For the last 15 years at the end of June, Georgia Avenue, NW, becomes alive with color. Sparkling blue, dazzling gold and brilliant red costumes bounce up and down on masqueraders. They wear feathers, beads, bright metallic paper and silver boots, trampling the streets to the rhythm of calypso, the music of the Caribbean. The countries of Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, the Virgin Islands and Barbados become alive as masqueraders wave flags from their home countries.
The DC Caribbean Carnival represents a moment when Americans become foreigners at home.
This is the art of the masquerade or “mas” as islanders call it. The art is in wining to the music – chipping to the same song. The art is being able to carry a 10-pound costume on your back as “King of the Band.” The art is in the ability to dance with the band first thing in the morning until the end of the day.
This annual Caribbean-style parade was called DC Carnival to develop and encourage cross-cultural programs within the Washington area community in the expansion of Caribbean culture and to educate youths and adults in the Caribbean arts, crafts and culture, according to Loughton Sargeant, executive director of the DC Caribbean Carnival Inc., the District-based nonprofit that organizes the parade.
“Carnival is about Caribbean themes, costumes, music and food,” says Sargeant. “It is a colorful, educational and cultural event showcasing the diversity and culture of Caribbean immigrants now making their homes in the Washington metropolitan area.” Carnival itself is a blending of the disparate Caribbean cultures into one melting pot.
This melting pot is the scene for those at the carnival, but behind the revelry is the bandleaders’ talent for taking simple concepts to present magnificent portraits. Bandleaders design and produce the costumes, but the art is in presenting them so that spectators will “get the idea” behind each creation.
However, some bandleaders don’t get caught up in the hype, as many see the work as an effort of love. One person is 50-something-year-old Lester Smith, the only southeast-based bandleader. Smith, who is on Good Hope Road, came from St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands to this area more than 30 years ago.
“I’m the creator in regard to coming up with the themes,” says Smith about his nonprofit band De Island Masqueraders, which is presenting “Out of Africa.”
“We’re going back to our roots,” says Smith, who has been producing bands for more than six years. “We’ll have a tribal-type presentation with king and queen and a youth section. I start with the idea, but we have sketch artists who customize it. Then they sketch until they think everybody will like the costume.” Smith relies on suggestions by everyone, including masqueraders.
“I don’t feel I should take all the credit for this,” says Smith, adding he has eight designers. “It’s a business, but we ask for input of ideas.”
De Island Masqueraders also raises funds for charitable projects such as cancer and HIV/AIDS. And masqueraders do more than play mas, they are involved in helping with the projects, production, cleanup and all aspects of the band.
“People playing mas have to pitch in, working during free time,” Smith says, adding he does not have problems with people not wanting to help. “At the end of the day it makes you feel you’ve accomplished something. I don’t think they come with us only because of the mas but the combination of doing something good.”
While Smith’s band is a little different from others, many have a similar goal – to enjoy the process and to be the best in the competition.
According to DCCC requirements, the carnival is judged on specific criteria – visual impact, showmanship, portability of costumes, creativity, design, crowd response, authenticity and arrangement, to name a few. For this year, Sargeant says the competition is tough as he hoped to have 25 bands, but more than 30 from DC, Maryland and Virginia have signed up. Bands will be categorized into small, with 70 and under, or large.
DC Carnival is not the only one of its kind. Where ever large numbers of Caribbean people have migrated, a Caribbean-style parade was born – for instance Brooklyn’s West Indian American Day Carnival, Toronto’s Caribana and London’s Notting Hill, among others. There are close to 50 Caribbean carnivals throughout North America, demonstrating the permanence of the Caribbean immigration experience, according to a report done by US Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.). The Congresswoman introduced legislation in 2004 to name June as Caribbean American Heritage Month to celebrate the contributions by millions of Caribbean Americans to the United States since its inception. From 1820 to 2002, more than 68 million people emigrated from the Caribbean to the United States, Lee said, and estimates of the Caribbean population in the US ranges upwards from 2.6 million.
Like most areas attracting larger numbers of immigrants, the Caribbeans replicated hybrid versions of familiar customs in their adopted lands.
“Where ever a concentration of Caribbean people are, like Silver Spring, Hyattsville, Northwest, you’ll find a lot of mas participation, more on this side of the city,” says Sargeant.
DC Caribbean Carnival is one of the fastest growing in North America. Established in 1993, the costume parade is the main feature, as thousands dance, cheer and enjoy the parade of masqueraders in colorful costumes portraying different themes, steelbands, calypso and soca bands. It first started with nine bands and about 500 masqueraders and has grown to 25 bands and more than 5,000 masqueraders with more than 90 percent of the costumes being locally designed and manufactured by people comprising every Caribbean country, according to DCCC’s Web site. DC Carnival has grown from about 150,000 spectators the first year to over 300,000 spectators, according to District police estimates.
The weeklong festival includes a Steelband Jamboree and Sweet Iron Competition, a Caribbean Marketplace and Cultural Show, and the Dimanche Gras (judging of the kings, queens and individual costumes). Also, there are several pre-Carnival events to coincide with Caribbean-American Heritage Month.
Although carnival has taken off in the District, attempts were made in the mid-1970s to recreate the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, the juggernaut of the carnival tradition.
According to bandleader Clyde Thompson, he and several others paraded around Constitution Avenue for three years. However, by the fourth, they gave it up.
“Participation wasn’t too well at one time,” says Thompson, 69, who emigrated from Trinidad and Tobago in 1968. “We had Caribbeans but not as much as now.” This year, Thompson’s Fort Washington, Md.-based band Caribe is presenting “Quest for Gold.” He said gold is the basic color with red and green for highlighting costumes, which cost anywhere from $75 to $175. His band has broadened its mission to help educate about costume design and Caribbean culture.
Patrice Francis, one of the few female bandleaders, is presenting the theme Vices and Virtues under her band Panisha. She said when she creates the costumes, she does not think about Carnival’s competitiveness.
“It’s a creative thing to see my vision in play,” says Francis, 26, a math teacher in Charles County. “Once this was made, it was exactly what I thought, and if we win, we win.” Francis has been making mas costumes since she was 21 as a section leader and started her band by creating the section Envy.
To do Carnival, one has to love it, says Smith.
“Carnival is not an inexpensive venture,” he says. “We spend almost $10,000 to get the band on the road. If you have no intention of putting your hand in your pocket, you can’t do this. At the end of the day, we’re broke. Each year, you think you shouldn’t do this again, but you jump right back in.”
However, he sees light at the end of the tunnel, as he and others are lobbying the District government for financial help.
“We were too late to get into this year’s budget,” Smith says. “Next year, we look forward to a better year and to get the mayor believing in it.” It might be easier for them to get current Mayor Adrian Fenty to add the carnival celebration to the budget, not only because it has long been a tourist attraction, but the mayor was always one of the few politicians waving a flag reflecting his Caribbean heritage. Fenty’s paternal grandfather was from Barbados and Panama; and his wife, Michelle’s parents are from Jamaica. Sargeant said he has already contacted the mayor’s office to help with this year’s event on June 23 and 24.
“Based on the last two years, figures range from $150,000 to $300,000” for city services paid for by Carnival organizers, says Sargeant, who is hoping to get waivers this year. Since the parade route stretches about three miles down Georgia Avenue, coordinators have to hire many police officers. Sargeant says his group has never received an official waiver but has managed to get help from councilmembers through the years.
For more information about the DC Carnival events or the DC Caribbean Carnival Inc., call 202-726-2204, e-mail dcccinc@hotmail.com, or visit www.dccaribbeancarnival.com.
All of the bands still have costumes for sale.
To contact De Island Masqueraders, call 202-610-1924, or visit www.deislandmasqueraders.com.
To contact Caribe, call 301-248-1306, or visit www.caribe8228.com.
To contact Panisha, call 202-378-7523, or visit www.panisha.com.