A day for the daddies!
Dozens of dads and children celebrated fatherhood at a Father’s Day jazz brunch in Marine Park on June 18. Pops and their tots kept each other company at the Marine Park Golf Course for a day of food, dance, and music by trumpeter Etienne Charles and Pan Fusion. The sounds kept guests on their toes, and was even a favorite for the kids, said one dad who came with his young daughter who
“She definitely liked the music — she kept on dancing,” said Angelo Moultair, who spent the evening with his five-year-old Kailani. “She loved everything — the food, especially the macaroni, and just hanging out with me.”
Invited by a friend to the event, it turned out to be a much more enjoyable that he imagined and even got to relive his music-playing memories, added Moultair.
“I used to play the trumpet and to have a trumpeter there was special because he played some great music — he can really play the trumpet,” he said. “I was invited and I didn’t know what to expect but it exceeded my expectations.”
The jazz brunch was organized by the Carlos Lezama Archives and Caribbean Cultural Center, a Brooklyn-based organization named after Carlos Lezama, the founder of the West Indian American Day Parade. The center aims at celebrating Caribbean music and culture in the city.
Other dads said they were just happy to enjoy their day among friends and families, said Queens father Gary Faustin.
“I saw people I didn’t see in a long time and did some catching up,” said the father of two. “My entire family was in town and it was really a good time to spend with family.”
And some fathers were honored not only for their parenting, but for their community work. Organizers presented Carl Fanfair, who runs the Ile Osa Kanran Yoruba Cultural and Spiritual Temple with his wife, with an award for his work assisting the needy. He said the acknowledgment was humbling and a reminder that good deeds never go unrecognized.
“It felt great to be honored for the things that I’m doing,” said Fanfair. “Sometimes I think we take for granted what we have accomplished and what’s being done — mostly because it’s a natural thing I’m doing and doesn’t look or seem like much to me, but to hear people bring it up and say it to me, means that someone is always watching.”
The dad to three boys and a girl did not attend with his kids, but said he wished they were there to see him being honored. Fanfair said that he did enjoy the day, particularly the music with his wife Camille.
“The music was very soothing and relaxing to me,” he said.
