Open daily, 10 am–5:30 pm

Sou Sou Workshop: The History of Carnival with CCCADI

Name: Sou Sou Workshop: The History of Carnival with CCCADI
Start: 2026-02-19T13:00:00-05:00
End: 2026-02-19T14:00:00-05:00
Location: Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Orientation Center (by The Titanosaur) Floor 4

A child plays three drums using drumsticks and is flanked by an adult on a shekere (gourd) and another adult sitting playing a drum.

CCCADI

Thursday, February 19, 2026

1–2 pm

Tickets

This daytime program is free with Museum admission.

Location

Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Orientation Center (by The Titanosaur)

Floor 4

Step into the rhythms and the stories of resistance that gave birth to Carnival. This interactive daytime experience invites visitors to witness and participate in Canboulay, the 19th-century Afro-Trinidadian tradition that laid the foundation for Trinidad and Tobago Carnival, as a powerful historical lead-in to the evening’s Carnival at the Museum.

Led by acclaimed griot and storyteller Michael Manswell with two master drummers, this workshop brings history to life through call-and-response storytelling, live percussion, movement, and ceremonial “Zingay” stick-fighting.

Canboulay—derived from the French cannes brûlées (“burnt cane”)—emerged after Emancipation as formerly enslaved people transformed forced nighttime processions through sugarcane fields into acts of remembrance, resistance, and celebration. Experience drumming, dance, and the crack of sticks as this tradition is re-imagined in a museum space.

Learn more about Carnival at the Museum: A Climate Fete, our after-hours event for ages 21+.

A portion of this program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.