SAN­DRA L BLOOD

The Caribbean Zone, found­ed in 1998 in Phoenix, Ari­zona, and led by mu­sic teacher Mar­sha D Thomas, was es­tab­lished to show­case the cul­ture of T&T, while al­so em­brac­ing oth­er Caribbean coun­tries.

“Through­out the year, we par­tic­i­pate in com­mu­ni­ty pa­rades and events fea­tur­ing the Caribbean Zone mas­quer­aders, dancers, and steel­pan play­ers. Our first tuner was the dis­tin­guished Tri­ni, Bertram “Butch” Kel­man and cur­rent­ly, it’s the mas­ter­ly US-based An­cliff “Ansel” Joseph,” said Thomas.

A teacher at Sheely Farms El­e­men­tary School in the Tolle­son School Dis­trict and the vi­sion­ary be­hind the dis­trict’s steel­pan pro­gramme, Thomas holds a BA in In­ter­dis­ci­pli­nary Arts and Per­for­mance and an M Ed in Ed­u­ca­tion Tech­nol­o­gy and Cur­ricu­lum De­sign.

She ex­pand­ed her in­flu­ence by cu­rat­ing di­verse cul­tur­al ex­pe­ri­ences, in­clud­ing steel pan per­for­mances, and cos­tume de­signs, and in­te­grat­ing Caribbean cul­ture in­to events such as the Fi­es­ta Bowl Pa­rade.

“My stu­dents, dancers and mu­si­cians proud­ly rep­re­sent Caribbean cul­ture through steel­pan mu­sic and cos­tumes,” she said.

In keep­ing with the 2025 Fi­es­ta Bowl theme, A New Era, Caribbean Zone lit up the two-mile pa­rade route with its por­tray­al of the David Rud­der ca­lyp­so Tri­ni 2 De Bone.

The band was de­signed by cre­ative di­rec­tor Rawle Fras­er, who, along with Thomas, in­tro­duced Ari­zona’s first T&T-style Car­ni­val some years ago.

Apart from spec­ta­tors along the route, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 13.9 mil­lion view­ers wit­nessed T&T’s cul­ture por­trayed by mas­quer­aders in T&T’s na­tion­al colours.

The band’s queen, Jen­nifer Tash, a Vin­cent­ian, por­trayed Caribbean in Bloom.

Thomas al­so fa­cil­i­tates cul­tur­al ex­changes, im­mers­ing par­tic­i­pants in the tra­di­tions of mas and pan to deep­en con­nec­tions to T&T’s her­itage.

Dur­ing a 17-day vis­it to T&T, Thomas was joined by Collin Ar­mor­er, chair­man of CA­PAZ and Rhythm Oa­sis Col­lec­tive, and the youngest per­son to pro­duce a Car­ni­val event in the Unit­ed States.

The two were guests on 91.9FM and met with the pres­i­dent of Pan Trin­ba­go Bev­er­ley Ram­sey-Moore, NCC chair­man Win­ston “Gyp­sy” Pe­ters and com­mis­sion­er Dar­i­an Mar­celle.

In ad­di­tion, Thomas com­plet­ed a project with St Mar­garet’s Boys An­gli­can School. He met with act­ing prin­ci­pal Dave Phillips, mu­sic and steel­pan tu­tor Carel Tay­lor, teacher Eliz­a­beth Dook­ie-Car­low and tra­di­tion­al mas tu­tor Stel­la Richards-Al­leyne.

She al­so in­ter­act­ed with mem­bers of bp Rene­gades se­nior and youth steel or­ches­tras at­tend­ed and at­tend­ed sev­er­al Car­ni­val events.