March 2011


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Mas lessons from Haiti

By Marvin George

As if bored with creating award-winning theatre productions, musicals, and thought-provoking dance recitals and art exhibitions, the Department of Creative and Festival Arts (DCFA), entered the Carnival arena with its first showing of a major carnival band this year. Haiti: Mudder of Civilization however, was no ordinary J’ouvert band.

The band was part of a larger arts project called Jouvay Ayiti, which is the brainchild of Rawle Gibbons, Senior Lecturer at DCFA and the project’s Artistic Director. Prompted by the Haitian earthquake crisis of 2010, and with Carnival being one of the shared languages of Haiti and Trinidad and Tobago, Jouvay Ayiti situates J’ouvert mas-making and performance as the nucleus for a series of other transformative arts experiences. The project combines Carnival arts, theatre, performance, education and regional integration and approaches the task of creating a discussion of Haiti amongst the national community through six main experiences:

  • Individual masquerade characters under the theme: “Haiti: Gods, Villains and Heroes.”
  • A Haitian RaRa band (Haitian traditional masquerade) within The Old Yard at The UWI St. Augustine Campus.
  • A J’ouvert band titled, Haiti: Mudder of Civilization.
  • DCFA’s annual theatrical production.
  • A virtual mas camp and mini film festival showcasing films and images of masquerade, Carnival and various Haitian experiences
  • “Rendezvous Jacmel” – for which the DCFA is proposing to send a group of students and lecturers to Jacmel (the Haitian centre of the RaRa) to collaborate on the production of a masquerade that captures the hope of the Haitian people in this period of regeneration.

Against this backdrop, the mas was developed. There were no costumes for sale. Using the logic of the traditional Jouvay process, the masquerader, the performer, is also the designer and maker of the mas. In this way, the performer is closer to his subject than the masquerader who walks into the mas camp to purchases a costume. To design their mas, players were given the following scenarios to work with:

  1. When the earthquake hits Haiti we are left with rubble. If you remove the rubble what item of beauty or value can you find? That item is turned into Mas.
  2. One year after the earthquake in Haiti, the rest of the world is hit by a terrible earthquake, which leaves much devastation. Haiti is spared. We are forced to turn to Haiti for advice, for help on how to live based on what they've been doing or have learnt to do to survive over the years. What they (can) teach us is what inspires the Mas.

In the end, the band comprised DCFA and other UWI students and staff, the National Commission for UNESCO’s UNESCO Clubs (project partners), Studio 66, exchange students from Trinity College and the Pacific Lutheran University and other members of the public. Designs for the individuals were solicited from local artists, as well as students and lecturers from the DCFA: Carlyle Harris, Brian Roberts, Dean Arlen, Chadd Cumberbatch, Kenwyn Murray, and Larry Richardson. The individuals were entered into the various NCBA competitions and the Haiti: Mudder of Civilization hit the road on J’ouvert morning with 100-plus masqueraders and music by Curepe Scherzando.

So far, the band placed fifth overall in the J’overt band competition and Kenwyn Murray’s “Anacoana: The Taino Queen” placed first in the modern history category of the NCBA’s Carnival individuals’ competition. “Anacoana” and others will perform in the upcoming annual theatre production titled “Here’s My Ass; Now Try to Whip It.” Taken from the book “Walking On Fire” by Beverly Bell, the production tells the stories of seven Haitian women, and is directed by Rawle Gibbons and Camille Quamina. The Haitian women will tell their stories nightly from April 1-3 and April 8-10 2011 at the Learning Resource Centre, UWI.

But for the moment, the Jouvay Ayiti team and all of DCFA are celebrating the victories.

–Marvin George is a part-time lecturer at the DCFA. For further information, please contact the DCFA’s office at 663-2222.