AIS | CARNIVAL!

Inspired by carnival, the annual cultural celebration, and “My People”, a poem by Langston Hughes, MoCADA teaching artists and Artists in Schools students explored how carnival is celebrated across the African Diaspora around the world through music, painting, fashion/costuming, and performance.

MoCADA Teaching Artists Tai Lotson, Camille Wyatt, and  Xayvier Haughton led students from three Brooklyn Public schools — PS 316 Elijah G. Stroud International Baccalaureate Elementary School, PS 375 Jackie Robinson School, and MS 267 Math, Science and Technology — across a variety of different artistic mediums while also investigating how nature and land (homeland, farming, and the harvest) connect people to others with shared values as a central theme during carnival celebrations.

Photos from the 15 week after-school program in 2024-2025.

Many thanks to School Coordinators, Aides, Teachers, and Administration, including:

PS 316 Elijah G. Stroud International Baccalaureate Elementary School 

Principal Olga Maluf, Assistant Prinicipal Karen Weekes, Assistant Prinicipal Michael Pizzingrillo, Parent Coordinator Karen Jenkins

PS 375 Jackie Robinson School 

Principal Mecca Geters, Community Liaison Julieth Kennedy Yearwood, and Parent Coordinator Shatema Dockery

MS 267 Math, Science and Technology

Principal Patricia King and Parent Coordinator Kirieff Pettway

And many, many thanks to the patience and expertise of MoCADA’s education staff.

Tai Lotson (Teaching Artist; painting, mixed media, traditional crafts)  immerses herself in art through everyday experiences, seeing the world through the lens of color and texture. Growing up, she spent countless hours watching her grandmother paint in her home studio, an experience that profoundly shaped her creative expression. This deep connection to painting has given her a unique appreciation for artistic techniques, allowing her to guide others in their own creative journeys.

As an art teacher, she brings a deeply personal and immersive approach to her work, inspiring students through hands-on techniques, storytelling, and music. She also draws from her experience as a yoga meditation and sound healing instructor. incorporating these practices to create a calming and encouraging atmosphere in her classes. By blending creativity with mindfulness, she helps students feel more present, open, and connected to their artistic expression.

Whether through the stroke of a brush, the rhythm of a song, or the power of a story, she helps her students unlock their creativity in the most artful and transformative way.

Xayvier Andre’ Haughton (Teaching Artist; painting techniques, masquerading, masking, history, crafts) is a Jamaican-born visual artist whose work explores Afrikan consciousness, spirituality, and the enduring presence of African cultural legacies within Caribbean identity. Raised in Spanish Town, St. Catherine, Jamaica, Haughton merges traditional and contemporary techniques to create powerful altarpieces and installations that reflect a creolized spiritual and aesthetic language.

Haughton holds an MFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York (2022) and earned his BFA from the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts in Kingston, Jamaica (2019). His work has been recognized and featured in Hyperallergic magazine (March 11, 2017) and in the publication A Brief History of Western Art by Omari Ra.

He has exhibited widely, including at the Jamaica Biennial (2014, 2017), the National Visual Arts Exhibition hosted by the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), and in notable group shows such as Dark Matter at The CAGE Gallery, Spring/Break Art Show (2022), Eri Museum (2022), and the Fowler Kellogg Gallery at Pratt House (2023). In 2023, he was awarded a New York Council for the Arts Grant. His recent residencies include Sculpture Space (2024) and Triangle Arts (2025), where he continues to expand his research into Blackness, ritual, and creolized space through installation and painting.

Xayvier Haughton is currently a visiting professor at the Pratt Institute School of Art in Brooklyn, New York.

Camille Wyatt (Teaching Artist; dance + performance) is a graduate of The New School School, with a concentration in Environmental Systems and Social Justice and a sharp focus on the Fashion industry. Interested in designing spaces for community building and learning. Camille is passionate and dedicates much of her time to community organizing, dance performance and choreography, NYC Parks public program volunteering, visual art installation, and working in children’s theater and opera.

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Made possible thanks to generous gifts from NYC Council Member Crystal Hudson, Council Member Chi Ossé, and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in Partnership with City Council, and the Helen Frankenthaler Foundation:

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