Celebrating Emancipation: A Sip & Paste Workshop
On July 29, Island SPACE Caribbean Museum hosted Celebrating Emancipation: A Sip & Paste Workshop as part of its Reimagining Emancipation series. The Sip & Paste was presented in partnership with A.Rich Culture with the generous support of the Florida Humanities, Broward Mall, FPL and the following Funds at the Community Foundation of Broward: Mary N. Porter Community Impact Fund, Jack Belt Memorial Fund, Ginny and Tom Miller Fund, Stearns Weaver Miller Fund for the Arts, Harold D. Franks Fund.
Participants enjoyed hints of Bahamian culture, as they pasted headpieces in Junkanoo style. Junkanoo is a joyful and colorful celebration originating in the Bahamas, and celebrated, in different formats, in other Caribbean islands. Instructed by Garth Whymss, a veteran Junkanoo costume builder and the architect of the costume currently on display at Island SPACE, participants decorated individual headpieces made of cardboard covered in colored blocks of felt.
Whymss started the evening by sharing the history of Junkanoo costume-making with attendees of the workshop. Junkanoo costume-making occurs during the entire year despite Junkanoo’s celebration on Boxing Day and New Years’ Day, the two days when enslaved people were excused from labor and free to celebrate. Junkanoo represents freedom and African roots and reminds how far we’ve come on our journey to and after emancipation.
Steps to construct the ornate headpieces included selecting strips of colored felt to wrap around the edges, hot gluing the cloth down, and pasting a variety of colored stones and beads that would decorate the front and back of the headpiece.
Throughout the process, the instructor navigated the room in his wheelchair, adeptly helping participants start and develop their designs, stepping in when to help as needed. Some designs included a heart or black diamond in the center of the headpiece, and completely bedazzled facades. All participants had a blast, pasting and decorating their headpieces as they learned about this cultural expression of Caribbean emancipation. The last step was adding ornate blue or pink feathers, in the essence of ancestral revelry (and to give the headpiece an extra pop).
What started as a simple decorating event quickly turned into a friendly competition between the sip and paste participants. After two hours of decorating, board member Roxanne Valies determined the best headpiece of the group, and Juli-Anne Lee was declared the winner. Her prize was Whymss’ own striking owl face design, which he put together during the workshop’s final ten minutes.
Embellished with Bahamian rake and scrape music and wine on the patio, the Sip & Paste workshop was a fun and informative Friday night activity for all. We can’t wait for the next one!