Labor Day Carnival

A woman in an elaborate costume marches towards the end of the parade route, September 1, 2008.

The Labor Day Parade (or West Indian Carnival), is an annual celebration held on American Labor Day (the first Monday in September), in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, New York.

The main event of the parade is the West Indian-American Day Parade, which attracts between one and three million participators. The spectators and participators watch and follow the parade on its route along Eastern Parkway. Popular islands from the Caribbean which celebrate the parade include , Trinidad and Tobago, Haiti, Barbados, saint Lucia and Grenada.

History

Start in Harlem

Woman in costume in the 2009 New York City parade.

Ms. Jessie Waddell and some of her West Indian friends started the Carnival in Harlem in the 1920s by staging costume parties in large enclosed places like the Savoy, Renaissance and Audubon Ballrooms due to the cold wintry weather of February. This is the usual time for the pre-Lenten celebrations held in most countries around the world. However, because of the very nature of Carnival, and the need to parade in costume to music, indoor confinement did not work well.

The earliest known Carnival street parade was held on September 1, 1947. The Trinidad Carnival Pageant Committee was the founding force behind the parade, which was held in Harlem. The parade route was along Seventh Avenue, starting at 110th St.

The first Carnival Queen was Miss Dorothy Godfrey. The Committee raised money to finance the parade. They sold advertisement space and boosters, that were printed in a Souvenir Journal for West Indies Day, a booklet which is a memento of that first parade. Mrs. Jessie Waddell Compton is presented in the journal as the person "whose inspiration and enterprise" was owed to the formation of this committee. The committee consisted of Mrs. Waddell Compton-Chairman; Ivan H. Daniel-Vice Chairman; Conrad Matthews-Treasurer; Roy Huggins-Secretary; and Robert J. Welsh-Assistant Secretary. Each member of the committee contributed in helping to organize the parade. The after-parade party, which the Trinidad Carnival Pageant Committee held at the Golden Gate Ballroom (located at 142nd St. and Lenox Ave), was arranged by James M. Green, another figure who helped make the first Carnival Parade in Harlem successful.

Move to Crown Heights

The permit for the Harlem parade was revoked in 1964. Five years later, a committee headed by Carlos Lezama, which eventually became the West Indian-American Day Carnival Association, obtained approval for the parade to be established on Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, where it remains today.§==In popular culture== Many Calypso and Soca songs from Trinidad make reference to Labour Day Carnival, including "Gunplay on the Eastern Parkway" by Calypso Rose, "Melee (on the Eastern Parkway)" by Maestro, "Labour Day in Brooklyn" by the Mighty Sparrow. Jay-Z mentions the Labor Day Carnival on his hit song Empire State of Mind when he says "3 dice Cee-lo, 3 card monte, Labor Day Parade, rest in peace Bob Marley".

Also the powerful Haitian kompa carnival music that attracts every year the biggest crowd on the parkway should also be credited as an important element of the West Indian day parade since day one. Many live meringue bands and stars such as Tabou Combo, Sweet Miky, T-Vice, Jakout, Wyclef...have participated throughout the years in the parade.

Criticism of the parade

Critics of the parade contend that high consumption of alcohol in tandem with the soca, calypso, reggae and compas music at the parade incites violence among its participators. Likewise, the excessive bass volume presented is blamed to have caused numerous eardrum ruptures—particularly in the 2008 parade festivities.^{[citation needed]}

Furthur critique involves numerous noise complaints to New York City's 3-1-1 service regarding sporadic marches beginning at midnight of the night prior to the parade. On 5 September 2011, during the West Indian Day Parade in Brooklyn, New York City councilman Jumaane Williams along with a few others were arrested for walking along a closed-off sidewalk, after stating he had received permission to do so from other officers.

Violence

In 2003, a man was fatally shot and another was stabbed in the neck. In 2005, one man was shot and killed along the parade route. In 2006, one man was shot and another was stabbed. By the 2007 parade, there was only one report of violence, when a man was shot twice in the leg. In 2011 pre-dawn marches took a violent turn with the murder of one person, five instances of gunshot victims and three instances of stabbings coupled with sporadic shooting at crowds of people. Following the 2011 parade, Yolanda Lezama-Clark, The President of the West Indian American Day Carnival Association (WIADCA) and other New York City officials condemned the one or two incidents that took place at the parade.

See also

• Caribbean Carnival
• Crown Heights, Brooklyn
• Eastern Parkway
• J'ouvert
• Scotiabank Caribbean Carnival Toronto

Further reading

• Manuel, Peter (1995). Caribbean Currents: Caribbean Music from Rumba to Reggae. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. ISBN 1-56639-338-8. 

External links

• "West Indian-American Day Carnival Association" (WIADCA) official website
• "Maps & Neighborhoods - Brooklyn" from the official "NYC & Company" website
• "Brooklyn NY Festivals, Fairs & Events: September" from the official "Brooklyn Tourism and Visitors Center" website