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Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.982.1, Connecticut Historical S ...
West Indian Independence Day Parade, 2018
Connecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collection, 2015.196.982.1, Connecticut Historical Society, Copyright Undetermined

West Indian Independence Day Parade, 2018

Date2018 August 11
Mediumborn digital photograpy
ClassificationsGraphics
Credit LineConnecticut Cultural Heritage Arts Program collections
CopyrightIn Copyright
Object number2015.196.982.1-.32
DescriptionPhotographs of Mas Camp and other performers at the West Indian Independence Day Parade and Festival on August 11, 2018. Mas Camp Exotic One's Band marched in the Parade and performed their dance routine. The Mas Camp performers are also pictured in Bushnell Park after the Parade.

(.1) Image of the Hartford Youth on the Rise float in the parade.

(.2) Image of a drum corps performing in the parade.

(.3-.5) Images of different dance groups performing in the parade.

(.6) Image of the Mas Camp truck followed by the Exotic One's Queen carried by Clerona Cain with the Band following behind.

(.7) Image of the Mas Camp Exotic One's band marching in the Parade.

(.8) Image of the Mas Camp Exotic One's banner carried by masqueraders, who are waiting for the band. Mas Camp co-director Junior Miller stands next to the banner in the blue shirt.

(.9-.11) Images of the Exotic One's Band Queen carried by Clerona Cain in the Parade.

(.12) Image of the Mas Camp Exotic One's truck passing the reviewing stand.

(.13) Image of the Mas Camp Exotic One's Band banner.

(.14-.15) Images of the Exotic One's Band Queen carried by Clerona Cain in the Parade. She is leading the rest of the Band.

(.16) Image of the Exotic One's band lining up to perform.

(.17-.28) Images of the Exotic One's band performing their dance routine in front of the reviewing stand.

(.29) Image of Exotic One's Band Queen Clerona Cain moving into Bushnell Park after performing in the Parade.

(.30) Image of Mas Camp Assistant Camp Manager Kay-Kaniele Reid after performing in the Parade.

(.31) Image of Mas Camp Exotic One's masqueraders after performing in the Parade.

(.32) Image of the back of the Queen costume, carried by Clerona Cain in Bushnell Park after the 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, dance and music groups, and produce 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.

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 2018, nineteen students plus several adult and student volunteers participated. Costume maker Keimani “Q” Delpeche created the Mas outfits along with experienced assistants Clerona Cain, Kay-Kaniele Reid, and Gage Tisdol, and volunteer parents. Dance teacher Clerona Cain 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 “Butterflies of Hope.” The Band performed with their costumes in the Taste of the Caribbean Festival at the Riverfront, the Wadsworth Atheneum Block Party, and the West Indian 56th Anniversary Independence Parade and Festival.


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: Kay-Kaniele Reid joined Mas Camp in 2014 as a volunteer participant, continuing in 2015 as a full student participant, and then becoming a peer educator in 2016 and 2017. In 2018, she served as Mas Camp Assistant Educator. A Hartford resident originally from Jamaica, Kay-Kaniele attended Morgan State University as a biology major and neuroscience intern, earning her B.S. degree in 2019.


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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