Greenz United Unveils “Ravish” for New York Carnival 2013
Greenz United was still building its identity on Eastern Parkway when the Brooklyn mas band unveiled “Ravish” for New York Carnival 2013.
Julianspromos captured highlights from the band launch in “2013 Greenz United NY Band Launch Highlights,” preserving the costumes and presentation before the band reached the West Indian American Day Carnival on Labor Day.
Official 2013 Carnival listings confirm Greenz United Mas, led by Dave Louison with Kim Chinlee as co-band leader, presenting “Ravish.” The band’s mas camp that season was listed at 5902 Ditmas Avenue in Brooklyn.
Welcome to “Ravish”
The 2013 band launch was the first opportunity for masqueraders to see what Greenz United planned to bring to the road that season.
The official records give us the presentation name, Ravish, but surviving contemporary coverage does not provide a complete section list or detailed explanation of the theme.
So rather than inventing a meaning for the name, the strongest way to tell the story is through what the footage itself represents: a young Brooklyn band unveiling a complete Carnival presentation while still establishing its place among much older organizations.
At the launch, the costumes were pristine.
The designers had their moment.
And masqueraders could begin deciding whether Greenz United was where they wanted to spend Labor Day.
A Band Built from Grenadian Carnival Energy
Greenz United had been founded only a few years earlier.
Louison later explained that he started the organization in 2011 after becoming frustrated with the sound system used by the Grenadian contingent on Eastern Parkway.
He wanted Grenadians participating in New York Carnival to have a stronger musical presence, one that could compete with the powerful sound systems surrounding other Caribbean groups.
The first Greenz United road appearance was simple.
T-shirts.
Costumes came as the organization developed further into a full mas band.
That makes the 2013 launch especially useful historically.
Only two years after Greenz United began, Julianspromos was already documenting the organization presenting a named Carnival theme and preparing a full costume band for Eastern Parkway.
Grenada at the Center of the Experience
Greenz United’s identity was closely tied to Grenada.
Louison, who is from Gouyave, built the organization around giving Grenadian masqueraders a strong New York Carnival experience while also welcoming participants from outside the community.
Music remained a major part of that identity.
In later interviews, Louison repeatedly emphasized the importance of Grenadian Soca and Jab Jab music, along with powerful DJs and sound systems, in shaping the Greenz United road experience.
The costumes gave the band its visual presence.
But the sound helped define the personality.
That combination became a recurring feature of Greenz United in the years that followed.
Growing Into Full Mas
By 2013, Greenz United had clearly moved beyond the original T-shirt concept.
The official Carnival directory recognized the organization as a full mas band, with its own leadership, Brooklyn mas camp and registered portrayal.
That transition is what makes the Julianspromos band-launch footage more important than it may initially appear.
It catches Greenz United during its early transformation.
From a group created largely to improve the Grenadian road experience...
to an organization designing costumes...
staging launches...
operating a mas camp...
and taking a complete presentation to Eastern Parkway.
Ravish belongs right in the middle of that development.
A Different Kind of Carnival Goal
Greenz United did not build its identity entirely around competition.
Years later, Louison said the band had never placed in the Carnival competition, but that the lack of trophies had never discouraged the organization from participating.
For Greenz United, the road experience mattered more.
The music.
The people.
The costumes.
The Grenadian atmosphere.
And giving masqueraders somewhere they genuinely enjoyed playing mas.
That perspective is useful when looking back at the 2013 launch.
There doesn't need to be a first-place result at the end of every Carnival story.
Sometimes the real story is a young band establishing itself year by year.
From Ravish to the Years Ahead
Greenz United kept returning after 2013.
The band appears in New York Carnival records throughout the following years, including Mystique in 2015 and later presentations as the organization continued developing its place on Eastern Parkway.
By 2017, Greenz United was preparing to carry more than 400 masqueraders with its Aloha presentation, showing how much the organization had expanded from its T-shirt beginnings.
Seen from that perspective, Ravish is an early chapter in a longer story.
Greenz United had only started in 2011.
By 2013, it had its own launch, its own presentation and its own growing place inside Brooklyn Carnival.
And Julianspromos was there to capture it.
Before “Ravish” Hit Eastern Parkway
That is what makes this footage worth bringing back into the archive.
The video catches Greenz United while the band was still young and Carnival Monday was still ahead.
The costumes were being introduced.
The band was growing.
And a Grenadian-rooted organization that had begun with T-shirts only a few years earlier was now putting a complete mas presentation on stage.
For New York Carnival 2013, that presentation was called:
Ravish.
