Thoughts of a minibus traveller

Far Left: Joshua Tujay Macey: Right Mad Cow, Stilt Walker and flouncers from Victoria Renegades Masquerade  Saturday afternoon, humid. Loud drums, triangle and flute making noise all over the Guyana National Museum - Museum which is usually quiet except for traffic outside. The music is floating around all the old things.. historical things - which relate to Guyana.. the beats and tweets I imagine could be absorbed by the things which are in cases .. things which are 'dead' in a way.. dead history....  Masquerade though is living history..  and so I turn the corner and see the masqueraders.. and the musicians and the people brought together by the Masquerade Association Guyana Inc   for the first Masquerade Day on 29 November, 2025.  A man tells me 'masquerade is for outside, open spaces not inside .. too confining' and it is true.. but something about how this masquerade is weaving .. the Museum 'used to have' an exhibit in one alcove of masquerade but it was...

Image derived from one on Stabroek News Masquerading  Woman who sells in the market and is one of my therapists laughs "Eh eh, I see you been in de masquerade thing " and I laugh with her before we start to talk about the horror of Guyana in the last couple of weeks .. horror which is the legacy of past horrors. Morning after some citizens who also excluded from the prosperity (did they receive cash grant? What else do they need?) went on rampage in Georgetown and elsewhere, lighting fires and so I call to find out if the Masquerade Lives On Symposium was still on.  And so on the Tuesday when people decided to stay home after the madness of Monday night, we gather not far from where I was protesting with others, including others I had protested against for their own role in the legacy of violence, against the police. I stand in the room, a bit uncertain of my place and role here because I didn't know anything about masquerade beyond being an observer (and singing George...