West Indian Day Parade Revelers Celebrate Caribbean Pride With Music, Dancing

by Gabriele Holtermann and Lloyd Mitchell, Brooklyn Paper

Caribbean pride was on full display as hundreds of thousands of revelers lined Eastern Parkway on September 1 for the 58th annual West Indian Day Parade. Held under the theme “Vive Le Carnivale,” or “Long Live Carnival,” the celebration featured floats, dancers, marching bands, and the customary parade of politicians — among them, Governor Kathy Hochul and mayoral candidates Eric Adams, Zohran Mamdani, Andrew Cuomo, and Curtis Sliwa.

At the traditional West Indian Day Carnival Association Breakfast before the parade, Hochul said her administration would continue to “embrace the incredible culture and the customs and the cuisine of the Caribbean,” despite threats from the Trump administration.

“I know in light of what has been happening under the new administration in Washington, there’s a lot of fear and anxiety. I’m here to tell you that today we’ll celebrate, tomorrow we’ll get back up and fight like hell and say you’re not going to separate our families, our children,” Hochul said. “I’m going to continue focusing on creating trade relationships, sending more teams from Empire State Development to the islands to help give them catalysts of dollars and resources to be successful.”

The parade, which started at Utica Avenue in Crown Heights and ended at Grand Army Plaza in Prospect Heights, marked the grand finale of New York Carnival festivities hosted by the West Indian-American Day Carnival Association. The celebrations began August 28 and highlighted Caribbean culture, arts, food, history, and traditions.

“The vibes are high, people are dancing in the street, I can’t tell if the trucks are causing the vibrations but this is the place to be every Labor Day,” said Canarsie resident Kim Sullivan.

New York City’s largest cultural celebration dates back to the 1930s, when Jessie Wardell and her friends started Carnival in Harlem. It was later brought to Brooklyn by Trinidadian Rufus Goring, where the city hosts the largest West Indian immigrant population in the United States.

Alberta Hoskins of Kalamazoo, Michigan, attended the parade for the first time and said she “tremendously” enjoyed the colorful costumes and the booming sounds of soca, calypso, compas, and reggae along the Parkway.

“You don’t even have to be from an island,” Hoskins told Brooklyn Paper. “The energy makes you feel like you belong to one of the islands.”

Janet Coleman displayed her Grenadian pride, wearing a shirt in the island’s colors, and said she attends the parade every year because it reminds her of home, where she always participated in the festivities.

“Every year it seems like it gets bigger and greater,” Coleman said. “I love the bands, the costume, you know, it’s just a fun time, you know what I mean.”

Central Brooklyn has a large Caribbean-American community, and locals said the day was a celebration of their shared heritage and culture.

“This is a day our cultures blend together and come together for our great islands,” said Bed Stuy resident Roger Strickland.

Natsha Campbell of Flatbush added, “This about our culture, it is a beautiful day for our culture, I look forward to it every year.”

Despite the beefed-up NYPD security along the two-mile parade route, the vibrant party once again saw its share of violence. According to the NYPD, seven people were shot in four separate incidents, and one person was slashed on Monday evening shortly after the parade wrapped up.

The first shooting occurred around 5:30 p.m. on Eastern Parkway between Schenectady and Utica avenues, where a woman was grazed by a bullet and a man was shot in the leg.

The second incident happened near Eastern Parkway and Classon Avenue around 6:45 p.m., leaving one person shot in the shoulder and another in the chest.

At about 6:55 p.m., two more people were injured in a shooting near Nostrand and Sterling avenues, including a man shot in the neck and leg and another in the ankle. The NYPD has taken a person of interest into custody in connection with this case, though no charges have been announced. Another individual was slashed near Eastern Parkway and Nostrand Avenue.

Editor’s note: A version of this story originally ran in Brooklyn Paper. Click here to see the original story.

Related Stories

• Costumed Revelers Celebrate Caribbean Culture at the West Indian Day Parade
• The Veteran Costume Designers That Define Brooklyn J’ouvert
• Celebration and Dance Fill Crown Heights Streets for Return of West Indian Day Parade

Email tips@brownstoner.com with further comments, questions or tips. Follow Brownstoner on X and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.