Savage (theatre of the streets) is a non-profit group of costume designers and makers of elaborate floats for the biggest outdoor festival in New York City and the world, the West Indian/American Labor Day Carnival Parade. Last year, over four million people came out on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn to witness this fabulous extravaganza. The parade takes on a 'Mardi Gras' style, with revelers in costumes parading and dancing in the streets to Caribbean rhythms.

Our leaders have been in the Carnival costume band industry for over 25 years, with origins in Trinidad and Tobago, where Carnival is the national culture. Formed ten years ago in Brooklyn, we are affiliated with WIADCA the Labor Day organization headed by Mr. Carlos Lezama. We are a member of NY Mas and Steel-Pan Association and have had several years of success in bringing costumed bands on Eastern Parkway.

This year promises to be even more exciting because of the television coverage. Pictures of our carnival costumes have appeared on the front pages of major Caribbean newspapers and in the New York Daily News. We have appeared on national television five times and our 'mas studio' where we produce our costumes, was profiled on Fox 5 TV in New York on Labor Day 1995. Last year we appeared at Gracie Mansion and three times on WNBC Channel 4 to promote the festival. Kids from Savage Children Costume Band saw themselves on the educational hit television show 'Sesame Street' in December of 1995. The carnival is open to the public and everyone is welcome to join and be a part of Savage (theatre of the streets) and the celebrations.

Community activities

For the past eight years Savage (theater of the streets) 'mas studio' has been a vital part of Brooklyn's Caribbean community providing social and cultural direction; such as, mas/costume making, steel pan music and recreational activities for our youth.
Our mas camp becomes a 'part time' community center, with information about community events, voter registration and citizenship information posted, and other information helpful to our youth.
We developed a summer youth program called "Off the Street" in which we encourage the young people to come to the mas camp and learn job skills and attitude adjustment. We introduce them to hard work and responsibility. This helps keep them off the streets and hopefully out of trouble. Our cultural activities have always provided a positive light to our youth, many of whom felt lost in the darkness generated by drugs, crime and prejudice. These activities at the 'mas studio' have motivated and given the youth of the community a purpose, provided an alternate outlet for them to come and learn the ingenious intricate and imaginative craft called 'making mas or making costumes.'
The art of making mas helps discipline inner city youths in the field of planning, budgeting, research, production, economics and tolerance. In the summer of 1993 we played host to a group of five hundred children from the "Beacon Project," a community day-care center out of Medgar Evers College. They were on WPIX Channel 11 in New York on the "Best Talk In Town" talking about the learning experience and the fun they had all summer at the mas camp. The highlight of these activities has been the Children Costume Carnival at the Brooklyn Museum on Labor Day Saturday where the kids come out in costumes and makeup to 'play mas' and 'jump up' on stage.