Mas Women: Exhibiting Women Behind the Art of Carnival

Posted on 12. May, 2011 by admin in Arts and Culture

Around this time last year the Washington DC based, Trinidadian photographer, Leslie Robertson Toney, was gearing up for the Carnival season armed with a heavy duty Nikon camera, tape-recorder and a list of interview questions. These items made up her research tools for a multi-media exhibit entitled, Mas Women & Women Behind de Mas: A Photo Exhibit, held in April of last year at the Emergence Community Arts Collective in Washington DC. The exhibit included audio, video and original photography that focused on female masqueraders, designers and band-leaders. The aim was to gauge the role of women in this art-form, to seek out their inspiration; moreover, to find out whom these women were. In turn, IVM is taking time out to find out who Leslie Robertson Toney is.

What was your purpose with this exhibit, your inspiration?

In January WomenArts (previously known as The Fund for Women Artists) a non– profit organization geared at promoting women artists, announced their third annual Support Women Arts NOW (SWAN) Day. People were invited to host their own events across the US and internationally, and announce them on the SWAN Day calendar. I decided that I would use my trip to Trinidad & Tobago carnival as an opportunity to focus on women who compete in the Queen of the Bands competition, and women who lead children’s carnival bands during the festival. I love mas. I’ve always loved it. I made my own costumes and pranced around the backyard as a child. I sat in awe and watched live broadcasts of the children’s parades and dreamed of playing mas with the “big bands”. The idea of the work it takes to produce mas, the energy and passion it takes to portray a costume are all intriguing to me. So it was fitting that I should do an interview on mas women as my first project.

What did your learn from this experience?

I learnt that the spirit of carnival is alive and well in Trinidad & Tobago. I was getting a little worried that the commercialism and exclusivity that’s permeated so many aspects of carnival was killing it. The interviews with these women gave me an opportunity to hear how they began in mas, why they continue, and what they are doing currently to influence it in their own ways. There are still people in Trinidad who have opinions independent of the commercial all-inclusive (which is really exclusive) set. There are still bands with a serious message where they are concerned with making costumes affordable for families, with creating designs that tell a story beyond “Look at me!” And there are people interested in keeping the traditions alive. Moreover, the women I interviewed were passionate, committed to what they’re doing, witty, honest and very accommodating.

How would you define a mas woman?

A mas woman is a woman who makes (designs, creates, builds) or plays mas for carnival.

The word “freedom” came up often in answers about mas. Is there something specific or special about Carnival that exudes “freedom”?

I’ve been thinking, and investigating this idea of carnival as a festival that is really about ancestral connections, remembrance. In some ways, I think, carnival is about freedom, it occurred during the period where Africans had the most freedom to practice their traditional customs, and they found subversive ways to protest and decry the abuses of slavery and indentureship – which was another way of claiming freedom (of expression). A big part of modern carnival is about freedom – freedom to “jump and wave and misbehave. “It’s about women’s freedom to party and do things that in the somewhat conservative culture of the Caribbean, that women haven’t been expected to do. It’s freedom to prance in the streets with barely any clothes, to dress as a queen, an angel or a whore for a day or two. It’s also an opportunity to cloak yourself in a costume that disguises you and gives you freedom to make statements you otherwise might not have. I know some well-behaved “ladies” who play jammette for carnival. The women I interviewed seemed as free as any woman in modern society. Some of them expressed approval of the liberties women take with dressing (or not) for carnival, others had more conservative views. They were all compelled in some way to choose this tradition of being queen of a band and all the responsibilities that it demands. They seemed to do so enthusiastically.

Do you ever get from behind the camera? (during Carnival that is).

I occasionally party, however I find it hard to justify the expense of most of the new “all inclusive fetes” that are en vogue in Trinidad, so I’m not likely to be at most of those. I really like playing mas, but again, the price and quality of adult mas has been disappointing in recent years. I hope to be able to do that again soon. Playing mas is a big part of the carnival experience that feeds my soul, so I look forward to doing that again. The catch 22 is, if there’s good mas, I want to be behind the camera as much as I want to be in costume.

While we’re on the subject, can you talk about your photography a little? How you got started, where you see yourself going with your art?

My parents gave me a point and shoot camera when I was in college. I used it exhaustively to document everything. I even won a photo competition while in college for a photo I took during study abroad in Spain. In graduate school I needed a creative outlet sometimes to counter the academic schedule, and because I was so far away and isolated from the cultural diversity and richness I’ve grown accustomed to. One friend in particular, was very persistent at telling me that I should sell my photos, see how I could use what I do commercially. I credit her with giving me a lot of the impetus to even consider this, and my sister, with picking up where she left off.

Since then I’ve done freelance work for an online magazine, I do portrait photography for hire, and I sell my photos at an African Art store called Zawadi, and at Eastern Market [both in DC]. Photography is a means for me to connect the beauty and depth of Trinidad carnival culture with the rest of the world. I am disappointed that enough people don’t know about the artistry that goes into a lot of the costumes for our carnival (particularly the children’s carnival) and the history of Trinidad carnival’s African roots, it’s use as a form of resistance and rebellion, and a way to hold on to so much that was ripped away by enslavement. I like showing aspects of culture that go beyond what’s considered “normal” or popular. I would like to travel for photography (my dream would be to do photography for National Geographic or a similar publication).

Your studio is called Studio Lafoncette. Those words sound like they have history. Where did you get the name “Lafoncette”?

Lafoncette is derived from my name and a family name. It also ties in with the idea that my business is an offshoot of my artistic interests, and heritage.

Do you plan on expanding this research? Will you be hosting another SWAN Day event in 2011?

I did not participate in SWAN Day 2011 as I was preparing for an exhibit at New Horizons Gallery at Children’s National Medical Center in Washington DC. That exhibit will continue until June 24, 2011. I also traveled to New Orleans to shoot for the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival this year. Ultimately I intend to return to mas women because there is so much more to discover. However, that will be at a later date.

*Excerpts from the Mas Women exhibit are now available online. Check it out here: www.studiolafoncette.tumblr.com or if you have other questions, comments or booking requests contact Leslie through her website: www.studiolafoncette.com

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