by Weldon Ryan

After a Covid19 hiatus in 2020 Miami Carnival is back! Just about every Caribbean Carnival and Festivals have been cancelled due to Covid19 concerns. The West Indian community in South Florida could not live another year without having a Carnival. Miami Broward Carnival had to see how one of the major carnivals could happen. Using the CDC guidelines and seeing other large crowd management events dealing with tampering down the spread of Covid19 they camme up with a plan, No Mask No Mas. I thought this was brilliant! We West Indians needed ah fete! Plus, in my opinion, Miami Carnival decided that with the spread of Covid they would also encourage our Caribbean People to be proactive in helping to stop the virus from spreading. With imposing a policy of testing and rapid tests this would help everyone enjoy the fete without the worry of attending a super spreader event. Just like a hungry man, every Mas player and band came to the table with a ferocious appetite.

Throughout the Carnival the air of sorrow wafted through the event as our thoughts of Miya Marcano, a delicate flower of South Florida and Wassi Ones mas band family,were high. During the concern which followed the parade of bands hammered down the phrase ”No means no”. Sad that someone so involve in the culture is taken from this loving community not to ever meet her full potential. She will forever be in our thoughts.

My family and crew, Richlin, Xavier, Riva and Savannah were drained this year with all kinds of life’s events. So we were somewhat out of sorts. Never the less we came with art for the visitors tent as well as art for the media tent. The reception of my paintings was greatly appreciated by the attendees as the past thru. Great thanks to Yvette Harris who appreciate and understand why two dimensional art is also as important to Caribbean Culture as the music, food and fashion. The mission of Art of Carnival is to introduce paintings, sculpture and all of the visual arts as an important and relevent part of Caribbean Lifestyle. We encourage Caribbeans to buy original art and value our artists with this type of support helping Caribbean artists sustain in order for them to create. Enjoy the photos in this blog and look forward to some awesome works coming from this outing. By the way I give thanks to my family for enduring the physical strains of working this mission with me. Special thanks to my special partner and wife,Richlin, for being the temperate voice for “The Art of Carnival”.