Masquerade Reimagined: Mask-Making Workshop

Why should the Carnival celebrations be limited to just a weekend?

Step into a space of calm and creativity, where we’ll invite you to reconnect with yourself through art, culture, and the healing power of making. This workshop encourages participants to explore the cultural richness of Afro-Caribbean and West African masquerade traditions through a hands-on, textile-based mask-making workshop.

Designed by artist and facilitator Apanaki Temitayo, this trauma-informed session will inspire creative expression, grounding, and reflection through art. Participants will be creating wearable masks using African fabrics and embellishments, accompanied by soothing, joyful Afro-Caribbean music.

Meet the Facilitator

Apanaki Temitayo

Apanaki Temitayo Minerve is a Toronto-based, Trinidadian-born textile artist, art facilitator, and mental health advocate whose mixed-media fabric collages celebrate African diasporic identity and lived resilience. A single mother of three neurodivergent children and a survivor of CPTSD, Apanaki uses her practice to hold space for healing, liberation, and storytelling through art. Her vibrant work has been featured on TVO Kids’ Sunny’s Quest, in The Toronto Star, and major exhibitions across Canada. Through accessible, culturally rooted workshops, she empowers marginalized communities to explore wellness through creativity. She is the founder of Apanaki Designs (APNKI) and a living canvas of ancestral power and artistic defiance.