The Math of Caribbean Festival Arts

This course centers Indigenous and West African ways of knowing and engaging with mathematical thinking as they participate in the creation of costuming and Caribbean Festival Arts. Students will gain an understanding of the origins and traditions of Trinidadian Carnival mas making, including the phenomenon of the mas camp, components of a band, mokojumbies (stilt dancers), and traditional characters. They will participate in all of the stages of costuming from community-based generating of theme ideas, selecting color schemes, creating concepts and sketches, bending wire, covering the frames, final decorations, and presenting the costumes on the road (in parades). Students will experience and discuss the use of spatial relations, geometry, working with concepts of scale, and percentages.