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danjelani

@danjelani

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me come here carried in story
from akan yard to maroon yard
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I know a carousel hates to see the Buddies marketing team coming 🫪 Opening night for Bootycandy was fab fab fab! DJ CØHEN kept the energy high alllll night, the show was a bang, and house of Fubu topped the night off 🍒 Thank you so @thesassafraz for catering our fab opening 💋 Only a handful of shows left! In the wise words of Gwen Stefani (before she became Gwen Shelton, ifykyk) “What you waiting for?” Photos by @lourdeslasala
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TORONTO CARNIVAL 2026 ‘Pon di Road - Pt 2 Aug 1, 2026 Blue Devil masquerade - hailing from Paramin, Trinidad, born out of Jab Molassie, and like Djab Djab in Grenada - carries forth the history and the impetus of Ol’ Mas, the Carnival practices celebrating emancipation and protesting the dehumanizing oppression of chattel slavery. It is a performative mockery of the colonial narrative of African culture, spirituality, and Blackness as devilish, profane, primitive, less than human. We turn the projection back on the perpetrator and ask, “Who’s the real devil?” We play a satirical spin on the Christian fear of the Devil. Pay di devil or we go blue you up! We queer Carnival by throwing dutty wildness in the face of heteronormative sexual expectations and demands imposed on our Black queer bodies, our Black voluptuous bodies, our Black disabled bodies, our Black aging bodies. Instead of sequins, feathers, and bikinis, we come in devil horns, tails, and wings, smeared with blue from head to toe, blood dripping from our mouths. We play di Devil as a practice of remembrance of our ancestors, and of the traumas of slavery; and as a practice of refusal, breaking free of the shackles of white supremacist violences that continue - from slavery to Jim Crow, to today - to pressurize, pulverize, and demonize Black life. Nah! Dis is a Blue Devil Moko Jumbie Mascamp production. An’ tanks to we partners, Carnival Nationz.
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TORONTO CARNIVAL 2026 ‘Pon di Road - Pt 1 Aug 1, 2026 All praises to the ancestral innovators who gave us this tradition! Asante Baba Esú for opening di way, Papa Ogun for safe passage ‘pon di road, and Mama Yemayá for carrying our ancestors ‘cross di Middle Passage wi’ dis rich culchah we so blessed to carry forth today. Asé Asé Asé-sé O! Revelling in the reverberations of Carnival still bubbling through my body consciousness one month later! It was so ecstatic jumpin’ up freein’ up don’ wa’ stop! Broadcastin’ emancipatory joy an’ jubilation from di pas’ into di present an’ on into di fyuchah!!! Cha! Devil masquerade is multiply coded in its significance and symbolism. For me, it is a revelling in the experience of embodied Black freedom, a purging of rage built up in my cell memory from the relentless onslaught of anti-Blackness, and a potent 12-hours ‘pon di road offering of prayer to the ancestors and the Orishás. This year, in a blue gown cut short in the front, 7 cowries sewn across my ribs, and a hovering jewel between my horns, with my massive wings rippling in the wind, I made my offering to Yemayá. Asé! Dis is a Blue Devil Moko Jumbie Mascamp production. An’ tanks to we partners, Carnival Nationz.
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TORONTO CARNIVAL 2026 At di Mascamp July 27-31, 2026 There is nothing like the Blue Devil Moko Jumbie Mascamp in the weeks leading up to Carnival! It’s such a soulful and life-giving joy to be part of this family. Love love love the DIY intergenerational vibes and collaborative environmentalist queer ethics. Making our own costumes alone disrupts the aesthetic of uniformity and the capitalist culture of pretty mas, before we even drop our dutty mas political message. This year, we brought a critical analysis to the theme, “Celebrate FIFA.” Bam! FEEFA FO FUM All di bes’ playahs is Afrikan Yellow cards - look out! Red cards - yuh out! And the Moko Jumbies making a commentary on the pollution left in the wake of FIFA, and on its corporate logic. Dis is a Blue Devil Moko Jumbie Mascamp production. An’ tanks to we partners, Carnival Nationz.
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Try to get all ah we in one photo- yuh see what happen when you give someone your phone - all de jumbies get cut off - steups… . This followed by the wrap up thanks to de Djab cleaning crew!!!
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Djab and jumbie photos from @mosa.mcneilly.
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Getting ready and getting in de spirit!!!
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Getting ready to Djab up de road! Djab and Jumbies together setting up de truck and trailer, paying our respects pouring libations Eshu /Elegba to guide our way safely on de road. Thank you djabs Jumbies @rhomaspencer @mosa.mcneilly Allyuh ready…?
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Caribana 2026😈👹🌈✨
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A little Djab Riddim in de mas camp
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I have tried (and failed) a thousand times to write something that captures what these 3 weeks have meant to me. Here are some pictures instead. I hope it does TEPs justice 😌
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⚡Only 2 SHOWS left to catch YGB'S 𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘀𝗮! ⚡ Head over to Factory Theatre at 2:30pm or 7:30pm to see what our Young, Gifted and Black cohort created! Waitlist available at the door. As the April 2023 conflict breaks out in Sudan, Adama in Toronto makes urgent phone calls to her grandmother Rania living in Khartoum. Basbousa is a story about the recipes we inherit, the homes we carry within us, and the impossible choices families make in times of crisis. 🇸🇩 𝗖𝗮𝘀𝘁 Bola Aiyeola - Grandma Rania Megan Legesse - Adama 𝗖𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗧𝗲𝗮𝗺 Abigail Whitney - Director, Co-creator Ghislan Sutherland-Timm - Set Designer, Co-creator Nála Simone Lendor - Costume Designer, Co-creator Stephon Smith - Sound Designer, Co-creator Lilian Adom - Lighting Designer (YGB 24/25) Meryem Alaoui - Movement Consultant Mwahib Azreg - Cultural Consultant Robert Harding - Stage Manager Aden Altamirano - Production Manager / Technical Director Curtis Whittaker - Head Carpenter ciaran brenneman - Head of Props 📸 Photos by Elana Emer @elanaemerphoto
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