West Indian Carnival 2003: one of U.S's biggest parades attracts millions to Brooklyn

Ebony, Sept, 2003 by Margaret Williams

IT'S the best-kept secret in New York City and one of the biggest secrets in the U.S.A. Every Labor Day, for the last 33 years, millions of marchers explode in a kaleidoscope of color and movement that sweeps down Brooklyn's Eastern Parkway in a parade-festival-celebration that is the largest carnival outside Brazil and one of the biggest parades in the United States. Most of the celebrants in the West Indian American Day Carnival are West Indians or descendants of West Indians, but on Labor Day in Brooklyn almost everyone, including Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, is an Islander. Among the celebrants last year were Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was one of the a grand marshals.

The Carnival, which attracts millions of people and is supported by community leaders and major corporations, is scheduled for Monday, September 1, with political leaders like Congressman Charles Rangel and corporate leaders like healthfirst's James Boothe and Schieffelin & Somerset's John Esposito serving as grand marshals.

Introduced in Harlem in 1947, the West Indian Day carnival idea shifted with the shifting New York population, moving to Brooklyn's Atlantic Avenue in 1965 and to Eastern Parkway in 1970. Since then, the carnival has grown steadily and has attracted as many as 3.5 million onlookers. Although Brooklyn is the center of the organizing and staging forces, support comes from all boroughs of New York City, which is home to the largest population of West Indians in the United States, nearly 600,000, half of whom live in Brooklyn.

The Carnival is a joyous opportunity for West Indians and West Indian descendants from America and the islands to come together to celebrate West Indian culture. Although some say the carnival is heavily skewed toward Trinidadians, the third largest West Indian group in the city, behind the Jamaicans and Haitians, "it is not just one island that's celebrating," says Yolanda Lezama Clark, who in 2001 succeeded her father, Carlos Lezama, as president of the organizing group, the West Indian American Day Carnival Association. Flags from all West Indian islands and some non-West Indian countries like Panama and Belize proudly wave on the Parkway during the Carnival. The Carnival started in Trinidad, and there is a distinct Trinidadian flavor to the proceedings, from the "mas" or costume bands to the steel drums and calypso music.

The scene on Eastern Parkway on Labor Day is a pulsing, rhythmic panorama of bright colors and loud music and the spicy aroma of West Indian food. Everybody is in constant motion from the parade revelers in the middle of the Parkway to bystanders dancing to the beat of the steel drums. From 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Eastern Parkway is transformed into a huge street party, stretching over 2 miles from start to finish.

Although the Carnival is hailed all over the world, and although it contributes an estimated $200 million to the New York economy, it does not, many say, receive the same respect as the St. Patrick's Day Parade and the Puerto Rican Day Parade, which march up Fifth Avenue and are, unlike the West Indian parade, broadcast live on local TV. Regardless of these and other problems, parade supporter Curtis Stephen says, "The show will go on, the strength of the people will go on--West Indian culture is not a fad."

The sponsors of the carnival are forging ahead with plans to expand the Carnival beyond Labor Day. As part of its ongoing goal to "promote the culture on a year-round basis," the association has sponsored voter registration drives, health fairs, costume designs classes and cultural programs.

Success has created some problems. The number of costume bands, for example, continues to dwindle, and the number of T-shirt bands continues to increase. Trinidad is the only major island represented on the Parkway with traditional "mas" bands, each of which can contain several thousand people. Other islands, including Jamaica and Haiti, are represented by "T-shirt" bands, composed of participants wearing shirts emblazoned with the name of the island or a sponsoring business. "This year," President Lezama Clark says, "one of the things we're encouraging is for more bands to come out in costume instead of T-shirts. We want to provide more costumes to add to the color and pageantry that Carnival is supposed to be."

The president and other organizers say the parade is evolving, showing different facets of the West Indian personality, and that it provides a beacon of hope and light for West Indians and non-West Indians. "It's like having to go to Mecca," she says. "It's like a pilgrimage, you feel that you have to be there or you're missing out."