It may appear to be incorrect spelling, but that’s how Glen A. Fahie Turnbull, the co-band leader and president of the Brooklyn-based D’Midas International New York, wants this year’s Labor Day production, “D’Past, D’Present and D’Future,” to be spelled.
“Because it’s from the band, D’Midas, everything has to tie in,” said Fahie Turnbull, a Tortola, British Virgin Islands native, in a Caribbean Life interview at the mas camp on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn.
“The costume from the past is ‘Egypt’, ‘Glitz and Glamor’ is the present, and ‘Splendora’ is for the future,” he added.
Fahie Turnbull – who has been participating in carnival in the Big Apple for almost three decades and who is an executive member of the New York Band Leaders Association — said the medium-sized band will also feature this year two junior queens, one junior king and three children characters.
“The children’s registration is picking up,” he said. “We’ll be ready for Labor Day.”
They (carnival lovers) can expect to see a band that’s portraying exactly what the theme is,” he added. “So, you’ll see something from the past, the present and the future.”
Fahie Turnbull said the Trinidadian couple, Horace and Cheryl Johnson, co-band leaders, are assisting with the production.
“We don’t’ come out unless we come out to win,” Fahie Turnbull said. “We don’t prepare mas to come last.”
Cheryl’s sister, Debra Holder, who was born in Harlem to Trinidadian parents, trekked from Linden, NJ, bringing along her two daughters, Jenii and Kai Davidson, as well as friend Essence Brown, to model costumes.
Essence said she will be playing with D’Midas International for the very first time.
“I’m nervous and excited, because I never did it before” said Essence, adding, however, that she looks forward to “having fun and showing the costumes.”
Jenni said she has been playing mas since she was two years old.
“I expect to have fun,” said Jenni, who was born in Brooklyn. “I’m looking forward to it.”
Her younger sister, Kai who captured the Junior Queen in 2019, with “Queen Nazinga,” expects to repeat the feat.
“I expect to win, to be queen again this year,” Kai said.
Masqueraders will sway to the rhythms of Trinidadian DJ Excellent.
D’Midas International Mas Camp is located at 1619 Nostrand Ave., between Tilden Avenue and Beverly Road, in Brooklyn.
Fahie Turnbull can be reached at (718)-809-1017 and Cheryl Johnson at (718) 462-6137.
