Potent Talks is a new series featuring inspiring conversations with creatives from the region and diaspora.
We begin our first talk with the ultimate Carnival chaser and masquerader, Global Carnivalist. The following is an edited and condensed version of our conversation.
Potent: I’d love to hear about your journey – how did you start your brand, Global Carnivalist, and what made you become a carnival chaser?
Global Carnivalist: So, let’s start with the first question [laughs]. I’ve always played mas. I started playing mas in ’93 [1993]. My parents, I would say, were always into Carnival culture, so I started playing mas as a toddler, and culturally, that’s what you do. We would do it every single year and when I became an adult, I started going on my own. And because I traveled a lot – for vacations and taking family trips to Mexico, or Peru, or other islands like the Bahamas – I was very interested in how their Carnivals spawned, having gone to mine so many times. The first external Carnival (that wasn’t in Trinidad) was Jamaica and it was vastly different. Just the way it was set up, the way the costumes were… I just had an amazing time.
Once we moved to the states, I was in Brooklyn. So, I was exposed to Eastern Parkway and Labor Day and all that my whole life. My grandmother would go out there and cook bake and shark. It’s just always been around me all the time.
And then once college was done and I had the finances and time to be able to go in and out as I please, I just started going… it would become one a year in addition to going back home and it just picked up from there. So, I was doing it long before Global Carnivalist was even a thing.
Global Carnivalist became a thing while I was doing it in frustration. I remember in 2013 I was trying to plan a big group trip to go to Trinidad Carnival and some of my American friends were coming. And trying to explain things to them was extremely difficult and there was no resource to send them to. So, I started Global Carnivalist out of frustration for the lack of resources that was available online. There was nowhere to tell me, ‘hey, go here and get Carnival stockings, you can get food from here, or this party is going to be this place, or this is where you can go to buy tickets for this party.’
In our culture, everything is about who you know. It’s your grandmother or your auntie that have this contact. And even then, when doing it and planning, I still have to do most of my Carnival planning through contacts.
And that paradigm didn’t even shift until 2015 when Carnival became more of a big business. Up until 2014, it was extremely hard to plan. You had to know somebody. You couldn’t even pay for your costume registration online. You’d have to Western Union money or send it to somebody to drop it off.
Carnival has always been this personal family experience, until now. That’s when it [Global Carnivalist] started.
And now, to be so embraced in the community is a combination of me constantly working on my passion and the blog itself. And then it literally being something that people needed. It’s almost like having Dr. Scholl’s Gel insoles, right? [laughs]
Potent: [laughs] Right.
GC: It is! [laughs] Like Dr. Scholl’s just knew his foot was hurtin’ him so he made them, and then other people are like ‘oh shit, my foot hurtin’ too, I need this.’ And that is how it just boomed into this thing, to be quite honest. But it was definitely created from me just documenting my passion.
Potent: Can you expand on the support you’ve received (from the blog), and how people have become tied to your brand and not only getting information from the Carnival experience but connecting with you and your personal Carnival experiences. How has that wave been for you?
GC: Humbling is not even the word. It’s interesting to see how it is now. Sometimes I take a step back and I’m like, ‘Wow you really did a thing. This really became a thing.’
Them (supporters/followers) weighing in now, now that I’m used to it, I feel like, ‘You’re welcome, I’m glad that I was able to provide that for you.’ I’m putting that information together and putting it all in one place to curate this experience that might help you live your best life…or even me being the guinea pig for stuff, which I feel like now it’s what it is. For example, they might want to try out Peru Carnival, but don’t want to go first. Global Carnivalist can go and then they’ll read about it, and then decide if they want to go. But that’s how I feel in the space now.
Before, the first few people that came up to me, I definitely was blown away. Like ‘Wow you really took to my site’ or to regurgitate information from my experience…that’s a big thing for me. And I always appreciate that feedback. I’m just over here writing about what I’m living or just standing in my truth, but I don’t see it yet, fully, how everybody else does. Modest is not the word that I would use, but I still feel like I have work to do, if that makes sense. I’m still perfecting it.
Potent: You mentioned earlier how Carnival has changed and become more accessible. And there is noticeably the increasing commercialization of Carnival and its expansion, business-wise. And some have been very critical of that commercialization, especially given the shift from the personal, family experience of Carnival, as you mentioned earlier. We can agree that through technology, tourism, and just culturally, it’s much more open. What do you think about that dynamic and how things have changed over time, whether good or bad?
GC: It’s twofold. On one end I’m extremely happy to see how proper things have been put into place. How our culture can be shared with the outside world and garner some understanding and not be seen as just this sexual, deviant thing. I’m happy that in that sense, our culture can be shared.
On the flip side, I feel like with the commercialization of it [Carnival], it now becomes a trend. And there is a separation of understanding that this is a cultural thing for some people and for others it’s a party. So, it’s twofold. And I think that can be expected since it’s becoming almost a global phenomenon that everyone is having a Carnival. What I’m actually afraid of is it being watered down. Now in the states, in particular there are Carnivals in Chicago, San Diego, Norfolk – in places that are not typically heavily populated with the Caribbean community. So, who is organizing them and why? ‘Are you organizing it because now Carnival is the thing that everybody is doing? Or was there really a lack of exhibition of the Caribbean community in these cities?’ I take it with a grain of salt. I know GlobalCarnivalist.com is part of making it [Carnival] more popular. But I also try to do my best to explain – ‘hey this is not just something that we just go and gyrate and pay $5 dollars for. This isn’t an outfit.’ This is a costume. This is traditional wear. It’s important to provide the historical aspects behind why we’re also doing this.
Potent: As creatives in the space, do you feel a responsibility to narrate our stories?
GC: Absolutely, yes. It’s our culture so we should be the ones directing the conversation, even if from different perspectives. For this generation [millennials], carrying it from our parents to now, we’re carrying the torch to make sure our friends understand where this is coming from, even our children. We are responsible for making sure they understand why Carnival is a thing, how we are going to continue it, and even add to it. I remember seeing a lot of documentaries from older designers that were worried about the younger designers not picking up the traditional aspects of mas. Who’s making the costumes if it’s not us? So, it’s absolutely vital for us in controlling the narrative and informing the masses.
Potent: What would you say is the biggest misconception about Carnival? What do people get wrong?
GC: People thinking it’s deviant behavior and the oversexualization; how it appears to people that are not used to it. We’re so tired from partying and being on the road all day long, that it’s not even the meaning. And I don’t think they understand that. We literally dance and we move on. And that concept is definitely foreign to them.
Secondary to that would probably be price. People think it’s cheap. It’s not. Costumes are just one aspect of it. You still have the parties, the tickets, hotel accommodation, transportation, food – this is a luxury. We pay for it because it’s our culture but it’s not something that’s cheap.
Potent: Could you talk more about your planning process when determining where you’re going each year? Given all of the elements of Carnival [and the costs], you must be very selective.
GC: I would definitely choose the kind [of Carnivals] that might not take as much time out of me. For instance, I would go to the Bahamas because I know it only requires four days, but for Trinidad I would be selective because it’s a seven-day period. St. Lucia is another Carnival where you would need a longer time frame. Any Carnival that falls on a Monday or Tuesday, you’ll need a long time to go. Typically, you’re taking a week off [from work].
For me, I will always choose one or two of the longer Carnivals and then the [shorter] Carnivals that fall on a Saturday or Sunday. That way I can go, hit the Carnival, go to some parties, and then leave. That’s how I would make sure I’m adjusting my time.
Potent: So, if you’re giving advice to someone who wants to play Mas, what kind of tips would you give them, specifically when they’re trying to pick a band? And how much research goes into picking a band and costume?
GC: I would always recommend choosing a band based on their reputation, costume later. Always, always, always. Costumes are prototypes. Production is a completely different beast in and of itself. You might not know if those materials are going to be available when you need to make 300 costumes and you don’t know the skill set and how long it’s going to take the designer to make 300 of those costumes. So always choose the band’s reputation first.
Are they going to give you your money back if there’s an issue? How is their communication? Can you get in contact with the band leader, or the section leader? When they advertise premium drinks on the road, are they really premium? Or are you drinking Crown [Royal] Apple instead of Johnnie Walker, when they said that’s what they were going to give you. I’ve seen it happen hundreds of times! [Laughs]
And ask as many questions as you can. There are so many different Carnival communities, group chats, and websites to ask somebody.
Potent: What has Carnival taught you just about life or your personal journey?
GC: Community is important. Being on this journey, for me, I’ve had to depend on people that I didn’t know personally, and through building connections. I randomly went to the Bahamas and I had friends that I made through Carnival that were able to take care of me and I had the best time of my life.
Potent: How do you see Carnival evolving in the future?
GC: I would love to see fashion shows. I would love to see our designers on an international scale.
Maybe we can make that a competition, regionally. That would be such a dope idea. And once you post this, I hope if anyone ends up doing this, I get a percentage. [Laughs]
Potent: [Laughs]
GC: But we are so talented. Just the amount of hours that goes into these costumes – it’s just amazing to see from [sketching the costume] on paper to it becoming a concept. I love that.
Carnival-wise, I don’t want it to evolve too much. Again, I’m afraid that it will run away from what it truly is. I do want the process to be more perfected – for people to pay their money, have a great time, and know that there is some kind of accountability there, on the band side.
I want to see technology being applied in different ways and have the business acumen be fleshed out more throughout the region. But the actual Carnival itself I think it’s perfect as is. I’m pretty sure it’ll get even bigger. And I just hope that for generations to come they’ll continue to carry the torch.
Read more of her Carnival excursions on the website, GlobalCarnivalist.com. Follow Global Carnivalist on IG: @globalcarnivalist and on Twitter: @MCoveteur