Julianspromos 2010 Media Archive
2010: Where the Julianspromos Archive Begins
2010 marks the beginning of Julianspromos as a named brand and an important early chapter in its media history.
The platform had roots in Caribbean music promotion and online culture before 2010, but this year captures some of the earliest surviving visual material now preserved in the Julianspromos archive.
From Alison Hinds and Destra Garcia sharing the stage at SOB’s to documenting Sesame Flyers and Ramajay Mas during New York Carnival, the surviving footage and photography show a platform that had not yet developed its later interview and hosted-media format — but was already beginning to preserve Caribbean culture through its own lens.
Featured from 2010
Before the Interviews
The 2010 archive looks different from the years that followed.
There were no regular Julianspromos on-camera interviews yet, no established correspondent format and no formal media assignments of the kind that would begin taking shape in 2011.
Instead, the surviving material captures an earlier stage: cameras at Carnival, photography on Eastern Parkway and live Soca performances being preserved for an online audience.
Those early recordings and photographs became some of the first building blocks of what would eventually grow into a much larger Caribbean media archive.
New York Carnival 2010: Close to Home
New York Carnival was already deeply connected to Julian Hackett’s personal history long before Julianspromos existed. The Sesame Flyers mas camp was located only one block from where he grew up in Brooklyn, and by 2008 Julian had begun doing photography and video work around the band.
During the 2010 West Indian American Day Carnival, Julian and his sister Maria J. Hackett, working under Maria Janine Photography, documented both Sesame Flyers and Ramajay Mas on the road.
The surviving photographs preserve one of the earliest Julianspromos Carnival collections and still carry markings from that period, making them particularly valuable pieces of the brand’s visual history.
The Day Julian Met Vivaa
During Julianspromos’ 2010 Carnival coverage with Ramajay Mas, Julian Hackett met Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson in person for the first time.
At the time it was simply a meeting on the road during Carnival. In the years that followed, Vivaa would become one of the defining on-camera personalities of the early Julianspromos media era, hosting interviews and event coverage as the platform developed its recognizable media identity
From the Julianspromos Archives
2010 represents the beginning of the Julianspromos story as a named brand, but not the beginning of Julian Hackett’s relationship with Caribbean music and Carnival.
Years of online music promotion and involvement around New York Carnival had already come before it. What changes in 2010 is that those interests were beginning to converge under Julianspromos.
The surviving archive is small compared with later years, but what remains is revealing. Alison Hinds and Destra Garcia were being documented on stage at SOB’s. Julian and Maria J. Hackett were photographing Carnival on Eastern Parkway with Sesame Flyers and Ramajay Mas. And during that same Carnival, Julian met Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson in person for the first time.
Julianspromos had not yet reached the structured artist interviews and formal media assignments that would emerge in 2011. The cameras, however, were already rolling.
Viewed from today, these photographs and videos preserve the moment when online Caribbean promotion, New York Carnival culture and original media creation began coming together around the Julianspromos name.
Julianspromos revisits the 2010 Queens of Soca concert at SOB’s in New York, featuring Alison Hinds and Destra Garcia sharing the stage with Mighty Sparrow as host.