Vulgar Fraction presents TantiBlak with live talk, band launch

Belmont-based independent mas band Vulgar Fraction will unveil its 2026 Carnival presentation TantiBlack with two events, a live talk and a band launch, on January 21 and 28 respectively. Both events will be held at 24 Erthig Road, Belmont at 6.30 pm.

In a release on January 18, founder and designer Robert Young said the mas creolises the anti-anti-blackness movement through the figure of the Tantie, a respected Caribbean icon and enduring symbol of care, truth, and resistance.

The release said TantiBlak approaches anti-anti-blackness not only as opposition to racism, but as a wider practice of refusal and re-imagining.

“Here, Blackness is not race, but a living condition of becoming – fluid, unfinished and full of possibility for all who engage. It is understood as something shaped by loss, survival, improvisation and the courage to exist beyond the limits imposed by dominant definitions.

“The Tantie – beloved aunt, caregiver, holder – embodies this sensibility. She is not only a protector, but a guide through uncertainty: someone who teaches how to live with contradiction and how to boldly remain whole even when wholeness is under threat.”

Young said, “The idea came from thinking about our collective response to anti-blackness, which we call anti-anti-blackness. We say ‘anti’ twice, so you could possibly hear aunty. Tantie reassures you of your self-worth, she is the one who shows you how to push back without losing yourself and she reminds us of the ways in which we have resisted.”

He said in creating TantiBlak, Vulgar Fraction centres the anti-anti-blackness movement in the Caribbean.

“By making it a mas, a kaiso or using a vernacular for a theory like this which is widely discussed in global spaces, we hope will entice people to think about its presence here and within themselves.”

The release said through the Carnival band, alongside a series of talks and events, TantiBlak will also explore how blackness is imagined as more than identity.

“Here, blackness is not limited to black people, it is a space of experimentation and survival that asks wider questions of power, erasure and how marginalised groups – black, brown, indigenous – learn to move through the cracks of dominant systems.”

It said philosopher and writer Bayo Akomolafe reminds us that “the cracks are where new worlds are rehearsed.” This thinking runs through TantiBlak.

“We’re interested in the crack,” Young said. “Not as weakness, but as intelligence. Tantie knows how to live there. We’ve all heard Tantie stories of her relationships, resilience – how she may have skilfully ‘danced’ to get a better life for herself or her children.”

The release said Vulgar Fraction is known for its independent approach to Carnival, encouraging masqueraders to create their own costumes within a shared conceptual framework.

“TantiBlak is a proletariat, a basic person, the spice woman in the market – we’re celebrating all her ways.”

For TantiBlak, the band will work in layered blacks – black on black, texture on texture – invoking both menace and intimacy.

“I want the band to feel unsettling,” Young said. “But affirming. TantiBlak is also here to help us deal with our own anti-blackness and how that is internalised. It’s an invitation to reflect on sense of self – who defines it, how it shifts, and how you protect it.”

The live talk will feature professional theatre practitioner Camille Quamina, rapso artist and cultural practitioner Omari Ashby and mental health professional Shivonne DuBarry.

The band launch will end in a procession led by moko jumbie king of the band Adrian “Daddy Jumbie” Young, and Egbe Omo Oni Isese drummers. Speakers will be performer and researcher Abeo Jackson and guitarist and culture creative Marva Newton.

A post-Carnival TantiBlack live talk will be held in February on a date to be announced, featuring Prof Kevin Adonis Brown.