By Mikhail Cooper, Digital Communications Intern, UNIC Caribbean

Carnival is often described as spectacle: colour, sound, movement.
Yet beneath the masquerade and rhythm, it is also a space where boundaries are challenged, leadership redefined, and possibility expanded.

Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival stands as a living example of how the cultural expressions of women have influenced identity, challenged long-standing norms, and expanded representation across generations.

What began as an act of resistance and expression has evolved into a global cultural force, shaping similar celebrations across the region and its widespread diaspora. At its core, Trinidad and Tobago’s Carnival is upheld by three interwoven pillars: mas, short for masquerade; the melodic storytelling of calypso music; and the steelpan, the country’s national instrument. Each emerged from distinct histories, but together they form a cultural system that shapes voice, visibility, and influence.

Mas transformed colonial mimicry into assertion. Calypso gave voice to collective memory through social commentary. Steelpan emerged when African drums were outlawed, forcing innovation under constraint. Over time, these expressions became institutions shaping who is visible, heard, and holds authority.

Calypso, one of Carnival’s most enduring pillars, has long mirrored Caribbean society. Through wit, satire, and layered storytelling, calypso performers (calypsonians) chronicle political tensions, social change, and the textures of everyday life. Both performative and competitive, each season artists present original compositions in pursuit of influential titles, most notably the Road March and Calypso Monarch competitions. These distinctions shape not only artistic prestige, but visibility, authority, and cultural influence.

It is within this arena that Calypso Rose redefined what leadership in calypso could look like.

Born McArtha Sandy-Lewis in Tobago, Rose emerged when women were rarely regarded as contenders for calypso's highest honours. Her ascent signalled structural disruption.

In 1977, she became the first woman to win the Road March title, an accolade recognising the most popular song in the Carnival parade each year. Singing ‘More Tempo’, this moment marked a visible shift within one of Carnival’s most influential spaces. One year later, she shattered another glass ceiling, securing victory over her male counterparts in the ‘Calypso King’ competition, a triumph that compelled institutional change, compelling organisers to rename the contest the more inclusive ‘Calypso Monarch’ competition, acknowledging that artistic authority was not gender-exclusive.

Across a career spanning decades, Rose’s catalogue fused humour with social critique, advancing conversations on inequality, discrimination, gender-based violence, inclusion, and identity.

Having since earned Trinidad and Tobago’s highest honour, major international music accolades, and landmark Coachella festival performance, Rose is more than a pioneering performer. Her rise recalibrated visibility and power within Carnival itself.

Where calypso has long given voice to social commentary, steelpan embodies resilience through invention. When African drums were outlawed, communities transformed oil drums into orchestral instruments. Today, it defines national identity. Yet like many cultural arenas, steelpan's leadership has been historically male-dominated, even as women have always participated as players, arrangers, and educators.

“Women have always been in the engine room of pan, arranging, teaching, organising, but for too long, they were not in the boardroom. The story of steelpan is also the story of how that is finally starting to change,” as Liliana Garavito, Director of UNIC Caribbean, observes.

It is here that Beverley Ramsey-Moore’s ascent marked a significant shift for governance within this space.

Raised in Tobago's steelband tradition, Ramsey-Moore managed the Katzenjammers Steel Orchestra from 2002, guiding it through national successes and forming its youth arm.

In 2018, she became the first woman elected President of Pan Trinbago, the world governing body for the steelpan. Considering the organisation’s sixty-year history and steelpan's significance, her election represented more than a leadership change; it reflected a widening of governance within one of the country’s most influential cultural institutions.

“Leadership, for me, has always meant service before status,” Ramsey-Moore reflected.

Entering a historically male-dominated space was not about replacing one voice with another, but expanding the table.

Her tenure emphasised institutional strengthening, financial accountability, youth inclusion, and modernisation. Under her leadership, Pan Trinbago played a central role in milestones that reinforced steelpan’s national and global standing, including recognition of the instrument as Trinidad and Tobago’s national instrument and the United Nations’ designation of World Steelpan Day.

“When women occupy governance roles,” she noted, “power becomes less about dominance and more about responsibility.”

Ramsey-Moore’s leadership underscores how cultural institutions themselves evolve, reshaping who leads, who decides, and who is seen.

If calypso gives voice and steelpan gives resilience, mas gives form, as Carnival’s most visible language. Through it, history, identity, and imagination are rendered in motion, design, and spectacle.

Within this arena, Kathy and Karen Norman, twin sisters and Co-Founders and Creative Directors of K2K Alliance & Partners, have reimagined how mas can be conceived and experienced. Their “fashion meets mas” philosophy challenges the tradition of costumes as ephemeral creations, positioning them instead as enduring works of craftsmanship and narrative.

That philosophy has translated into sustained competitive success. In 2019, K2K became the first female-led medium-sized band to capture the coveted Overall Band of the Year title. Across multiple seasons, the band has secured repeated victories and top placements in the fiercely contested Medium Band category.

“We think about mas as a fashion-led, sustainability-driven and sensory-immersive experience,” they explain. Through their 365-Day Concept, costumes are designed for longevity, deconstructed, repurposed, and worn beyond Carnival itself, subtly reframing conversations around value and durability within mas.

Despite their breakthrough, structural barriers persist. “The senior band landscape remains largely male-dominated, with few female CEOs.” As one of the few Black-owned, female-led Carnival institutions, K2K’s presence signals both creative distinction and institutional shift, shaping what young women believe is possible for themselves.

By integrating technology, digital storytelling, and evolving design practices, the band extends mas beyond the street, expanding how Caribbean culture is represented, accessed, and experienced across generations.

K2K’s trajectory reflects more than artistic success. It signals how women’s leadership within mas is not simply participatory, but transformative, reshaping creative authority, redefining value, and widening the boundaries of influence for the next generation.

Carnival’s story is often told through sound, spectacle, and celebration. Yet beneath its vibrancy lies another narrative, one of negotiation over voice, authority, and belonging.
From Calypso Rose’s disruption of performance hierarchies, to Beverley Ramsey-Moore’s breakthrough in cultural governance, to Kathy and Karen Norman’s redefinition of creative authorship in mas, women have not merely participated in Carnival’s evolution. They have reshaped its structures.