2011 New York West Indian American Day Carnival Parade Photo Gallery | Sesame Flyers on Eastern Parkway
On September 5, 2011, Brooklyn’s Eastern Parkway came alive for the 44th annual West Indian American Day Carnival and Parade of Bands, bringing thousands of masqueraders and spectators together for New York City’s annual Labor Day celebration of Caribbean culture.
Julianspromos spent the day on the road documenting Sesame Flyers International, capturing the costumes, masqueraders and atmosphere of Carnival as the band made its way through Brooklyn.
The extensive photo collection was shot by Maria J. Hackett for Julianspromos, under her Maria Janine Photography name.
Sesame Flyers on Eastern Parkway
Sesame Flyers had already been part of New York Carnival for years by 2011, with deep roots in Brooklyn’s Caribbean community.
For Julian Hackett, the connection was also personal. The Sesame Flyers mas camp was located about a block from where he grew up, and he had been around the organization since the late 1990s.
By 2008, Julian was providing photography and video coverage for the band, a relationship that continued through 2015.
That history put Julianspromos close to the action on Labor Day, documenting Carnival from inside the road experience rather than from the sidelines.
Brooklyn Carnival 2011
The West Indian American Day Carnival returned to Eastern Parkway on Labor Day, Monday, September 5, 2011.
Costumed bands traveled through Crown Heights surrounded by Soca, flags, spectators and the elaborate presentations that make New York Carnival one of the largest Caribbean cultural events in the United States. Contemporary reporting from the day identified it as the parade’s 44th annual edition.
For this Julianspromos collection, the focus was Sesame Flyers and the people on the road with the band.
Maria J. Hackett Behind the Camera
Maria J. Hackett returned behind the camera for Julianspromos after also helping document the previous year’s West Indian American Day Carnival.
Her photographs concentrate on the visual details that make Carnival worth revisiting years later: costumes, feathers, makeup, accessories, color and the personalities of the masqueraders wearing them.
Her fashion and photography background gave the collection a strong emphasis on the people and presentation of mas rather than simply wide shots of the parade.
Photography by Maria J. Hackett for Julianspromos.
2011 West Indian American Day Carnival Photo Gallery
The photographs below document Sesame Flyers on the road during the 2011 West Indian American Day Carnival in Brooklyn.
From the Julianspromos Archives
The 2011 collection continues the New York Carnival story preserved in the Julianspromos archives.
A year earlier, Julianspromos had documented both Sesame Flyers and Ramajay Mas during the 2010 parade. In 2011, the camera returned to Eastern Parkway with Sesame Flyers, creating another extensive visual record of Labor Day Carnival in Brooklyn.
More than fifteen years later, these photographs remain a direct look back at the costumes, people and atmosphere of New York Carnival in 2011.
Photography by Maria J. Hackett for Julianspromos.
