MESSAGE IN A COSTUME

   

Monica Carrington, has a promise to fulfill – to pass on the cultural tradition to young people by teaching them what she knows about her own Caribbean culture. Also, to share with them the experience she has gained from playing mas for more than 30 years. It is a commitment that she has taken so seriously that she has inscribed it in the name of her band which she calls, The Promise.

Monica is one of the best-known mas producers in New York City. She started playing mas in the early 70s and has won every mayor title available in competition from Queen of the Band to Female Character of the Year. According to Monica, she spent as much as $3,000 a year on her costumes. And that was in the 70's. “Every year I joined a Christmas Club and my only focus was to save money for my queen costumes,” she says.

But after years of dazzling judges as well as spectators with these breathtaking designs, Monica received what she perceived as “a message. It was in 1988 that Carlos Lezama and Errol Payne both approached me,” she says. “They said: ‘Monica, you have won everything there is to win in carnival competition. Why don’t you now teach what you know to the children?’” This encounter had a profound effect on this conscious carnival woman who was a social worker by profession. But that same year, something else happened. It was another encounter, this time with a 9-year-old boy who was hustling for work on the streets, “I told him he had a job in the mas camp if his parents would consent,” Monica says. Later, she found out that the boy’s mother was in her 20s and had 11 kids with nine different fathers. “We not only gave this kid a job, we made him an individual character costume on his promise that he stayed in school.” That kid went on to college and Monica shaped The Promise into an organization dedicated to “tomorrow’s leaders.”

She debuted her first band with a presentation called, Old Lady in A Shoe. With the help of mas maker Randy Brewster and headquartered at Errol Payne’s garage on Rutland Road in Brooklyn, Monica lunched into the area of cultural promotions and mas production. Over the years three other women have assisted her in running the organization -- Stephanie Franklin Rouse, Joanne Hamlet and Rosa Allard.

Monica’s approach to fulfilling the promise has been to teach young people that they can have fun while competing. “Though the band has always been in winners’ row, we try not to be obsessed about winning,” she says. “It is about having fun, even though you are competing to be the best. And this lesson is not just for Labor Day,” she says. “It is for life” According to Monica, though carnival is essentially about competition, it also presents opportunities to teach life’s lessons. “So we try to do just that. We aim to teach every child that comes to The Promise to embrace culture and diversity That’s how I interpreted Mr. Lezama’s advise,” she says, “That I should use the resources of art and culture to save our children. When I first received the message, I had to pray about it. But now I believe that I have received the blessings of the Almighty and the guidance to carry through.”

Over the years, Monica has emerged as Aunty Monica to these children of The Promise. And together they have formed life lasting bonds of friendship and kinship. “It is a joy to now see children who come back and help in the creation the mas,” she says. “They share their ideas and creativity and this has also helped us to remain connected in a wonderful way. I have been to a lot of baby showers, christenings and even some funerals,” she says. “But through it all, it has been worth it.

Monica’s advise to young people is to be grounded in whatever they are doing. She has followed her own advise by building her professional foundation with two degrees from Fashion Institute of Technology and a Masters Degree in Social Work from New York University. And being grounded, she says, helps to keep the social distractions at bey. “I played queen of the band for years and never once had to take a drink of alcohol to get on stage,” she says. That’s the kinds of lessons I want my children to learn.”

At this year’s carnival, The West Indian American Day Carnival Association salutes Monica for her fulfillment of a promise to cultural continuity.