Hazra Ali, the Trinidad and Tobago-born chair of Mayor Eric Adams’ Caribbean Advisory Council, Friday evening spearheaded what has been described as a Mas Camp/Panyard Stakeholder’s tour in Brooklyn, as mas camps and steel bands prepare for the much-anticipated West Indian-American Day Carnival Week.
Ali – who last week was presented with a US Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award, by President Joe Biden, for her outstanding community work – told Caribbean Life that the tour, organized in partnership with the New York Police Department (NYPD) Patrol Borough Office, comprised over 50 participants.
They included the Consuls General of Trinidad and Tobago and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Andre Laveau and Rondy “Luta” McIntosh, respectively; Deputy Brooklyn Borough President the Rev. Kim Council; and Council Members Monique Chandler-Waterman and Mercedes Narcisse, among other elected officials.
Other were: Brooklyn Supreme Court Justices Trinidadian Wavny Toussaint and Grenadian Inga O’Neil; West Indian-American Day Carnival Association (WIADCA) executives – Chair Guyanese Michelle Gibbs, former Chair Trinidadian Angela Sealy and her compatriot Director Rhea Smith; members of City Government; and a wide range of community leaders from the New York Caribbean Diaspora.
“The hope is to expose the stakeholders to a bit of the behind-the-scenes preparation that occurs prior to the Labor Dy Parade, which is by far one of the city’s largest single economic boosters, bringing in upwards of US$300 million annually,” Ali said.
She said Justice Toussaint “was able to leave the young pan players of Metro Steel with some very inspiring words, as she encouraged them to keep up the A grades in school and become the next generation of professionals in the city.”
Earlier on tour, Toussaint told a brief reception at Sesame Flyers, on Church Avenue in Brooklyn, that she was “here to support.”
On the heels of the United Nations designating Aug. 11 World Steelpan Day, Laveau “lauded the band leaders and the players for keep the craft alive outside of Trinidad [and Tobago], which is considered the birthplace and, indeed, the cradle of the steelpan,” according to Ali.
“This is something to celebrate,” said Laveau at the Sesame Flyers’ reception. “Long live steel band and long live the organization that promotes it!”
Chandler-Waterman, who represents the 58th Assembly District in Brooklyn, said 90 percent of the district in Caribbean-American.
“Sesame Flyers has always been a very good friend,” she told the brief reception at that mas camp. “This is history right here.”
McIntosh, also a soca artiste, told the reception: “Our population here is large enough that we must make an impact.
“Please teach the youth these morals,” he added. “Let’s stick together.”
Ali said the partnership with NYPD was for “the newly-promoted and young officers to see the cultures and meet the leaders that are responsible for the mas camp and pan yards.”
Eddy Charles, a lead vocalist with the Trinidadian band Traffic, sang acapella, at Sesame Flyers, the band’s 1995 hit “J’Ouvert Morning.”
Ali hoped that the tour would be “a catalyst for many conversations with the state and city to assist with financial grants for the mas and steel pan community.
“The steel bands and the mas camps are the custodians of our Caribbean culture, and they have been crying out for assistance for way too long,” she said.
“I was appointed on the Mayor’s Caribbean Advisory Council, and I plan to use this platform to make a difference for our culture,” Ali added.
