Once a year you give me permission the fly above your judgement so you may enjoy me

…. You think.

The thing that hurts me the most in all of this is people acting like my body is the sum of who I am.

She would not allow the creeping doubts from the previous months to dampen her spirit. Not while she had the rum in her system. She bobbed and weaved to make her feathers dance some more and so the stage lights could pick up the glitter on her skin

I hate tights. When we moved back to Guadeloupe after a few years in Paris, I thought I'd never have to wear them ever again. Carnival is worth the discomfort, though.

Years later, as my consciousness and understanding of anti-blackness and the race politics in Barbados improved, I would have discussions about how problematic this band is.

It have people who, when they play mas does get tired, does need to pee, does complain they foot burning them. Not her. And though she was the kind of can’t mash ants girl who never let no man pass his place with her – the very cliché of a stoosh bank employee, Carnival was different.