Between Christmas Day and New year’s Eve, we had a mini-Carnival Arts session on Playing Royal. West African traditions of masquerade often include a celebration of kings and queens. We spent an hour each day exploring and writing about the qualities that make each one of us royal, sang a Haitian carnival song for the Queen of the Kongo, and made crowns from file folders covered with cloth, and decorated with piping, jewels, feathers, and beads. On December 30, we wore our crowns along with masks, hats, and headdresses from earlier workshops (and two favorite headdresses from Trini carnival) and paraded around the Miami Bridge house in a West African tradition meant to roll away bad luck. Then we toasted to our good luck in the new year with sparkling cider, and mini-cupcakes. Workshop led by Celeste Fraser Delgado with help from Monica Uszerowicz.