Performing Hope: Caribbean Masquerade as Resistance, Resilience and Futurity

As global society confronts compounding crises, environmental collapse, rising authoritarianism, trade wars, and border conflicts, the concept of hope has become increasingly fragile and contested. Caribbean masquerade, particularly as it intersects with the entertainment industry, new-media landscapes, popular culture, and emergent technologies, can be understood as activating and sustaining hope. Situating masquerade within the framework of heritage and contemporary aesthetic praxis, this paper examines how Caribbean masquerade traditions and innovations resist nihilism by imagining and embodying alternative futures. Masquerade is one of the most important art forms in the Caribbean and has historically contributed to optimism and cultural confidence, fueling national developmental projects throughout the region. Presently, as these countries face uncertain futures associated with environmental and economic vulnerability, social change, and cultural identity crisis, masquerade continues to play a pivotal role in engendering hope.