Beyond the Mas: Reflecting on Spicemas 2025

by Michael Bascombe

Spicemas 2025 has come to a close, and once again, Grenada has demonstrated its ability to deliver a Carnival that is safe, vibrant, and culturally rich. The festivities—from J’ouvert to Last Lap—showcased the creativity and energy of our people, backed by months of hard work from stakeholders across the board.

To the Spicemas Corporation, our artistes, musicians, mas bands (both traditional and fancy), band leaders, performers, queen contestants, pannists, promoters, broadcasters, volunteers, healthcare and sanitation workers, and patrons, who contributed to this success. And a special salute to the Royal Grenada Police Force (RGPF), whose consistent and visible presence was key in maintaining law and order. We also extend congratulations to all the winners across the various competitions. Your performances were a credit to the season.

However, as tradition dictates, Dimarche Gras sparked fierce debate, particularly regarding the results of the Calypso Monarch competition. Carnival results have long stirred passionate discussions—everyone believes their favourite should win. And in the digital age, where opinions can be shared and amplified instantly, these conversations grow even louder.

While debate is healthy in any artistic competition, it is vital to remember: competition is judged, but appreciation is personal. Art resonates differently with each of us, and while not every result may align with public sentiment, this does not diminish the significance or talent of any performer.

Still, reflection is necessary. As we celebrate Spicemas, we must also consider how we sustain it.

One concerning trend is the disappearance of pan on the road. Beyond Panorama, steel bands are increasingly absent from street parades. This points to a broader issue: are the main contributors—pannists, calypsonians, soca artistes, and traditional mas players—being fairly valued and supported?

If we are to protect the essence of Spicemas, we need more than pageantry—we need policy, investment, and continuity. Here are some recommendations:

1. Rebalance Compensation Structures
2. • Ensure cultural contributors are properly remunerated for their creative input, not just judged on competition results.
3. Reintroduce Pan to the Streets
4. • Provide incentives, transportation, and logistics beyond Panorama night. Create incentives for pan on the road, introduce mobile performance routes, and support pan yard showcases to bring back steelband visibility in public spaces.
5. Revive and Support Traditional Mas
6. • Offer financial and creative support to ensure traditional bands can thrive and involve younger generations. Support traditional bands through funding and community outreach. Encourage youth participation via school programmes and apprenticeship opportunities with veteran masqueraders.
7. Education and Mentorship
8. • Integrate Carnival arts into schools and community programmes and promote year-round training in music, performance, costume design, and storytelling. Let today’s performers teach tomorrow’s leaders.
9. Digital Storytelling and Promotion
10. • Use online platforms to share the stories behind the songs, costumes, and characters. Let the world understand the heart of Spicemas.
11. Transparent Judging and Feedback Loops
12. • Consider creating spaces for public engagement on judging criteria to foster trust and understanding while preserving the integrity of the art form.
13. Long-Term Planning
    Spicemas must be treated not only as a national event but as a strategic cultural industry. Investments in infrastructure, promotion, and artist development must be sustained throughout the year—not just in the Carnival season.

Grenada should be proud of the achievements made this year. Spicemas 2025 was a cultural triumph. But as we bask in the success, let us also embrace the responsibility to preserve, protect, and progress our traditions.

For Carnival to evolve, we must ensure that it remains inclusive, artistically diverse, and financially sustainable. The future of Spicemas depends on the choices we make now.

Let’s keep the conversation alive. And let’s keep the culture even stronger.

Papers on the Grenada's ShortKnee to be presented at four international conferences

ST GEORGE’S, February 27, 2012 - Grenadian art culture in the form of the Grenada ShortKnee is to be represented abroad at four international conferences. Local artist Suelin Low Chew Tung is scheduled to present papers based on her March 2011 solo exhibition entitled ICON: ShortKnee as Art, at conferences in Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe and the United Kingdom.  These conferences are timely, given that the theme for the 2012 Carnival celebrations focuses on the Grenada ShortKnee: Legacy of the Chantuelle.

CONFERENCES

March 22-24 Puerto Rico, USA

1.       Negritud-Afro-Latin American Studies 3rd International Conference, San Juan

Paper entitled: Our Present Image: The Grenada ShortKnee, Instrument of History

2.       College English Association, Caribbean Chapter (CEA-CC) 2012 conference, Arecibo

Paper entitled: The Grenada Shortknee: Ritual in Exile

May 28 – June 1, Guadeloupe

1.       37th Annual Caribbean Studies Association Conference 

Paper entitled: The Grenada ShortKnee: Religiocultural Relic

July 4- 6 Oxford, UK

1.       36th Annual Conference of the Society for Caribbean Studies, University of Oxford

Paper entitled: The Grenada ShortKnee: Straddling the carnivals chasm

Her papers follow two presentations in 2011, at the Edna Manley College/Rex Nettleford Inaugural Arts Conference Jamaica, and the 14th Annual Eastern Caribbean Island Cultures Conference, held in Grenada. All the papers inform on the Grenada ShortKnee and its Carnival history through a visual art perspective, in an effort to bridge the gap between visual arts, heritage and culture, and introduce Grenadian visual art to an untapped assembly.

About the artist

Suelin is a self-employed independent visual arts practitioner living and working in Grenada. She explores the ShortKnee (and its variants, the Vecco and Shakespeare Mas) as art subjects outside the realm of Carnival.

Suelin Low Chew Tung

Box 2066, Sans Souci,

St George’s, GRENADA

Studio: 1-473-456-1953

Email: artstung@gmail.com

Blog: arstung.blogspot.com                                                                              

 

biography     

I am a self taught acrylics and mixed media artist. My work explores issues of life and history specific to my immediate island environment, and is in tandem with my penchant for uncovering and unfolding things mysterious in the underbelly of Grenada, that say more about us as a society and an island civilization. I find that brilliant colour affects a distinctive overtone for the easy digestion of even the darkest subject matter that affects our daily lives, and encourages scrutiny of invisible subjects under the surface of the much-touted Caribbean idyll. Since 2008, as part of a self-directed and largely self-funded research/art project, I have begun to chronicle the histories of our island in paint and other visual medium. Part 1 explores Grenada’s carnival icon, the ShortKnee, one of Grenada’s indigenous carnival characters, which emerged from, and was influenced by the creation of Carnival as a mark of celebration of the ending of the colonial slave era. Part 2 visualises the island’s journey from the arrival of the Amazonian peoples to 1899, by creating new artworks from historical written accounts of Grenada 1650-1899.

My writings include papers on the ShortKnee history research and art process, the chronicling process of Part 2 (above) and an unpublished collection of short stories reflective of our island culture.

select exhibitions

2011                2nd Biennal d'Art de Corbera d’Ebre, Tarragona, Spain

2011                ICON: ShortKnee as Art, Grenada

2010                Chantuelle series – Grenada Pavilion, Shanghai Expo, China

2009                1st Biennal d'Art de Corbera d’Ebre, Tarragona, Spain

features

2005               Small Island Art –Potential Untapped by Dr Susan Mains,

IX^th Congress of the Society for Caribbean Research, Lisbon, Portugal

1995                Grenadian Painters & Sculptors Volume I by Trish Bethany,

Caribbean Art Search Foundation, Provincetown, Massachusetts, USA

 papers/publications

2011                Edna Manley College/Rex Nettleford Arts Conference, Jamaica

The Grenada ShortKnee: Street Performance to Canvas, Getting Past the Carnival

2011                University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras/University of the West Indies-Cave Hill Barbados 14th Annual Eastern Caribbean Islands Cultures Conference, Grenada

The Grenada ShortKnee: Street Performance to Canvas

Spicemas Corporation meets, approves 2012 carnival theme

Members of Spicemas Corporation

St. George’s, February 8, 2012 – The theme of Grenada’s 2012 carnival has been approved by the newly established Spicemas Corporation.

The Corporation, which replaces the Grenada Carnival Committee, was formalized last July following the passage of a bill in parliament and subsequently given royal assent by Governor General, Sir Carlyle Glean.

The Spicemas Corporation, which recently held its inaugural meeting, is the sole body charged with the responsibility of operating, organizing, managing and promoting carnival, within and outside Grenada. 

“The meeting agreed that the theme for carnival will remain unchanged since traditional mas is one of the strengths of Spicemas. The 2012 tagline, however, will bring focus on the Shortknee,’’ said Colin Dowe, chairman of the Spicemas Corporation. 

The 2012 Spicemas theme is, “Uniquely Rooted in Our Rich Ancestral Traditions. Shortknee: Legacy of the Chantuelle’’. 

Under the Act establishing the Spicemas Corporation, the organization’s Board of Directors must have representation from each of carnival’s major stakeholders – mas, steelband and calypso. 

Others on the board with Dowe are Claudette  Joseph, Brenda Baptiste, Rhanisha Alexander and Edvin Martin.

Dowe, at the first meeting of the Corporation, reminded members of the significance of carnival as a major economic cultural activity. He stressed the need to create an environment not only for the expression of the carnival arts, but also to lay a platform for carnival as a lead economic driver.

For their part, board officials renewed their commitment to fostering the growth of the nation's biggest cultural event, and discussed the setting up of subcommittees to begin work on Spicemas 2012.

They also formulated proposals for fundraisers to be held prior to carnival, and for hiring staff to work at the Corporation’s office.

Mrs. Jennifer Woodroffe has been engaged to serve as the CEO of the Corporation.

Spicemas 2012 will culminate with two days of street parade on Carnival Monday and Tuesday, August 13 and 14.

“Grenadians can expect bigger and better things for this year’s Spicemas, including greater professionalization of the festival which will be taken to another level by the Corporation,’’ said Senator Arley Gill, Minister of State with responsibility for Culture.

He participated in the Spicemas Corporation’s inaugural meeting.

SOURCE: Ministry of Culture

Spicemas 2011