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Carnival Blues

Moko Jumbies, photo by Nila Gupta.

Carnival Blues

July 23–24, 2026
University of Toronto

A program of Land. Sea. Sugar. Salt.: Terrestrial and Aquatic Contemplations of the Caribbean

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Venues:

University of Toronto Art Centre
Paul Cadario Conference Centre
University College, 15 King’s College Circle

Hart House
7 Hart House Circle


The Art Museum is thrilled to present a celebratory cycle of programming titled Carnival Blues to mark the conclusion of the exhibition Land. Sea. Sugar. Salt.: Terrestrial and Aquatic Contemplations of the Caribbean. Guest-curated by Bushra Junaid and Natalie Wood, the program is inspired by the exhibition’s multifaceted geographical, historical, environmental, cultural and deeply personal reflections on the Caribbean region.

As Bushra and Natalie observe, “Stepping into the gallery space for the first time, we each felt the movement of people across, toward, and outward from the vast territory of islands, mainlands, and waterways of the Caribbean, as well as the influence this migration has had on Canada and the world. We also thought of one of its most significant exports and gifts to humanity: the distinct form of Caribbean Carnival.”

Through dance and movement workshops, hands-on “mas” (masquerade) camp workshops, panel discussion, and procession, Carnival Blues takes us beyond the frame of the exhibition space to consider and celebrate the enduring legacy and impact of Carnival. The workshops and panel are rooted in traditional mas/Carnival practices as championed by the Blue Devil Moko Jumbie Mas Camp, a community-based Carnival arts initiative founded by artists-activists Natalie Wood and Michael Lee Poy.

All events are free. Registration is required for most programs.

Full Program Schedule

African Rhythms Dance Workshop

Thursday, July 23, 10am–12pm
Hart House Fitness Centre, Exercise and Dance Studio

Artist-scholar and dance educator Collette Murray (aka Miss Coco Murray) and musician collaborators lead participants in an all-ages dance and movement workshop celebrating and dramatizing African influences on Carnival rhythms.

Register via Eventbrite.

Collette ‘Coco’ Murray is a multi-award-winning artist-scholar, cultural arts programmer, dance educator, and arts consultant. With over 20 years in the Canadian arts sector, she specializes in Afro-diasporic dance forms from the West African region, Caribbean Folk, Carnival arts, and stilt-walking explorations as Coco Moko Jumbie. As an advocate for equity in the arts, her artistry extends beyond performance to teaching, arts education, mentoring, doctoral research, curation, community arts engagement, and publications.

Miss Coco Murray is her mobile dance education business, informed by her research and praxis in advancing cultural dance education, anti-racism in dance and inclusion of African diasporic arts knowledge. She is the artistic director of Coco Collective, creating culturally relevant and responsive programming with African and Caribbean arts. Murray received international recognition by the National Dance Education Organization’s 2023 Outstanding Leadership in Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Dance Education. 

Photo courtesy of Collette Murray.

Mas Camp Hands-On Workshops

Thursday, July 23, 12pm–4pm
Hart House Reading Room

Artists and educators Charmaine Lurch, Alyssa Mattrasingh, and Mosa McNeilly together lead hands-on mas camp making workshops utilizing recycled and sustainable materials. Participants will make horns, wings, and tails to cherish or wear on the parade route as they embody Blue Devil masqueraders. 

Materials, supplies, and light refreshments will be provided. 

Register via Eventbrite.

Wings  

Charmaine Lurch is a Caribbean-Canadian conceptual artist whose work draws attention to the complex relationships between culture, and nature. Her installations and interventions pair what is visible and present with what remains unsaid or unnoticed, inviting entry points into overwhelmingly complex and urgent racial, ecological, and historical matters. Charmaine creates public works of art that are structural, consider space, and incorporate an atmosphere of light and movement. These elements are her expressive and textural messengers. Together with research, they create signifying forms that seek to re-configure and rewire perception and ideas.

Tails  

Alyssa Mattrasingh (@its_a_lyssa) is a multidisciplinary artist grounded in analogue praxis as guided by Afro and Indo-Caribbean ancestral practices. Their work centres sustainable, practical, culturally specific content, methods and aesthetics specific to the diasporas that claim them. From wearables and installation, singing and songwriting, dance and performance, beading and textiles, illustration and collage, to prose and poetry, Alyssa is challenging colonial and capitalist limitations with affordable and accessible art. 

Horns 

Mosa McNeilly’s work is grounded in cultural production, wellness and anti-racism advocacy, arts education, and intergenerational mentorship, and engaged in practices that respond to systemic inequities and centre Black knowledge and cultural expression. Born and based in Tkoronto, with roots in the Caribbean, her doctoral research examines Black feminist thought on the Middle Passage in conversation with Trickster pedagogies. In her interdisciplinary arts practice, she integrates encaustic, assemblage, and installation with clown, movement, and mask. Mosa has exhibited, performed and presented at A Space, Articule, and Libby Leshgold Galleries; the Toronto Fringe Festival, Afrofest, and the Montreal Jazz Festival; York University, Dalhousie University, and the University of Ottawa. An OCADU graduate with an MES from York University, she has received numerous grants and awards.

Photo: Nila Gupta.

Moko Jumbie Mas Camp

Thursday, July 23, 12pm–4pm
Location TBA

Led by multidisciplinary performance artist Xica Dieffenthaller-Lee Poy, Moko Jumbie Mascamp invites youth ages 10–17 to learn the art of balancing and walking on two-foot stilts.

Inspired by the West African Moko Jumbie tradition that has become a celebrated figure in Caribbean Carnival and diaspora festivals, participants develop confidence, balance, teamwork, and creativity while exploring the history, culture, and performance traditions of Caribbean masquerade. Through hands-on practice, participants experience the joy of movement, cultural expression, and community building.

Register via Eventbrite.

Xica Dieffenthaller-Lee Poy is a multidisciplinary performance artist from Trinidad and Tobago, now based in Toronto. An undergraduate student in Integrated Media at OCAD University, her practice spans dance, music, performance, and Caribbean cultural traditions. A lifelong participant in the arts, she has performed on stage since 2007 through acting, dance, music, and traditional Carnival masquerade.

Since 2015, Xica has practiced and performed as a Moko Jumbie in Canada and internationally. For her, stilt walking is more than performance—it is a living expression of Caribbean culture, community, and identity. Rooted in the rich traditions of Carnival, her work combines movement, rhythm, and storytelling, using the Moko Jumbie tradition as a powerful way to stay connected to her heritage while sharing it with diverse audiences.

Photo courtesy of Michael Lee Poy.

Tidalectics Panel Discussion

Thursday, July 23, 6pm–7:30pm
Online and in-person
Paul Cadario Conference Centre

This panel brings together a multidisciplinary group of artists, scholars, and educators to reflect on Carnival in Caribbean art practices and expand its discussion into mainstream museum culture. Together they consider ideas of freedom, liberation and resistance represented by Blue Devil and traditional masquerade; maroonage and queer maroonage; tidalectics and diasporic breathwork; ecoaesthetics and architectonics.

Featuring: Dr Ronald Cummings, English and Cultural Studies scholar; Michael Lee Poy, artist, architect, and educator; Geneviève Wallen, independent curator, writer and researcher; and Natalie Wood, artist, scholar and educator; with moderation by Rhoma Spencer.

Register via Eventbrite.

Ronald Cummings is Professor of Caribbean Literature and Black Diaspora Studies at McMaster University, Canada. He has co-edited significant volumes including The Routledge Handbook of Caribbean Studies (with Pat Noxolo and Kevon Rhiney), The Fire That Time: Transnational Black Radicalism and The Sir George Williams University Occupation ( with Nalini Mohabir) and Caribbean Literature in Transition 1970-2020 (with Alison Donnell). He is also the editor of Make The World New: The Poetry of Lillian Allen. Ronald is a senior editor at the Journal of West Indian literature (JWIL) and an editor of Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies. 

Michael Lee Poy is an Afro-Caribbean designer, artist, activist, and registered architect in Trinidad and Tobago whose work explores post-colonial Caribbean design and traditions of festival arts, especially Carnival. Born in Montreal, he brings an interdisciplinary approach shaped by training at Pratt Institute (B.Arch.) and the Yale School of Architecture (M.E.D.), advancing design as a collaborative, culturally rooted practice. Since 2015, he has led Moko Jumbie Mascamp workshops for youth in Trinidad, Cleveland, and Toronto, using the mas camp as a laboratory for experimentation, pedagogy, and community building. He is an Assistant Professor at OCAD University, a Sustainability Fellow (GCCA) and an OAC grant recipient. 

Geneviève Wallen is an award-winning independent curator, writer, researcher, workshop facilitator, and mentor. Wallen’s practice is rooted in Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang (Montréal) and Tkaronto (Toronto). Intersectional feminism, intergenerational dialogues, and alternatives to neo-liberal definitions of care inform her curatorial practice, administrative ethics and pedagogy. Wallen is the creator and animator of the podcast The Conversations that Carry Us/ Ces conversations qui nous soutiennent, a member of YTB (Younger Than Beyoncé) Gallery collective; the co-initiator of the dinner series Souped Up, with Marsya Maharani; an advisory board member for the Centre for the Study of Black Canadian Diaspora at OCAD University, and sits on Vie des arts’ board. 

Natalie Wood is an award-winning Trinidadian-born, Tkaronto-based visual and media artist. Her multimedia artwork cohabits the areas of popular culture, education, and historical research. Her practice includes painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, video, and performance, and extends into her work as a curator, educator, and community-based Black queer activist. She is presently completing a PhD at York University, focused on Black Queer Resistance in the performance of Blue Devil mas.  

In the past several years she has exhibited her art in both solo and group shows at national and international venues such as A Space Gallery, the AGO, Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, The Plumb, and Aird Gallery; at Art Fairs such as Montreal’s Plural, Toronto International Art Fair, Art Basel Miami; and her videos at Images Festival, Zong! Global, Inside Out, In Your Pocket, Caribbean Tales Film Festival, and Trinidad Film Festival. 

Wood is a founder of the Blue Devil Posse, co-conspirator in the Blue Sea Devil Moko Jumbie Mas Camp, co-founder of the Environmental and Urban Change Black Caucus at York University, an inaugural fellow at Black Lives Matter’s Wildseed Centre for Art and Activism, and, as a GBC Professor she is one of the visionaries of the newly launched Black Futures Initiatives. 

Rhoma Spencer—actor, playcreator, director, and comedian—is a veteran theatre practitioner active in Toronto since 2001. A graduate of York University with an MFA in Directing, she founded Theatre Archipelago (TA) in 2005.  Under her Artistic Direction, the company produced Mad Miss /Just Jazz in 2005, Fallen Angel and the Devil Concubine (2006), Twilight Café (2007), I Marcus Garvey (2009) Obeah Opera (2012). She is co-creator of the award-winning Caribbean play, Jean and Dinah, featured in Testifyin’: Contemporary African Canadian Drama, Vol. 2, edited by Djanet Sears, and co-writer of Carnival Medea – A Bacchanal, Queen of the Road – The Calypso Rose Musical, and Danse Macabre, which won the Toronto Fringe Festival New Play contest for 2026 and played to rave reviews at this year’s Fringe Festival.

Clockwise from top left: Michael Lee Poy, courtesy of Michael Lee Poy. Ronald Cummings, courtesy of Ronald Cummings. Natalie Wood, photo by: Nila Gupta. Rhoma Spencer, courtesy of Rhoma Spencer. Geneviève Wallen, photo by: Adriana Garcia Cruz.

Land. Sea. Sugar. Salt. Exhibition Tour

Friday, July 24, 11am–12pm
University of Toronto Art Centre

Join the Art Museum’s Executive Director and Chief Curator Barbara Fischer for a guided tour of Land. Sea. Sugar. Salt.: Terrestrial and Aquatic Contemplations of the Caribbean. 

This exhibition brings together artists with familial and lived ties to the Caribbean, reflecting on the region’s intersecting histories and cultures—including those of Indigenous peoples, colonialism, and the African diaspora—as well the ongoing struggles for sovereignty and environmental justice. The works foreground embodied knowledge of land and sea, and the resilience, creativity, and solidarity that shape Caribbean life. 

The tour is free and open to the public. No registration is required.

Installation view: Kara Springer, The Earth and All Its Inhabitants (2019) and Hew Locke, Vreed-en-Hoop (2019) in Land. Sea. Sugar. Salt.: Terrestrial and Aquatic Contemplations of the Caribbean, curated by Michelle Jacques and Sally Frater, February 25–August 1, 2026, University of Toronto Art Centre. Photo: LF Documentation.

Caribbean Rhythms Dance Workshop

Friday, July 24, 12pm–2pm
Hart House Fitness Centre, Exercise and Dance Studio

Move, sweat, and explore Caribbean rhythms in this all-ages dance workshop led by artist and educator Stephanie Cole and musician collaborators.

Register via Eventbrite.

Stephanie Cole is an educator, entrepreneur, advocate, mas maker, and dancer. She leads a kiddies section in Carnival Nationz Carnival band, is an award winning entrepreneur and founder of Safepod, a safe and inclusive workplace consulting enterprise and is a dancer and leader of Soca Fit and Caribbean dance in B.C. Since the age of three she has been a competitive dancer with a focus on tap and hip hop and a Disney dance performer. Her Soca Fit and Caribbean dance fitness classes create energetic, inclusive spaces where participants can connect through movement, music, and culture.   

Photo courtesy of Stephanie Cole.

Procession

Friday, July 24, 2pm–4pm
University College, Southwest Entrance

Come together with facilitators and participants of the African and Caribbean dance and mas camp workshops, musicians, Moko Jumbies and more for a celebratory procession.

Register via Eventbrite.

Moko Jumbies

Abigail Dingwall is a moko jumbie, steel pan player, and pleasure activist who is deeply passionate about preserving and sharing Caribbean culture. She is drawn to steel pan and moko jumbie, seeing them not only as art forms but also as powerful expressions of resilience, resistance, freedom, and the ability of culture to endure despite colonialism. Inspired by Caribbean traditions that embrace boldness, challenge respectability politics, and centre joy, Abigail believes culture is something to be lived, shared, and celebrated.  Through performance and community, she contribute to spaces where people can connect with the richness of Caribbean traditions and experience joy as an essential part of liberation. 

Xica Dieffenthaller-Lee Poy is a multidisciplinary performance artist from Trinidad and Tobago, now based in Toronto. An undergraduate student in Integrated Media at OCAD University, her practice spans dance, music, performance, and Caribbean cultural traditions. A lifelong participant in the arts, she has performed on stage since 2007 through acting, dance, music, and traditional Carnival masquerade.

Since 2015, Xica has practiced and performed as a Moko Jumbie in Canada and internationally. For her, stilt walking is more than performance—it is a living expression of Caribbean culture, community, and identity. Rooted in the rich traditions of Carnival, her work combines movement, rhythm, and storytelling, using the Moko Jumbie tradition as a powerful way to stay connected to her heritage while sharing it with diverse audiences.

From West Africa, crossing many languages and cultures to the Caribbean and the Americas, the image of people walking, dancing and playing on sticks a metre or more high has a meaning that transcends the diaspora. Frightening specters to guardian spirit, Mokojumbie binds the lives of people to the unknown. Luna-Rose Walker-Malcolm has had the privilege of honouring her Trinidadian and Tobagonian lineage by dancing on stilts for 24 of her 27 years. She is a child of Caribana, her life has been lived as a flag bearer for Carnival culture and she is proud to share this magical art form with the world.

Curators

Bushra Junaid is a Toronto-based visual artist, author, and curator. Born in Montreal to Jamaican and Nigerian parents and raised in St. John’s, her work explores history, cultural memory, and placemaking. Through archival research and storytelling, she brings overlooked histories and narratives into view.

Junaid has exhibited nationally and in the United States and curated landmark exhibitions and programming centered on Black and Caribbean diasporic experience. This includes What Carries Us: Newfoundland and Labrador in the Black Atlantic (2020) at The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery in St. John’s. The exhibition traced the province’s historical, economic, and cultural ties to Africa and the Caribbean through the Transatlantic Slave Trade and its afterlives, bringing together contemporary artworks and rare historical materials. Building on this, Junaid wrote and illustrated the award-winning The Possible Lives of W.H., Sailor (2022), which reimagines the life of a 19th century sailor found on the Labrador Coast in the late 1980s and who’s remains are in The Rooms collection. This has sparked renewed scientific investigation into this little-known chapter of Canadian history.

Natalie Wood is an award-winning Trinidadian-born, Tkaronto-based visual and media artist. Her multimedia artwork cohabits the areas of popular culture, education, and historical research. Her practice includes painting, drawing, printmaking, photography, video, and performance, and extends into her work as a curator, educator, and community-based Black queer activist. She is presently completing a PhD at York University, focused on Black Queer Resistance in the performance of Blue Devil mas.  

In the past several years she has exhibited her art in both solo and group shows at national and international venues such as A Space Gallery, the AGO, Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, Paul Petro Contemporary Art, The Plumb, and Aird Gallery; at Art Fairs such as Montreal’s Plural, Toronto International Art Fair, Art Basel Miami; and her videos at Images Festival, Zong! Global, Inside Out, In Your Pocket, Caribbean Tales Film Festival, and Trinidad Film Festival. 

Wood is a founder of the Blue Devil Posse, co-conspirator in the Blue Sea Devil Moko Jumbie Mas Camp, co-founder of the Environmental and Urban Change Black Caucus at York University, an inaugural fellow at Black Lives Matter’s Wildseed Centre for Art and Activism, and, as a GBC Professor she is one of the visionaries of the newly launched Black Futures Initiatives. 

Moko Jumbies, photo: Nila Gupta.

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