NEW YORK (AP) – One of the largest U.S. celebrations of Caribbean culture, a colorful and joyful spectacle featuring thousands of revelers, musicians, dancers and costumed troupes, was held Monday amid a backdrop of tight security.
The daylong party, featuring a morning festival called J’ouvert and an afternoon Caribbean Carnival parade, brought out smiling throngs, bouncing to the steel-drum beat of Brooklyn’s melting-pot Labor Day tradition.
“I’m Guyanese, Trini, Panamanian, Puerto Rican and Jamaican,” reveler Imani Woods told WCBS, expressing enthusiasm for a day of dancing and good food.
The day’s curtain-opener, J’ouvert, which combines the French words “jour” and “ouvert” and means daybreak, has been held for decades in the pre-dawn darkness, but there was serious talk of canceling the party this year.
Shootings near the march route have long been a concern. In 2015, an aide to Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo was killed by a stray bullet. Last year, 17-year-old Tyreke Borel was shot and killed and a 72-year-old woman was grazed in the arm. Soon after, a 22-year-old woman, Tiarah Poyau, was shot in the head just a block away and died.