Carnival Baby !

When I say to people I am a Carnival Baby they naturally assume the reason for christening myself as such is because I was born in November, therefore coming to the conclusion that I was conceived during Carnival. Checking the dates for Carnival the year that I was born I saw that Carnival did take place in early March so who knows if that reasoning is true! I prefer to think of myself as a Carnival Baby because I was borne from a woman who loved playing her mas and instilled the same sense of reverence for Carnival to me from a very young age. These days my mother no longer dons a costume and parades the streets on Carnival Tuesday, though she does play Monday night mas, in spite of that she still makes the pilgrimage into Port of Spain every Carnival Tuesday and enjoys taking a jump in my band when she sees me on the streets.

Looking at old photos of my mother playing mas over 25 years ago it became clear to me that being overly obsessed with putting together the "perfect" Carnival look with matching boots, stockings and makeup is not something new. In the photos of my mother her boots coordinate with the costume, face is adorned with glitter and sheer stockings matched the costume to a tee! This is what playing mas always meant to me, a chance to transform yourself into this larger than life, beautiful character with a stunning costume and parading through the streets dancing to the music

my mom in costume on the left


me and my mom Carnival Tuesday

From an early age I loved seeing my mother dressed up in what to me were the most spectacular costumes and I always wanted to do the same, playing with bits and pieces of her costume long after Carnival had come and gone. Some of the fondest memories I have of Carnival Tuesday are of seeing my mother all decked off in costume and waiting at the Savannah to see her cross the stage. I was also in awe of the feathers and beads, running around collecting the stray ones that littered the Savannah after a band had crossed the stage and feeling utterly stunned when a stranger gave me their headpiece or part of their costume.

The first time I played mas myself I was five years old. Here I am as a tiny clown, complete with makeup and red nose (which I am not sporting in either of these photos because it hurt when worn) and I was pretty happy being a clown until I saw some girls dressed as Wonder Woman! That was the birth of the Diva, from the minute I saw the Wonder Woman costume I told my mom I no longer wanted to be a clown I wanted to be Wonder Woman!! She even reminded me of that when we looked at these photos together. There are many more photos of me over the years one as a white cat, the other a pirate even dressed up as the blazing sun; I have played Kiddies Carnival with school and private bands since I was five years old, both in Port of Spain and San Fernando!

the first time I played mas




As a teenager I migrated to playing j’ouvert, Victor Rique was the band my parents and I played with seeing as I was too old for kiddies’ mas but felt too young for adult mas this bridged the period until I started playing “big mas”. The first time I played “real” mas it was with the band Barbarossa and after that there was no looking back! I have played mas every year since then with the exceptions of the one year I went to St. Lucia, another year I simply did not play mas because I was in love and the year my friend got into an accident and we both sold our costumes. I have played with Barbarossa, Harts, Poison and now TRIBE. When I say I am a Carnival Baby that statement speaks volumes; I was born into Carnival grew up in Carnival and live Carnival even today. This is the history behind the birth of a Carnival Baby!!