Making Mas: TruDynasty Carnival Takes Josephine Baker to the Caribbean Carnival

Abstract

Over a million spectators descend on Lakeshore Avenue each year to watch Mas Bands create a kinaesthetic landscape of colour with elaborate costumes as they parade in Toronto's Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival Festival. Despite the importance of costumes to carnival, Canadian scholarship of Toronto's Caribbean Carnival overlooks the material and aesthetic elements. However, by focusing upon the costume as the subject of study, we can begin to evaluate and connect to the critical discourses surrounding Caribbean Carnival from another perspective that foregrounds the interconnectedness of objects to ideas and social practices. In particular, the design and performance of TruDynasty Carnival's Queen Mas, “Josephine Dancing at the Market,” illustrates the role of re-imagining as a potential strategy of re-presenting Josephine Baker's historical and cultural body within a carnival(esque) aesthetic to be read and performed in a new way for a Toronto audience.