Jesse Ramdeo

Se­nior Re­porter

Jesse.ramdeo@cnc3.co.tt

Laugh­ter, colour, and wide-eyed won­der filled the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA) on Sat­ur­day as Spir­it Mas opened the vi­brant world of Car­ni­val to over 100 chil­dren from three chil­dren’s homes across the coun­try dur­ing a spe­cial­ly cu­rat­ed cul­tur­al work­shop.

The ini­tia­tive gave the chil­dren an op­por­tu­ni­ty to ex­pe­ri­ence the artistry be­hind Car­ni­val first-hand, in­tro­duc­ing them to el­e­ments such as stilt walk­ing, cos­tume de­sign, and cre­ative ex­pres­sion, all core com­po­nents of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s cher­ished fes­ti­val.

Di­rec­tor of Spir­it Mas, Dami­an Ba­boolal, said the work­shop was root­ed in a de­sire to in­spire and to safe­guard the fu­ture of the art­form.

“We felt that we need to pass on the things that we know and learn through Car­ni­val to the next gen­er­a­tion. It is a sus­tain­able prod­uct, and we want the next gen­er­a­tion to feel ex­cit­ed about it and let them learn about the cul­ture in dif­fer­ent ways.”

For many of the chil­dren, the day was their first close en­counter with the crafts­man­ship and sto­ry­telling that shape Car­ni­val.

Care­ful­ly guid­ed by ex­pe­ri­enced prac­ti­tion­ers, they learned how bal­ance, cre­ativ­i­ty, and imag­i­na­tion come to­geth­er to bring cos­tumes and char­ac­ters to life.

Ba­boolal ex­plained that they want­ed the chil­dren to have a unique ex­pe­ri­ence.

“We would have reached out to many homes across the coun­try, and every year we try to change the homes. It is catered to the un­der­priv­i­leged. We had five dif­fer­ent el­e­ments we fo­cused on, in­clud­ing mas pro­duc­tion and song­writ­ing.”

Event co­or­di­na­tor Cheleste Pe­ter­son de­scribed the work­shop as a mean­ing­ful way for the band to give back to the wider com­mu­ni­ty, par­tic­u­lar­ly to chil­dren who may not al­ways have ac­cess to such ex­pe­ri­ences.

“We want to give them some di­rec­tion and help them find their pas­sion, and they are the fu­ture, not just of the world but al­so Car­ni­val, for Spir­it and my­self in par­tic­u­lar. I don’t ever want them to be for­got­ten. I want them to find some­thing that can dri­ve their fu­ture.”

Pe­ter­son said she was hope­ful the event would res­onate with the chil­dren.

“I do hope that the homes they come from, they can con­tact me if the chil­dren find pas­sion in some­thing, and I will do my best to help them get more train­ing and em­ploy them in the field.”

She said the event served as a re­minder of Car­ni­val’s abil­i­ty to con­nect, up­lift, and in­spire the na­tion’s youth.