of master artist Stephen Derek and other workers around the camp. Q has mastered all aspects of the art of making costumes: designing to the theme, wire bending, braiding, gluing, covering, etc. At age 21 he became a traveling instructor, teaching in New York City, San Francisco, Miami, and most Caribbean Islands including St. Thomas, Antigua, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, Jamaica, and St. Croix. He did what he liked most: teaching and passing on the art of making costumes to kids and young adults alike. In 2002, he, along with other members of D’Midas and Associates from Boston, participated in the Hartford Carnival Parade. Q was the main designer and builder for the Queen costume made in the 2011 Mas Camp and since then designed and constructed the large and flamboyant multi-part wire-framed Queen, Junior Queen, Section Leader, and Frontline costumes, with input and assistance from the students who help to position and attach trim, beads, and feathers. Q also curated the Mas costume exhibits each year. His ultimate goal is to pass the art on to young Caribbean people and to educate other ethnic groups so they may aid in spreading the cultural heritage of Trinidad and Tobago.
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: 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.
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: Harold Springer was involved in all aspects of Carnival in his native Trinidad, including calypso and steel pan music as well as masquerade costume-making and display. When he moved to Hartford in the early 1990s, he became Treasurer and then Vice President of the Trinidad and Tobago American Society here. He was a co-Founder of the Hartford Carnival Association in 2000 and has also served as Treasurer and now Director of Operations for CICCA. Among his responsibilities in that position, he organizes sections and bands to perform at West Indian events all over the Northeast. He specializes in the coordination of costume “playing” with music and dance, as the complete Carnival presentation. For many years Harold organized bands that performed at the West Indian Parade and the Taste of the Caribbean. He worked with the Mas Camp project from 2011-2014 as Artistic Director/Performance Consultant.
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.
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