Trinidad’s K2K has been innovating with their mas designs since debuting their award-winning medium Carnival band in 2012. Now they’ve moved into the NFT and metaverse landscape. Karen and Kathy Norman, the twin designers and investment bankers behind K2K, talk about what this means for mas — as told to Caroline Taylor. Published in the …
Two-time Queen of Carnival Shynel Brizan on how she got into stilt-walking and moko jumbie mas; balancing the demands of Carnival with motherhood; and the experience of winning her second title last year while four months pregnant — as told to Caroline Taylor. Published in the January/February 2023 issue of Caribbean Beat So I actually …
Continue reading Shynel Brizan in her own words | Caribbean Beat
Written for and published in Caribbean Beat magazine (July/August 2017) If making films in countries with established industries is gruelling, imagine trying to make them in the Caribbean — where, more often than not, the infrastructure doesn’t exist. Still, auteurs eager to tell Caribbean stories on screen soldier on, often getting boosts from regional festivals like …
Continue reading The Cutlass: cutting through barriers | Caribbean Beat
This guide was written as an assignment for The Guardian (UK), and published as An insider’s cultural guide to Port of Spain: steel, sass and sweat 1) Your city's culture in five words Steel, seascapes, sass, and sweat. 2) What sound defines your city? The hills and valleys of Port of Spain’s residential communities is a strange combination …
Continue reading An insider guide to Port of Spain, Trinidad | The Guardian (UK)
Another Trinidad Carnival has come and gone. And it has left me with many more questions than answers. I'll start with the most benign. On a lighter note: masquerader tips, tricks...and lessons Toe pads do not work. At least not for me. Though, maybe my toes would be even worse without them. Kinesio tape rocks. …
Continue reading Party done! Musings on Trinidad Carnival 2014
Originally written for and published in Caribbean Beat magazine in 2013 The half-century anniversary of Trinidad’s popular Marionettes Chorale It was all a little inevitable. My mother was the conductor, and my two godmothers were the executive management. Some of my best-established blackmailers are those who can recount me “conducting” from the audience as a pre-schooler, with …
I don't know what to feel. I love my country. Not just because I was born and raised here, or love the natural environment; the playfulness and creativity of our people (sometimes I wonder if we don't actually have a higher than average talent quotient per capita, despite all); and the simple pleasure of …
Every role is challenging for me in its own way, but dramatic roles (in comedy-loving, or comedy-acclimated, Trini audiences) prove the most terrifying before a play's debut. Still, it is not often that an award-winning team of local actors are assembled on one stage, led by an award-winning director in a gripping local play by …
Continue reading This week: Queen’s Hall debut of Theresa Awai’s “Coming Home”
Caroline Taylor 