Take It to the Group Chat, Ep. 5: Who is Caribana For?

Every year, Toronto Caribbean Carnival—forever known, to me at least, as Caribana—generates about $338 million in economic impact for the city of Toronto. It attracts 1.2 million spectators and participants every year, many from outside of Ontario, and even outside of Canada. And yet, after last year’s festival, social media was overrun with comments from members of Toronto’s Caribbean community saying they would no longer be playing mas in the city. The problem is not new; as author Camille Hernández-Ramdwar put it in a Globe and Mail op-ed that appeared just before the 2023 festival, “The story of the festival underlines one of the contradictions of multiculturalism: are immigrants and their descendants supposed to hold onto and preserve their culture, protecting it as one would a family heirloom, carefully passing it down from generation to generation, ensuring that it remains with the community’s stewardship? Or are we supposed to share our culture with everyone in the host country as a sign of generosity and goodwill, so as to appear non-threatening and malleable, so that ultimately we, in effect, lose control of and claim to our own culture? Can we do both simultaneously? Should we?”

This episode of Take It to the Group Chat, featuring production designer, director and award-winning music and culture writer Sharine Taylor and writer, artist, educator, and PhD Candidate Ryan Persadie, can’t definitively answer those questions, of course, but it does delve into this dichotomy. We chat through common critiques of the festival (some of which are valid, others arguably unfair), the way it is perceived by government and industry, and the fundamental question of who carnival is actually for—and whether focusing on its economic impact ultimately decentres the people who most need it: Caribbean folks.

Is there anything more immigrant coded than the group chat? More than just a way to stay in touch with far-flung family and friends, group chats are a social space where things get complicated, nuanced and even a little heated. And season 3 of Friday Talks, Take It to the Group Chat, is bringing some of that energy to your computer screen. Hosted by Friday Things founder and editor Stacy Lee Kong, Take It to the Group Chat is a six-part video series that tackles different aspects of the immigrant experience through thoughtful conversations with a panel of experts.