New Waves! PRESENTS Processional Performance for 2017 West Indian American Day Carnival. Wear White. Join Us. Let’s Dance!

Brooklyn, NY – 25 July 2017 – How does Carnival define Caribbean diasporic movement? What is the relationship between Carnival and diasporic identities? How are politics of emancipation and practices of resistance expressed through Carnival? In consideration of these questions, New Waves! PRESENTS “Whitewash” in a processional performance for the 2017 West Indian American Day Carnival in Brooklyn. The program is part of a series of projects, performances and workshops in international contexts initiated by the Trinidad-based Dance and Performance Institute. New Waves! NEW YORK will take place from Friday, 1 September through Monday, 4 September 2017. The program offers three days of master classes and events led by highly regarded New Waves! Faculty and Guest Artists. On the fourth day - Monday, 4 September - New Waves! will participate in a Processional Performance for the 2017 West Indian American Day Carnival in Brooklyn.

Performance in procession is one of the most dynamic aspects of New Waves! and offers embodied, experiential learning in Carnival aesthetics in its cultural and political forms, mas performance, and Caribbean dance and movement. New Waves! has engaged processional performance in its programming since 2011 - every year, with Jouvay Ayiti (in 2014 with a New Orleans Second Line through the streets of Jacmel) for the Emancipation Day Procession through downtown Port of Spain, Trinidad.

“This mas is a meditation on how we in the Diaspora connect to and continue to breathe life in to our inheritance - our culture, our people, our collective futures. It is a consideration of how as dance artists, we can contribute to that future while building community. The West Indian American Day Carnival has been a cultural lifeline for many Caribbean people living not just in New York, but in the entire United States. There are many things that have changed about the Carnival since I played mas here as a young person. What hasn’t changed is that the Carnival is still truly organized by the community and there is space for artistic, critical engagement as it relates to and within its context.”

For its 7th iteration, New Waves! PRESENTS seven incredible sections:

 

“Memento M - As dust and bone” by Brianna McCarthy, a mixed media visual communicator working and living in Trinidad + Tobago.

“FreshWater” by Robert Young/The CLOTH. “FreshWater” is a 2008/2009 work choreographed by Makeda Thomas, which saw its early development on the streets of Port of Spain for Carnival that year. Since performed internationally at the Brooklyn Museum, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Teatro de la Ciudad in Mexico, Queens Hall in Trinidad, and the Shaw Park Cultural Complex in Tobago - the work returns to the road, en masse, to consider how diasporic people “transforms [these] original sources and convokes a whole new universe out of fragments of it”.

“The Caribbean Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” is an Egungun mas by Vulgar Fraction. Designer, Robert Young says “Our earth is made up of large bodies of water connecting us all. I thought about our histories before petroleum — before we could fly — we moved on water to get from one place to the next“.

“Erzulie: La Diablesse” by Tracey Sankar, is a combination of the traditional mas characters, Dame Lorraine and Jab Molassie. The mas also incorporates elements of the Haitian voudou loa, Erzulie Freda, which embodies both love and sorrow. The mas was created in 2015, when it won First Place in Traditional Mas in Trinidad Carnival. Watch a video of “Erzulie: La Diablesse” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAjFRYbAFWw.

“Water Woman” by Sonja Dumas, dance artist based in Trinidad. “I am drawn to the sea, indeed to bodies of water in general. But the sea in particular holds for me the mysteries and complexities of my Caribbean space. I develop relationships with the sea through my choreographic investigations, and now I’ve attempted create a different kind of visual engagement with it in the form of a mas costume. In my choreographic work I have sometimes interpreted the power and presence of the Orisa deity of salt waters, Yemanja. I have re-imagined Her presence, and how I view Her in my Caribbean space.” The mas is being developed within Jouvay Ayiti’s Emancipation Mas Camp in collaboration with Caribbean Yard Campus.

“Whitewash: Di Mas” by Chris Walker asserts the centrality of black and brown culture to the formation of America and American popular culture. The performance features African and African Diasporic cultural expression in clothing, music and movement, all of which are painted over in white. The facade of whiteness is removed throughout the procession, revealing the resistance and energy of people of colour on the inside, on the ground, dong the work.

“Obatalá: ….” by Jhawhan Thomas, an award-winning Moko Jumbie who placed third with his costume by Peter Minshall “The Dying Swan – Ras Nijinsky in Drag as Pavlova” in 2016 and won King of Carnival in 2008. Of “Obatalá…”, he writes: “The God of the Sky, the Father of Humanity, He Who Sculpts our moulds and erects our stance…Obatalá is the White Light that feeds our earthly souls. Our God Head. Governor of our Ori. He is the White Cloth. As we commemorate our ancestors, we call on all the powers that be, not only to whiten our egos but bind us in your fold of clarity, justice, and divine quickening. Asé.”

JUS NOW, the meeting of two Riddim obsessives, LAZAbeam (Percussionist/Producer from Trinidad) and Interface (Producer/DJ from Bristol, UK) that produced tunes like Bunji Garlin’s “Big Bad Soca” (2017) will provide music and sound for New Waves! NY.

HOW TO REGISTER TO PLAY MAS WITH NEW WAVES! NY

The cost to play mas with New Waves! NEW YORK is $350 for an Individual costume and $150 for General players. In order to register and complete your costume booking, a $150 a non-refundable deposit is required. The balance is due upon collection, on or before, 1 September 2017. To REGISTER, go to http://www.makedathomas.org/institute.newwaves or directly at https://form.jotform.co/61781842409865. Email newwavesmas@gmail.com for more info.

ABOUT NEW WAVES!

The New Waves! Institute was established in 2011 and has since gathered over 200 dance artists, teachers, and scholars in the Caribbean. Each year, participants, staff and a renowned faculty of international artists form a supportive and inspiring community that has created a unique space for dialogue, networking, experimentation and collaboration. The program has been made possible through a major partnership with and held at the University of Trinidad & Tobago/Academy for Performing Arts, within the National Academy for Performing Arts in Port of Spain from 2011-2013. In 2014, the New Waves! Institute was held in Jacmel & Port au Prince, Haiti. New Waves! returned to UTT/APA for its 5th Anniversary in 2015 and New Waves! 2016.

About the Dance & Performance Institute

Founded in 2010, the Dance & Performance Institute is an international community of dance and performance artists, a forum for exchange, and series of programs on contemporary dance and performance based in Trinidad & Tobago. The Institute spearheads the Artist in Residence program, the Carnival Performance Institute, and New Waves! Institute. The Institute is directed and curated by Makeda Thomas, with the support of a growing community of artists, scholars, teachers and network partners.

Let’s Dance!