2010 New York West Indian American Day Carnival Parade Photo Gallery & the Early Days of Julianspromos Media
On September 6, 2010, Julianspromos documented the West Indian American Day Carnival along Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, New York.
The coverage came during an important early period in the development of Julianspromos. Julian Hackett had already been promoting Caribbean music online since 2007, and by 2010 the Julianspromos brand had begun taking shape.
That year, Julian Hackett and Maria J. Hackett documented the Carnival on the road with Sesame Flyers and Ramajay Mas. They were there in a media capacity rather than playing mas, capturing the bands, masqueraders, costumes and atmosphere surrounding Brooklyn’s annual Caribbean celebration.
Much of the surviving photography was captured by Maria J. Hackett of Maria Janine Photography.
Growing Up Around Sesame Flyers
Julian’s connection to Sesame Flyers International began years before Julianspromos.
The Sesame Flyers mas camp was located about a block from his childhood home in Brooklyn, making New York Carnival, Soca music and the preparation surrounding Labor Day weekend a familiar part of his upbringing.
Julian had been around the organization since the late 1990s and later provided photography and video coverage for Sesame Flyers.
That long-standing connection made the band a natural part of Julianspromos’ earliest Carnival documentation.
Covering Sesame Flyers and Ramajay Mas
The 2010 gallery captures Julianspromos on the road with both Sesame Flyers and Ramajay Mas, preserving the colors, personalities and energy of Eastern Parkway during New York Carnival.
At the time, Julianspromos had not yet developed the larger multimedia operation that would later produce artist interviews, festival coverage, Carnival features and original video content across multiple markets.
The photography nevertheless shows that the transition from online music promotion into original Caribbean media was already beginning.
The Day Julian First Met Vivaa
The 2010 West Indian American Day Carnival also marked the first time Julian Hackett and Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson met in person.
They had previously connected through Julian’s earlier online Caribbean music activity, but their first face-to-face meeting happened on the road while Vivaa was with Ramajay Mas.
Vivaa would later become Co-Founder of Julianspromos and one of the most recognizable on-camera personalities of the company’s multimedia era.
That makes the 2010 Carnival an important point in both Julianspromos’ early media history and the beginning of a creative partnership that would help shape the years that followed.
Before Julianspromos’ Official Event Coverage Era
Julianspromos’ move into original media accelerated in 2011.
Young Devyn became the first artist interviewed by Julianspromos, followed by the platform’s first major artist interview with Kes the Band in May 2011.
Then, on July 9, 2011, TEMPO Turns 6 at Six Flags Great Adventure became the first event Julianspromos covered in an official media capacity.
The 2010 Carnival gallery therefore preserves Julianspromos immediately before that next stage of growth.
2010 West Indian American Day Carnival Photo Gallery
Photography: Maria J. Hackett / Maria Janine Photography
From the Julianspromos Archives
The 2010 West Indian American Day Carnival gallery preserves an early chapter in the Julianspromos story — from Julian Hackett’s long connection to Sesame Flyers and the beginnings of original Carnival media to his first in-person meeting with Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson.
More than fifteen years later, the photographs remain a visual record of Brooklyn Carnival culture and the early development of Julianspromos as a Caribbean music and media brand.
