The West Indian Parade in Brooklyn, NY marks the official end of summer in New York City and this year was by far the most violent anyone can remember….so disappointed because some of us actually look forward to representing our culture and celebrating unity through food, dance, music, and more …read a brief background and what really went on di parkway! WOY!

The colors of the Caribbean nations were on display in Brooklyn Monday as tens of thousands of revelers were movin’ & shakin’ to the beat of the West Indian Day Parade.

Humid weather and an occasional thunder shower did little to muffle the steel drums, staccato whistles, horns and dancing feet of the most festive of New York festivities.

Mayor Bloomberg marched the Eastern Parkway route, waving to cheering spectators and ignoring the boos of others. Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz tried to keep rhythm with the soca and calypso sounds as he rode a float with reggae music legend Mighty Sparrow.

Along the 2-mile parade route, vendors hawked jerk chicken, red beans and rice, and bandanas and flags of West Indian nations from Haiti, Jamaica, Dominica, Barbados, Bahamas,  Turks and Caicos, Trinidad and Tobago and more!!

My personal observations:

WAS THIS TRINI & JAMAICAN DAY? #justayin ….my country (Haiti) was not represented at all…guess most of yall were busy asleep or went on vacay this year!!!

There were no Haitian floats or overal general radio station floats…I did hear a rumor that they were going to cut down on it this year, but damn…I saw a total of maybe 5 floats!!!

The costumes (for my band Ramajay Dream Catchers) were a straight train wreck and could have been constructed better!  The organization of the distribution of the costumes were poorly executed!

Behavior exhibited by both young black/caribbean men and women were incomprehensible and their really needs to be a sit down and intervention with family on HOME TRAINING!  This is why violence escalated the way it did on the parkway and why we are denied a lot of the pleasures in life (something as simple as a parade) that we want!  We (and I don’t want them to represent me, but we are all looked at as “one” under that microscope) don’t know how to ACT!

Here are some pictures from how my day went! It wasn’t entirely bad!  I represented for my culture/country (HAITI!!! Sak ap fet man!) and for the Ramajay band/Dream Catchers section!  Big huge love and shouts to Nicky Martin, owner and founder of, Art Makeup Pros (AMP’d) on the extraordinary and fabulous makeup artistry on my face!  I received endless compliments and felt absolutely glamorous!  You can see what I mean below:

My Costume!

Nicky Martin, my Makeup Artist of Art Makeup Pros (get AMP’d everybody!) She’s beyond awesome!

My Makeup!  The Finished product!!

More pics inside, plus the deets on the violence that erupted at this year’s West Indian Day Parade:

It was one of the most gun violent Labor Day weekends in New York City’s history. There were a total of 48 gunshot victims, including eight fatalities, according to NYPD officials.

The West Indian Parade in Brooklyn, NY marks the official end of summer in New York City and this year was by far the most violent anyone can remember.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg was livid, while a gunman fired into the air only blocks from where he had just begun marching.

According to witnesses:

“The shooter shouted something, then ‘boom!’ Everyone ducked,” said a witness, Marlene Anthony, adding that the young thug was standing at Rockaway Parkway and Clarkson Avenue – just blocks from the parade staging area. “It was a bad mix of alcohol, ignorance and a fool with a gun who tries to ruin the fun of the parade.”

The gunman, Devon Stevens, 25, jumped into a livery cab, but went only a couple blocks before hopping out on East 94th Street at Winthrop Street, where he ditched the gun as cops gave chase, authorities said.

SOURCE: NYPOST

The violence didn’t stop there, a Brooklyn mother was caught in crossfire alnog with two NYPD officers after the parade had ended.

A wild shootout between cops and a gunman on a Brooklyn street last night left two people dead — including a mother caught in the crossfire as she sat on her stoop with her daughter.

The bullets began flying at 9 p.m., on Park Place in Crown Heights five hours after the end of the Caribbean Parade, which had passed four blocks away.

The violence was set off when Randy Johnson and Leroy Webster got into a post-parade brawl inside 637 Park Place, officials said.

“There was an argument and somebody came back and started shooting,” said a witness Shareem Braxton.

I was discussing this in depth on my facebook page and all of the reactions were much of the same…they will end up cancelling next year’s West Indian Day parade because of the unnecessary violence!  Why must we as a people/culture/community act like this with something that has so much more meaning than what others think it is portrayed through the media? 

What did you think of this year’s West Indian Day Parade?

Did you participate?  Were you caught up in the malay of bullets and tomfoolery?

Should next year’s West Indian Day parade really be cancelled?

How do we as a community address this kind of issue once again?

Your thoughts are needed and appreciated!  Let’s stop the violence together and keep the longest running parade in Brooklyn’s history alive for our Caribbean community!