By Robert A Emmanuel
In the metropolitan city of the Lone Star State—Dallas, Texas—the spirit and culture of Caribbean Carnival is being spread by a young Antiguan, who is slowly making a name for herself.
Born and raised in the Potters Village and Urlings, young Sasha Carr has taken a multi-year journey to influence the Carnival scene in the American city.
Her band, Xclusive Mas, was awarded at the Dallas Carnival Caribbean Festival or Dallas Carnival, the 2023 Band of the Year after being founded only two years prior.
Observer media sat down with the young visionary about her band and its inspiration.
“My first year in Dallas, I was going to their Carnival and I saw the costumes and how they had it over here, and I was like ‘this is not like a Carnival that you would say is a Caribbean Carnival’, so I thought how can I contribute to the Dallas Carnival to be more like a Caribbean Carnival?” she said.
So, she came up with Xclusive Mas, whose vision was to “promote, enhance, and integrate the Caribbean and American culture’ and to ‘promote and educate [the Dallas] community on the rich cultural heritage of the Caribbean.’”
“In 2021, it was my first time participating in Carnival, like playing mas’ and it wasn’t an ‘oomph’ for me, so I was like next year, I will come up with my own band, so I sat down, spoke to a few persons, told them my idea,” she expressed.
To her, the Xclusive Mas Band was to be different, to share an idea unique to what was already on show, and to bring the small-island culture unto the big stage.
So along with five other colleagues, she focused her efforts on keeping local, using Antiguan music and designs in her mas’ band, and alongside a few other friends, began to promote her mas’ band, which included a Neon Party Brand Launch in April 2022, pushing the name of Xclusive Mas out into the public.
“I had on my T-shirt, I had some of my friends wearing our T-shirts, pushing the name Xclusive Mas Band, and we did that for the months coming down to Dallas Carnival,” she said.
And so, like ‘a true Vagabond’ as the Xclusive website describes, Carr, alongside Antiguan designer, Chande Lewis, came up with the “The world of Devotion”—with two sections, Celestial, and Red Rebellions.
“Well, firstly, my brother had linked me with him cuz he and my brother are good friends, so I talked to him and told him I am starting a mas’ band in Texas, and I want him to produce my prototypes for me,” she explained.
However, it was not all smooth sailing for the young Antiguan, as she explained, there were challenges with the production of the costumes.
“I had to find a production team two weeks before the Carnival, so everything was like a rush; I hit-up a designer team from Trinidad to produce our costumes and she was willing to work with us to get everything to Texas in the week of Carnival,” she explained.
Dallas Carnival is annually held in the third week of September, and is aimed at offering a family friendly “extravaganza” to celebrate the diversity of cultures and the historical significance of the festivities.
And although she and her team didn’t win any prizes in 2022, Carr was determined to go bigger and bolder.
“I was like ‘ok, I willcome better this year, so I worked with Chande again, and he did an awesome job with the costumes, and we went out there last Sunday [17 September] and we put on a show,” she noted.
‘Xclusive’ won by 10 points over the competition, with 282 points, with second place ‘Socaholics’ achieving 272 points.
However, Carr revealed that she wants to go bigger next year, with the intent of raising the standard up to the levels of Carnivals held in New York and Maimi.
“Xclusive, we want to go beyond Dallas; we were planning to start off with the other Carnivals in the other cities—start-off in the smaller Carnivals—and hopefully, ending up in the bigger Carnivals like Atlanta and Maimi,” she said.
She added that she wants Antigua and Barbuda, in her own way, to be recognised as its own culture in America, separate from the Caribbean-Jamaican Association which currently exists.
“When they think of the Caribbean, it is either Jamaica, Jamaica, [or] Jamaica, but I am like ‘no, there are other Caribbean islands, and I am from Antigua’, and I am trying to give Antigua more exposure,” she shared.
In her final message, Carr hopes that persons follow her mas’ band on Instagram and “put Dallas Carnival on your calendar for next year, because we are going to come bigger and better.”
