J’Ouvert organizers pay virtual
tribute to Caribbean culture
Yvette Rennie, president of J’Ouvert City International, urged revelers to
celebrate J’Ouvert online this year, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. She
is pictured here at a past celebration. Photo courtesy of Yvette Rennie
Caribbean Life, Sept. 11-17, 2020 3
By Nelson A. King
Police on Tuesday, Sept. 8 charged
a 15-year-old boy in the shooting of a
6-year-old child, his mother and three
others during an unofficial Caribbean
J’Ouvert celebration in Brooklyn on
Labor Day Monday.
Police have charged Donovan Bailey
of Brooklyn for the shooting and for
carrying a Glock pistol. Brooklyn District
Attorney Eric Gonzalez said Bailey
would also be charged as an adult.
Police said they charged another
man, Kervins Noel, 21, of Queens, for
carrying a loaded handgun near the
scene of the shooting in the Crown
Heights section of Brooklyn. Noel was
charged with criminal possession of a
weapon, police said.
Police said the 6-year-old, his mother
and the three men were shot in the
feet or legs. According to authorities, a
barrage of gunshots were fired shortly
before 3 a.m. on Monday, at the intersection
of Nostrand Avenue and Crown
Street, in Crown Heights.
Police said the incident occurred
near a massive outdoor gathering of
people celebrating J’Ouvert.
In view of the COVID-19 pandemic,
the Brooklyn-based J’Ouvert City
International, Inc., organizers of the
annual celebrations, cancelled all
street celebrations this year, planning
a virtual celebration instead on
Monday.
But still, police said many took to
the streets of Brooklyn for J’Ouvert
on Labor Day, a public holiday in
America, despite official warnings to
stay away and the ubiquitous presence
of police.
The child’s mother, 47-year-old
Patricia Brathwaite, said she had just
exited a cab and was heading home
“when a group of people were walking
down the block, and I was waiting for
them to pass, and somebody started to
shoot,” she told reporters.
Police said the shooting appeared
to be gang-related and that Bailey
was also a suspect in a drive-by shooting
last year in Flatbush that left a
33-year-old man dead.
On Tuesday, Haitian American New
York City Council Member Farah N.
Louis, who represents the predominantly
Caribbean 45th Council District
in Central Brooklyn, strongly
denounced Monday’s shootings.
“It is outrageous that innocent
bystanders, even children, are shouldering
the burden and the scars for
the reckless behavior of others,” she
told Caribbean Life. “I am extending
my prayers for a speedy recovery to the
victims of this weekend’s shootings,
including a six-year-old boy and his
mother,” she added.
By Nelson A. King
In view of the coronavirus (COVID
19) pandemic, the Brooklynbased
J’Ouvert City International,
Inc., organizers of the annual, predawn
West Indian American J’Ouvert
celebration on Labor Day Monday,
agreed not to host the grand event
this year.
Instead, the 36-year-old group on
Monday staged a virtual tribute to
essential workers, steelpan icons and
Caribbean culture.
“Unfortunately, the world is battling
a pandemic, and there are
guidelines,” said Trinidadian Yvette
Rennie, president of the organizing
group. “J’Ouvert City International,
Inc. is following those guidelines.
We will not be celebrating J’Ouvert
on the streets or any other place in
Brooklyn.
“Our J’Ouvert will be virtual in
honor of the essential/frontline workers,
Black Lives Matter and our cultural
icons who passed,” she added.
Rennie said the essential frontline
workers “have worked tirelessly at
the forefront of this battle with our
faceless enemy called coronavirus.
We have seen them cry, we bear witness
to the battle scars of the mask
lines on their faces; and, yet, they
have not given up.”
“We have also lost cultural stalwarts,
who were victims of the virus,”
she added, stating that the honorees
were among “the young leaders currently
engaged in the national protest
movement against the scourge
of systemic racism and police brutality
in this country.”
Rennie said J’Ouvert City International,
Inc. “proudly” honored “these
heroes” in recognition and appreciation
of their “outstanding, unselfish
diligent effort to our community.”
Honorees included 15 essential
workers drawn from a pool of nurses,
aides, homeless shelter advocates,
transit workers and New York City
Mayor’s Crisis Management System.
Rennie said 2019 J’Ouvert participants
were also be honored and
rewarded.
Categories included: Fancy and Old
Masquerade bands; Individual Male
and Female Masquerade; Steelband,
Calypso and Bomb tunes; Rhythm
Groups; and Flag Waver.
In addition, Rennie said special
honor was given to Martin “Dougie”
Douglas, Hansel “Hanny” Leon and
Oscar Williams – three Trinidadian
“icons of the J’Ouvert Steelband
movement, who we sadly lost to the
coronavirus” – as well as Trinidadian
Neville Jules, “one of the notable
pioneers and innovators in the steelpan
community,” who died in early
February.
The J’Ouvert City International,
Inc. head said 13 local elected officials,
as well as the New York City
Police Commissioner, were invited
to hand out citations and proclamations.
The staging area for Monday’s
event, which took place from 10
am to noon, was the parameter in
front the United States Post office on
Empire Boulevard between Nostrand
and Rogers avenues in Brooklyn,
which is part of the usual J’Ouvert
morning parade route.
“Our Caribbean cultural traditions
are strong, and our J’Ouvert City
International brand has been one of
its most vibrant media of expression
in Brooklyn, New York for the past
36 years,” Rennie said. “For this year,
COVID-19 may have silenced our street
music, but it cannot stop the music in
the hearts of our steelband and masquerade
proponents. direction against
this world-wide health crisis.”
Teen charged
with shooting
during unofficial
J’Ouvert party