Nicole Moses-Beckles rode her way to victory at the Tobago Carnival Monarchs of Mas competition, capturing the coveted title and TT$30,000 with a colourful traditional portrayal titled \u201cLooking for Mr John Boulay\u201d.<\/p>\n
The competition officially opened Tobago Carnival festivities on Thursday night at Market Square in Scarborough, featuring ten contestants, all women, who celebrated the island\u2019s cultural heritage through traditional masquerade.<\/p>\n
Moses-Beckles portrayed an elegantly dressed woman riding a donkey in search of a man from Charlotteville. Her burrokeet costume combined storytelling, humour and traditional mas to capture the judges\u2019 attention.<\/p>\n
She credited Jesse Taylor with inspiring the concept and mas makers Patrick Mills and Susan Harriet in Trinidad with helping to bring the presentation to life.<\/p>\n
According to TTT, several competitors used the event to revive traditional characters and highlight Tobago\u2019s cultural identity.<\/p>\n
Veteran masquerader Janelle Eastman presented \u201cQueen Moola\u201d, drawing attention to cow mas, a traditional portrayal she believes is becoming less visible.<\/p>\n
First-time competitor Leslie-Ann Benjamin showcased \u201cDance of the Fire Coral\u201d, combining sailor mas with Tobago\u2019s underwater beauty in a costume she created entirely by hand.<\/p>\n
Marisa Ward-Robley presented \u201cBound in the Past\u201d, celebrating women\u2019s fashion from the 1950s and 1960s.<\/p>\n
Spectators praised the creativity and welcomed the return of traditional characters, including La Diablesse and donkey mas.<\/p>\n
The Carnival programme continues in Roxborough with RoxGlo, where mud mas is expected to feature prominently.<\/p>\n
Moses-Beckles\u2019 victory placed traditional storytelling at the centre of Tobago Carnival\u2019s opening celebrations, demonstrating how generations-old characters can still command the spotlight.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nicole Moses-Beckles Wins Tobago Carnival Monarchs of Mas With Unique Donkey Portrayal and $30,000 Prize<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-trinidad-and-tobago"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/6403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tringlobe.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}