Today was the first day of a new project: we are creating our own carnival characters by inventing our own superheroes. Master drummer Catelus “Ton Ton” Laguerre accompanied 17 young artists from Miami Bridge, 4 staff members, Dr. Landeros, 9 Barry students, and 1 community volunteer.

We began as always with the energy name game, getting to know each other and laughing as we passed imaginary balls around the room. Next we created an accumulated choreography dance that went like this (we did each move for 4 counts):
elbow jab right
elbow jab left
contract chests
wag a finger while stepping right
turning in circle while contracting chest and thrusting arms forward
2 hip lifts right while raising right hand
2 hip lifts left while raising left hand
hip circles
Ghananian stomp
Dab + rolling home
Finale: James did handstand and D. did worm

Next we sat in groups and invented Superheros. These superheroes will be the characters in our Carnival Procession on April 14. Here are some of the superheroes the group came up with:

Lil’ Goon: Offers financial stability to those who call her name
Pink Fire Heels: Rescues children from abuse and neglect
Mindflow: Changes the mind of people who are thinking of killing themselves
Queen Fool: Reads minds and stops people from wrongdoing
Trapo/a: Teleports through time and saves mom from drug abuse
SuperX: Saves his brothers from gangbanging
Lifesaver: saves people from fires
King ZLMP III: uses wisdom, kindness, and respect to save people from harms way
MK Ultra: uses a magic hoodie to save dogs from the street and animal control
Super Sneaker: creeps into groups and saves people from sticky situations
Tiny Dino Chino: uses invisibility to save people in trouble. His motto is: I do this every day.
Anti-Hero: reads minds of people, dogs,and cats to rescue them from evil doers
GMoney: Rescues himself from the police by running
Dman: Flies in circles to create whirlpool then swoops in to rescue a friend surrounded by sharks.
Eyebrow Slicer: Grabs good people from the clutches of bad people and flies away from them