Since the demonstrations of summer of 2020, I had learned so much more about abolition, its necessity and witnessed the transformative power of protests. I was also listening to a lot power soca which seemed to provide a score for what I was seeing.
Soca, mas and carnival are resistance.
Whether it's choosing joy and happiness in the face of the systems that oppress us, or when "it looks like pandemonium" and people are "pick[ing] up something, anything", I saw mirroring elements between the demonstrations and the history or carnival, mas and soca music.
In my debut for WeTransfer's editorial arm WePresent, I wrote about the similarities between protests, understanding the history of mas, carnival and soca, and how they're both part of a legacy of Black cultural production bound up in liberation.
https://wepresent.wetransfer.com/story/soca-as-revolution/
Soca, mas and carnival are resistance.
Whether it's choosing joy and happiness in the face of the systems that oppress us, or when "it looks like pandemonium" and people are "pick[ing] up something, anything", I saw mirroring elements between the demonstrations and the history or carnival, mas and soca music.
In my debut for WeTransfer's editorial arm WePresent, I wrote about the similarities between protests, understanding the history of mas, carnival and soca, and how they're both part of a legacy of Black cultural production bound up in liberation.
https://wepresent.wetransfer.com/story/soca-as-revolution/