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On August 9, celebrated carnival king, Peter Samuel and his team, Kinetic Mas Limited (KML), launched their 2023 Mas presentation, Exhale and Cyber Nation, at 41 Alberto Street, Woodbrook, Port-of-Spain, confident that it will be “The Best Ever.”
After copping the Band of Year title in 2020 with renowned designer, Peter Minshall, Kinetic has decided to focus on the next generation of mas makers as well as masqueraders. This year’s presentation is designed by young and vibrant designers, Sudesh Ramsaran, Chelsea Naomi Fraser, and Donna Dove,” exhaled KML.
Carnival 2023 will be graced with costumes on both Monday and Tuesday. Monday will be the big Exhale.
Exhale and Cyber Nation creatives: Sudesh Ramsaran gained experience at the Barbarossa, Minshall’s Callaloo Company and Mc Farlane’s Mas Camp, and did productions for UK, Bermuda, Toronto, Miami, St Kitts, Barbados and Jamaica. He’s currently installed as KML’s principal designer for 2023. Donna Dove is a certified fashion designer from the Fashion Institute of Technology (F.I.T), NY. Her creations are said to be eclectic, and she specialises in the look, Wearable Art. Dove has been for the last 11 years, the creative director for Pagwah Mas—a Trinidad-based J’ouvert band in Brooklyn, NY. Pagwah Mas took J’ouvert culture to the Continent of Africa: Moroco for 2017 for the festival VISA for music; Ivory Coast 2018 for the MASA festival; then created its own festival (J’ouvert fest) in Senegal 2019. “My self-admitted colourful lifestyle is another sauce of inspiration.”
Chelsea Fraser is the winner of the adult category of the Trinidad and Tobago Red Cross Society’s Energy Designer’s Competition 2020, and part of her prize package was an opportunity to design elements for the band’s presentation. Fraser recently completed the DIA Laboratory program by CARIRI, and was offered a scholarship for Stephen Edwards Production to develop her skills in computer illustration and animation. She stated, “My dream is to create something that will live on forever, even when I’m gone.”
Principal designer Ramsaran expressed that Cyber Nation speaks to the early 90s and his hope is that seasonal masqueraders would find some nostalgia while new masqueraders would get a taste of how mas felt and look back then.