Vows Made, Promises Broken
A decade with carnival costume designer Trinidadian Peter Minshall
Caribbean Life, NOV. 26-DEC. 2, 2021 35
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
Scout’s honor.
It’s a pledge, hope to die, and
pinky swear. Someone’s offered
their word and now you have
expectations. They’ve made a
solemn vow and you’ll hold
them responsible but remember:
as in the new book “Make
Good the Promises,” edited by
Kinshasha Holman Conwill
and Paul Gardullo, some pacts
don’t last long.
Three years before he was
inaugurated, Abraham Lincoln
was concerned “about the deepening
crisis between the Northern
free states and Southern
slave states.” He “thought hard”
and often about “the institution
of slavery” but, though he
was against it, he believed that
decisions on slavery should lie
within the individual states.
He’d “been in office for a
month when insurrectionary
forces attacked Fort Sumter,”
which marked the beginning
of the Civil War. Northerners
leaped into the war, “believing,
or so they said, that the Civil
War” was not about slavery or
Black people.
“Black people insisted, to the
contrary, that the war had everything
to do with them.”
Years before War’s end, Lincoln’s
Emancipation Proclamation
gave African Americans
hope that things would
improve. After his assassination
in April 1865 and the
ratification of the Thirteenth
Amendment the following
December, there was still hope,
though Lincoln’s successor,
Andrew Johnson, “proved to be
an enemy of Black freedom.”
Still, Johnson’s Reconstruction
plan didn’t entirely undo what
Lincoln had started, though
it did favor Southern states in
ways that made room for white
supremacy and Jim Crow laws,
and that still resonate today.
Johnson’s actions lingered
in the fight for the vote for
Black women, long after Black
men were allowed to cast a ballot;
it lingered in their “proper
treatment as ladies…” His
actions left a long legacy that
began with mass incarceration
and forced work, often for no
valid reason. And they linger
in violence and disrespect, in
disenfranchisement, in segregation
that still affects Black
lives, and in politics and current
events today. And, as the
authors indicate here, reviving
the subject of reparations may
fix all that…
Trace it back. George Floyd
back, Medgar Evers back, Rosa
Parks back, Black GIs back, and
you’ll see where editors Kinshasha
Holman Conwill and
Paul Gardullo are going. Follow
it back, and in “Make Good the
Promises,” you’ll find a path
forward.
It’s not a new one, though,
as you’ll see inside this photopacked
narrative; in fact, there’s
not even just one. In the chapters
that serve as refreshers on
the Civil War (with focus on
War’s end), there are many subtle
suggestions for establishing
equality. More blunt talk comes
toward the end of the book, and
it comes with some surprises.
Readers are also in for one
big delight here: this book
would be just another volume
on history, were it not for the
abundance of photographs.
You simply must see the faces
inside.
You have to see their lives.
If you’re a history buff
or a reader of Civil War-era
accounts, one peek inside
“Make Good the Promises” will
have you hooked. Pick it up,
you’ll love it, cross your heart.
“Make Good the Promises:
Reclaiming Reconstruction
and Its Legacies,”
edited by Kinshasha
Holman Conwill and Paul
Gardullo
c.2021,
Amistad $29.99 / $36.99
Canada
224 pages
Book cover of “Make Good The Promises.”
By Sean Drakes
Why does the world need
a book that explores the contemporary
works of mas by
Peter Minshall in the Carnival
of Trinidad and Tobago?
This is a valid query, that
may be more useful than a
Venn diagram that estimates
the audience size for such a
book. The book that chronicles
the entire design career of
Emmy®–winning artist Peter
Minshall came close to being
realized. I was a contributor
to the Atlanta Journal–Constitution
newspaper and a correspondent
for Black Enterprise
magazine when the invitation
to submit photography arrived
in 2004. I shipped off a collection
of 35mm slides that
happened to span the 1990s.
In early 2007, that collection
of photographs was returned
along with four proofsheets.
The ambitious book project,
sponsored by the Prince Claus
Fund, had collapsed. A career
in photojournalism poached
me from Essence magazine
and planted me in Trinidad.
Soon, fate organized a chance
meeting for my curiosity and
camera. Instead of feasting in
the Caribbean ritual of Sunday
lunch, I committed Sundays to
documenting Minshall’s process
of grooming mas performers
in his Callaloo Company
theatre workshops. Nearly
three decades later, that collection
of rare portraits from
1992 complements the history
captured in a first–of–its–kind
limited edition titled “The Last
Mas.” This volume has been
accepted into the peer review
process of a university press
in the U.S. The writer Patricia
Ganase observes, “during the
1990s Trinidad and Tobago was
of particular interest to academics
from overseas,” many
of whom were researching for a
thesis or book. In Trinidad and
Tobago, the 1990s opened with
shocking news of the Jamaat
al Muslimeen–led insurrection
in the capital city, then
cricketer Brian Lara scored his
first world record. Harvesting
natural gas continued to bankroll
the GDP, and Wendy Fitzwilliam
crowned Trinidad and
Tobago with its second Miss
Universe win. In the midst of
those moments, pioneering
mas designer Peter Minshall
positioned the Carnival arts
center stage at the Olympic
Games—twice.
The idea to produce a chapbook
— a publication formed
from one chapter—is anchored
by that collection of photography
that was returned. It
blossomed in dimension when
Mrs. Ganase sourced two
accomplished academics who
invested in researching Minshall
during the 1990s. Eventually,
several other scholars
crossed our radar. Minshall’s
thought–provoking mas band
narratives reflect and examine
the realities of Trinidad and
Tobago society in that moment
of time; they are historical
records.