The Vibrant Heartbeat of Trinidad and Grenada

Harmony Farrell shares her vibrant experiences from Grenada Carnival, highlighting the cultural richness that defines Caribbean celebrations. The episode discusses the contrasts between Grenadian and Trinidadian Carnival, the significance of community support for artists, and the deep emotional connection Carnival holds for participants. 

• Harmony's journey into theater informs her cultural insights 
• Long-held desire to experience Grenada Carnival brings a dream to life 
• Jab Jab as a central symbol of Grenadian Carnival 
• Comparison between Grenada and Trinidad's Carnival experiences 
• The communal spirit and support during events like Soka Monarch 
• Anticipation and personal preparations leading to Carnival 
• Weather-related surprises during Carnival festivities 
• Cultural identity and spiritual freedom embodied in Carnival celebrations

Chapters

• 0:03 Cultural Exploration and Grenada Carnival
• 10:02 Carnival Comparison
• 19:37 Trinidad Carnival
• 29:27 Is Tobago a Better Tourist Destination?

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

hi, I'm carlene and this is Nutmeg Nation. I have with me a fellow caribbean. She's from trinidad and tobago. She lives there. I found you on social media looking on instagram, and I saw your video on carnival in grenada and it was very interesting. You gave like a great review and I was like let me follow her and see if she would be a guest on the show.

Speaker 1: 0:31

So thank you, harmony yeah yeah, so Harmony Farrell, you are a I guess you call it content creator and influencer, and you also have a nine to five, but your background is in theater. So tell me a little bit about theater, like you know. What got you into that?

Speaker 2: 0:55

I think since I was a little girl, I always knew that I wanted to be a star of some sort. I don't exactly remember how I got into performing arts. Well, I mean I do, because I know you were saying before that you also used to dance. So I started dance at five, at five years old, and then I still dance up until now, definitely not as frequently as I used to before, but I spent my entire school life in very rigorous dance training.

Speaker 2: 1:28

I started off my theatre career in musicals and then I went to university in England to study theatre and creative writing. But my focus has always been more on the academic side of theatre. And as much as I like being a performer, I never wanted to necessarily be a performer by profession just because I'm not a very competitive person. I don't like the industry, I don't like having to fight and perform for my supper. So, yeah, I then went into theater education and now I'm in marketing, where I I be doing a lot of theater, but for social media, if that makes sense. But what being in theater exposed me a lot to is culture and cultural studies, in a sense, which informs quite a lot of my content, a lot of my perspective. A lot of my writing when I do get to write everything that I do links back in some way to culture and a lot of it has to do with that kind of bridging between traditional culture and contemporary culture and just that really rich knowledge of things about our culture that the average person wouldn't know.

Speaker 1: 2:36

All comes from my background in theater, so yeah, yeah, and even, uh, some of your videos, like you keep reinforcing how to, how, the Trinidadian way is you know what I mean. I think I've seen some of your references where it's like, no, it's not this, it's you know, like I think a lot of mistakes are made in the Caribbean, or just assumptions, like a stereotype is what you call it. Right, but linking back to everything you said in the arts and marketing. So I guess, as a digital, like as a content, do you consider yourself a content creator? Like for the amount of things that you do, right, and so they are linked to each other, right, but so tell me about, I mean, this is back in August, right, carnival has long passed, but getting back, to that it feels like yesterday, okay, great.

Speaker 1: 3:28

So what made you decide to go down to Grenada in the first place? I always.

Speaker 2: 3:35

I've always always wanted to go to Grenada Carnival. My best friend is from St Lucia. I met her in England and when we were there we started kind of carnival hopping. We started off with Berlin Carnival because we were in England already. I went to St Lucia Carnival with her and then I've been kind of wanting to make my way up the islands.

Speaker 2: 3:58

But Grenada's Carnival is so distinct, those images of jab just always felt like they were calling me by my name. I just felt like I need to be there, aside from the fact that my family has roots in kairiku, so you know, it's a kind of going back home in a sense. And in further commas, but it just all seemed different, like it seemed raw in a in a sort of way and it really did feel like that. When I was there the experience was unparalleled, like it was unlike anything that I've ever experienced anywhere else. I know, being from Trinidad, the mecca of carnival or the mecca of contemporary commercialized carnival, but somebody who really appreciates and I aim to find spaces in our commercialized carnival where I can get that connection with the root and the connection with the soul of it, and I've been lucky enough to find that in Trinidad. But I just feel like if you go to a place where you don't have to necessarily look for it, it just is. I think that's really beautiful.

Speaker 2: 5:05

So I had it on my bucket list for a long time. I've been wanting to go to Grenada Carnival every year. We would plan and plan and we'd start a group chat and then the plan doesn't make it out of the group chat and then the tickets are sold out or the tickets get too expensive or whatever. And it was just by complete like I wasn't even gonna make it last year, it was by complete luck that I ended up there and it was just. It was literally like a dream come true. I have a photo on my vision well, on my older vision board, because I've had to update it now but I had a photo of some girls on a rainy juvie morning, in their covered in black, wearing wearing the Jab helmet, walking through St George's in the rain. I had that photo in my vision board and I used to visualize it like myself and my girlfriend heading to well, I mean, you know, finishing up Jab. So it really literally was like a dream come true to be there for me.

Speaker 1: 6:01

Hearing you talk about the Jab Jab I think they've really transformed the culture like the whole. I watched a documentary on like some preview of it, so they're actually making it so popular with that and I think it's gaining a lot of interest for sure. And hearing you talk about the fact that it was on your vision board, so eventually it was going to happen, and it was amazing. I think you kind of, with your social media presence, I think you've made Grenada highlight in terms of like this is something that you know you want to do in that sense, so I think it's amazing that you were able to experience it Like so for you. Would you go back again? Definitely?

Speaker 2: 6:45

yeah, when I was there, people kept asking me would you come back? Of course? Um, I absolutely definitely, 1000% would go back, and you know just the hospitality that I experienced there as well. It was one of my most, and I was there for a long time because of the flight situation when I say a long time longer than people normally would go for Canberra I was there for a few days after enough days before that. I got to really see and experience the country as well, so it just felt like I belonged. I can't think of any reason why I would not go back, and I mean we're talking about jab, but even the pretty mouth experience for me was also excellent. It was, I mean, it was top tier. A lot of it has to do with, like, the topography of the island itself. The weather is a different story because I mean, it happens in August. It's the rainy season. Right, it rained every day. It rained on the road it rained every day.

Speaker 1: 7:47

That's new. You know what I think? This year Grenada's had more floods than they normally have like. Even a couple months ago, my aunt sent me a video with like another flood. I'm like what is going on? Because that's not the norm and and we can say maybe it might be global warming having to do something with that, but it's really not supposed to. Like rainy season is now in Grenada Like from December and January, not August. So the fact that you got a lot of rain was maybe not the norm, like, yeah, a little rain, but yeah.

Speaker 2: 8:20

Yeah, I think the rainy season doesn't it start in like June and come up to like. January-ish.

Speaker 1: 8:29

Historically. Yes, that's what they say, Like I mean, when you talk about rainy season, they say even hurricane season is from June up till November.

Speaker 2: 8:39

From what I read, so hurricane barrel was, not too long before tornadoesissance, carnival as well, right right, a little bit concerned about that too.

Speaker 1: 8:50

Yeah, I mean that was a a serious category hurricane, like a category three. That's not the norm either. So the fact that caracoo's been hit with that you know, and you said you have family in caracoo, so from oh from sorry, let's emphasize, I think every, at least from what I've, I found out everyone who almost everyone from my family who's from there now live abroad.

Speaker 2: 9:17

right, they still have some, they still maintain some strong level of connection there. So so we've done some family reunions going across the Cairo. I haven't been because I'm a little young. Yeah, that's where my grandparents and my great grandparents are from, and they came over to Trinidad from Cairo.

Speaker 1: 9:40

Wow, oh, it's beautiful. Yes, yes, yeah, I left Grenada when I was young. I was six when I left and I'm from Grand Anse and my grandmother's house still there, right by the beach. She has like yeah, I always say she has the best view, because you literally see the beach from her house, which is beautiful.

Speaker 1: 10:02

But from your experience, because Trinidad is the Mecca of carnival, like even I haven't gotten to experience. I've been to Tobago and I spent a day in Trinidad and I do. It's on my list, too of places to go back and experience it, because Trinidad is on another level when it comes to Carnival. You guys plan ahead Even from when you go to the airport. I was just like, well, if there's nothing else, like this, is it because, like, even down to like sitting in the airport, like I was waiting because I had an overnight flight when I went down there, and I'm like, wow, they are, like they're serious about Carnival. Like you know, for me, like I mean as someone who lives in Canada, like Carnival is a thing here in Canada, a lot of brings a lot of tourism in, but we don't advertise it like the way you guys do. Like this is your baby, it feels like when you're sitting in the airport, there's video mannequins in costume, like you know.

Speaker 1: 11:05

Yeah, I guess it's different for you because you live there.

Speaker 2: 11:08

Yeah, I think, because I'm so deeply involved with culture, you know there's always room for improvement With the airport. I do think they they do a pretty good job and they've been improving year by year with how we have carnival on display for people arriving into the airport. But I mean, that being said, peripian airlines did a really amazing activation as I touched down in grenada, as I came out of arrivals, like I have a story with it on Instagram.

Speaker 2: 11:36

There's a job in my face there guys on stills, the mocojumbies. They're like characters and they're somebody covered in oil, oil from head to toe, telling me welcome to Grenada. I was just like this is where I'm supposed to be right now. It was fantastic, I think a lot of the corporate entities and there was a steel band as well, but I was stuck in in security so I heard the steel band from inside. But yeah, I think the corporate entities across the islands are really doing a better job at making that a holistic experience, literally from off the plane, for foreigners when they or anybody you know coming into the carnival to really feel it right, I, I haven't been in so long.

Speaker 1: 12:18

So for me my favorite thing when I went years ago this is like over a decade was Monday Night Mass. I love that. I was like this is unreal. Like the lights and I mean the costumes are not pretty mass or like day carnival and it's more. It's simple, right, but it's more about like the, the trucks what do you call it? I keep forgetting the name but not really emphasis on the masqueraders, but more on the lights and that kind of vibe and the music, right. So just hearing you talk about your experience from a landing at the airport and feeling so welcome, that's, that's an improvement in itself, I mean it's interesting because a lot of trinidadians seem to feel like we we have um, we have ownership and authority and all things carnival.

Speaker 2: 13:08

So there are places in trinidad that we have monday, monday night mass, but it is nothing compared to what is happening in grenada. I was anything is going there. I knew that the pace was at a different level, like when I was planning with friends years in advance, months in advance. I'm like you know you had to, you had to rest up, you had a time because it's space when you go for nether, it's spaces. I hear it's party, but experiencing it this could never real life.

Speaker 2: 13:41

It was my gosh, yeah, because I mean trinity can do that as well. But the thing is we have a bit more mellow of a party culture. I would say grenadians will be, so we will go fed after fed, but we be chilling you know we'll have our high moments and whatever grenadians uh win all out, full energy in all of these events, including monday night mass.

Speaker 2: 14:10

I was just dumbfounded, I was at a loss for words. I was like why do all these people have so much energy still like I thought at least it'll be, you know, a little a slower pace. There was no stopping. And I heard that there's even wednesday like mass after the monday and tuesday. Like people commented on my video and they were like, oh, you don't go mass on wednesday. Oh, you're crazy, that's my husband mass on wednesday.

Speaker 1: 14:37

Yes, you know what I find? I know someone from guav and she from. The time she got down there, I was like what I talked to her on the this was years ago and she was like already starting. I was like wait a minute, but you already just got down there. You know what I mean. So it's just crazy, the events that happened. You're You're listening to Nutmeg Nation Listen, learn and be a part of Grenada. It sounds like you did a little bit of everything, though Like what were your favorite events like that?

Speaker 2: 15:08

you went to not a huge fetter. For the majority of the events I was not really by myself, but I was my own crew so I was rolling with the c4 by by mass um people. So there are people there who I knew but I'm not acquainted enough to say, well, I will, I'll be my regular fetter itself like a lot of it. I was just kind of, yeah, the boat ride, rumboat, which again is C4 events that was on carnival Sunday. That was amazing, that was so much fun so I'll probably have to stay. Rumboat was my.

Speaker 2: 15:51

I'm not even remembering some of the things that felt like I'm not even remembering. Yeah, yeah, yeah, do you do king and queen show? I'm not even remembering some of the things that felt like a blip. I'm not even remembering some of the things yeah, yeah, yeah, um, and it you do King and Queen show. No, no, I did, um, I did. Oh, come on. Oh, incredibly interesting Again, it the rain wasn't seen.

Speaker 2: 16:09

It was crazy. Uh, it, it's happening. Oh, my gosh, people were rooting root. Wow, I have. I just remembered. I have a soka monarch video edited that I never posted. Maybe I'll post it sometime soon. But yeah, that was really interesting. Again, comparing it to trinidad culture where, of course, we had soka monarch. Some we don't have it anymore, but soka monarch was a huge thing for us, you know, many years ago, and now it's not. And just seeing how pivotal it is for people there, like people from all walks of life, people from the communities are supporting their artists so hard you know the level of production and creativity and the performances, all of that that people will literally run out in the rain to cheer on their artist. It was really interesting as well.

Speaker 1: 17:00

So I think those were two highlight moments for me, even right so, for those who don't know what a soka monarch is, can you elaborate for just anyone that's like, what's a soka monarch?

Speaker 2: 17:13

so soka monarch is the competition, the major competition for Soka artists. So they are vying for the prize of Soka Monarch 2024, 2025 or whatever it is. So they will reign as the monarch for that year. So the finals the finals of the Soka Monarch is what the big attraction is, where everybody comes and does their live performance on stage. So these performances usually have some sort of dramatic introduction that will go with the theme of the performance and then followed by the artists performing their song live. They'll have dancers, they'll have props, they'll have set stuff like that.

Speaker 2: 17:52

What I found really interesting was the integration of the multimedia multimedia. There was some really high quality more or less like short films that were introducing people's performances and you could look them up on on youtube. One that I was really impressed with was um and I think he won as well an artist called dash. His song was it's called the tape. Wow, okay, yeah, his little short film is on youtube, but just seeing the talent went into it was crazy. So token monarch is still very important on the carnival friday for grenadian people, and what I learned is that a lot of these artists get a majority of their support from their own community. So whatever community they're from, will like send busloads of people down there to back them and whatnot. So it's yeah, stadium environment, live proud, just vibes yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 18:51

Great vibes for sure. You know what I think, because we're talking about Grenada, I think it's important for you to also talk about Trinidad, because it is the Mecca of Carnival, and you know a lot of people go down for Carnival in February. You know what I mean, and, as someone who lives in the country now, I do have to ask you a question, though. Two things. One, tell me about Carnival in Trinidad. Why do you think it's such a popular event in comparison to other islands in the Caribbean? What brings so many people to Trinidad every year? I mean, it's coming up like we're in January and no time you know.

Speaker 2: 19:35

Yeah, so honestly. So there are a few practical factors and a few cultural factors that I think give Trinidad's carnival its precedence. One of them would definitely have to be our cultural makeup. So, unlike a lot of the countries in the Caribbean, trinidad is extremely diverse. So we all have some degree of diversity, but ours is, just like, on a different level. So everything that belongs to our culture, our food, our language, is all, as we call it, just mixed up, mixed up, mix up. So I think all those very strong, different cultural influences just give us a very powerful, really really powerful product, in addition to the fact that the very practical fact that Trinidad and Tobago is an oil producing country. So our revenue, the standard of living, our class structure, things like that, I think are just conducive to a product, to the commercialization of a product, to the level that it has been able to reach. So we are not a tourist destination. Tourism forms, I don't want to say negligible, but a pretty small part of our revenue and our economy. But over time, I think, just having and in addition to, you know, our population size being one of the so I would safely say, among the smaller islands who have French influence, because, of course the French influence is what we kind of credit that connection to Carnival with. We probably have the largest population, which just makes sense, why we have the greatest show on earth.

Speaker 2: 21:22

But Trinidad's Carnival is also an experience like no other. It's getting really interesting. The whole Carnival industry is getting really interesting now because, as Trinidad influences the other islands, and not just the islands you, you know the diaspora as well. A lot of the carnivals are starting to feel the same. But the size, just the size, the proportion, the scale of the magnitude of what we do down here, and the fact that the entire country is kind of pivoted or kind of centered around it, just makes it really really different.

Speaker 2: 22:01

It's something you just can't explain. I think a lot of revenue has been gotten out of it, so a lot of money is put into it, which just makes it this all inclusive economy, all-encompassing product that people really look forward to coming to Trinidad for. So I mean, carnival is my life. People ask me if I'm playing mass. I can't picture Carnival happening in Port of Spain and I am not there in a costume. Something would have to be gravely wrong. And yeah, it's similar to Grenada. It's not for the faint of heart. It's a different kind of paste as well, but very much about the aesthetics and the pretty, and you know, just playing yourself, playing your true self, I would say then.

Speaker 1: 22:47

Yeah, that is definitely a very detailed description of it. Like you know your stuff, harmony, I'm impressed Like, I guess, as someone who's been living there, like you grew up in Trinidad and I guess, as they say, you're a Trini to the boon, you know, you know and so I feel like it's a cultural mecca, like it's in your blood, it's part of who you are, and a lot of people, uh, celebrate carn and to you is carnival. What does carnival mean to you? Is it a cultural thing? Like you feel like you're representing Trinidad and Tobago when you play mass. Like you know.

Speaker 2: 23:29

So, trinies, honestly, because we are so self-contained, we are notoriously just not really conscious of anything that happens outside of Trinidad. So we I don't think we're often very conscious of being Trini Like there are moments for Carnival that make me feel like, wow, this is unique. There's no other place on earth that I could, you know, just make friends with this person and never see them again on the road, and just that feeling of bliss and whatnot. So for me it's really more about me. It's about that feeling of a complete uninhibition, just absolute freedom. And aside from just the experience on the road, the anticipation of carnival is a massive thing for me as well.

Speaker 2: 24:19

So from the time january, new year's day, like I just finished exercising my my, I find it very difficult to work out. When it's not the carnival season but preparing for carnival, the workouts hit completely differently. I have all the motivation in the world. It's all the preparation of figuring out what your monday wear looks like, um, what shoes you're gonna be wearing, what events you're going to like. Just the the preparation and always having something to look forward to just excites me so much, like I just feel I wake up and feel happy every single day, any kind of a season because, um, you just know you're anticipating the road.

Speaker 2: 24:57

The days coming close to I literally get anxious. I'm like, oh my god, what if something happens to me and I won't be able to play mass? Like I don't even have nightmares generally, but my one recurring nightmare is that I miss mass. Like Monday reaches and there's something I can't find it barn like. Whenever I'm really stressed, I have these dreams and it just goes to show you know how pivotal that that is for me. You feel like that, like it's not just, it's not just put on a costume and go and pose, like this is a spiritual kind of experience. It's something that's very evocative and I can't compare to anything else new. I cannot imagine who I would be or what life would be for me if I did not know that feeling of carnival wow, I feel like it's.

Speaker 1: 25:45

It's all about the preparation, all about the lead up to getting there. And this year when is carnival in Trinidad?

Speaker 2: 25:52

it's on the third and fourth of March, so we have a long season.

Speaker 1: 25:54

Okay, okay, this time it's on the 3rd and 4th of March, so we have a long season. Oh, okay, okay, this time it's in. Yeah, in March. Yeah, it's usually. Is it ever in February? Why, did I think that yeah, yeah it is so.

Speaker 2: 26:03

It follows the liturgical calendar. So whenever I, it will always be the Monday and Tuesday right before. Oh, okay, so the season is really short. It's like as early as like the 14th of february.

Speaker 1: 26:19

Yeah, we just have a long season, that's it oh, definitely, and I think it's it's all the parties like. I mean, there's a lot happening. It's not just like in grenada, it's a week, I believe you know it's. You know the lead up to it, obviously. I, I know they lead up to Carnival as well, starting in May, and I didn't realize how much goes on with it because, like, once you try to connect with artists and stuff, they're already busy with preparation, shows coming up and just the whole atmosphere of it.

Speaker 2: 26:52

So I guess it's kind of the same way, the fact that you're already starting to work out for carnival and you're like, oh god, yeah, I'm so busy with and it really pains me, like that was a legitimate reason for me leaving my job. I said this is the first time in my life that December has met me and I haven't been able to go to the gym for carnival yet. And I I just don't feel comfortable with any job consuming my life so much because carnival is so important to me. I think it's really symbolic. So anything that is keeping me back from my carnival prep, I think is keeping me back too much. So I'm literally leaving my job. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1: 27:31

Are we airing this part? Are we taking it out? Yeah, no sure.

Speaker 2: 27:35

I mean that's you know that's just part of the reason, but it just goes to show. You know, it's a ritual, a pivot, it's a part of my life and you know what? I want anything to come to me so much that I won't be able to enjoy something that's so important to me and prepare, you know I don't really be do your thing.

Speaker 1: 27:56

Yeah, I know, because some people have called in sick. So I think there's something to be said about work life balance, you know, because it's either you work to live or live to work. But you want to be able to do the things that you enjoy too. That's the whole part of it, and so if your work is taking over your personal life and you can't really enjoy it, that's really the hard part if the work stop in the line.

Speaker 1: 28:26

I love it, I love it. It's good, it's good, good the work, yes, yes. So one more thing did you already choose your costume? You already know for sure, for sure, for sure, for sure for sure, for sure.

Speaker 2: 28:38

I'm with the band Tribe. I'm on their committee. We started registration from, I think, August last year. I chose my costume. I was there at the band launch. I went into the showroom the day it opened. It was my costume. I have it as my wallpaper on my phone.

Speaker 1: 28:52

That's awesome. It born. That's awesome, it's exciting, you know, leading up to all the excitement and all the fun and everything that encompasses Carnival, you know. So thank you for sharing your experience and for sharing your insight into Grenada, like you know what I mean. I hope you get to experience Carnival again and come down to the island of Grenada, as you did before. You know I do have to say that when I went, I did really enjoy Tobago in your experience. So for me, I love the beaches in Tobago. Do you have an opinion on that? Because I've had this argument with my old roommate who's from Trinidad and she's like you know, trinidad has the best. I'm like I don't know about that, but in comparison to Tobago, trinidad and other, you know other who do you think?

Speaker 2: 29:44

Tobago has world class beaches. Like I think Tobago is absolutely a tourist destination. I don't think that Trinidad's cultural tourism is ecotourism or tourism is developed enough that it makes sense to come here aside from Carnival. I know that's a real hot take, but I feel like if you go to Trinidad at any point during the year and you know, enjoy what there is there, our accessibility to our sites and stuff just makes it really difficult. And Tobago's beaches are amazing, trinidad's beaches good for what they are.

Speaker 1: 30:20

Yes, we can. Okay, Well, I'm Carlene and this is Nutmeg Nation. Thank you, harmony. Thank you for listening to Nutmeg Nation with Carlene Humphrey.