Miami Broward Carnival J’Ouvert 2012: On the Road with Ram Jam 4 Life
Before the feathers and full costumes of Carnival Sunday, Miami Carnival weekend kicked into another gear on Saturday, October 6, 2012, as J’Ouvert took over Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida.
From 7:00 AM to 1:00 PM, music trucks, DJs, artists and revelers gathered for an early-morning celebration built around Soca, paint, powder and the raw energy of J’Ouvert.
Julianspromos was there with Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson hosting the coverage, while Julian C. Hackett shot and edited the footage.
Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson during Miami Broward Carnival J’Ouvert 2012 in Lauderhill, Florida.
J’Ouvert Arrives at Miami Broward Carnival
The 2012 celebration holds an interesting place in Miami Carnival history.
Contemporary Carnival coverage from September 2012 noted the excitement around what was being described as a new J’Ouvert experience for Miami Broward Carnival, complete with registered bands, music trucks, mud and paint. Later Miami J’Ouvert records identify 2012 as the first J’Ouvert Celebration of Miami Broward One Carnival.
Central Broward Regional Park became the setting for the Saturday-morning action, one day before the main Carnival parade at Sun Life Stadium.
For Julianspromos, it meant another side of Miami Carnival to capture — less about elaborate pretty mas and more about the freedom, music and early-morning energy traditionally associated with J’Ouvert.
Ram Jam 4 Life Hits the Road
Among the groups taking part was Ram Jam 4 Life, whose 2012 flyer promoted its Miami Broward RamJam J’Ouvert experience under the slogan:
“Ramjam style u cyan copy!”
The flyer advertised an all-inclusive package with food and drinks and a packed road lineup.
Featured names included Red Hot Flames, Claudette Peters, Ricardo Drue, Kenne Blessin and Laurena Davis, alongside an extensive roster of DJs and sounds.
Rather than a traditional concert where the audience stays in one place, J’Ouvert was about moving with the music.
The truck was part of the party.
The road was the dance floor.
Miami J’Ouvert Through the Julianspromos Camera
The surviving Julianspromos video captures that morning from inside the celebration, with Vivaa moving through the event as host while the camera follows the road experience around her.
The footage was hosted by Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson and shot and edited by Julian C. Hackett.
It was uploaded to Julianspromos on October 19, 2012.
Soca Before Sunrise
J’Ouvert has always occupied a different space from the main Carnival parade.
Pretty mas brings elaborate costumes and carefully designed presentations. J’Ouvert strips much of that away.
It is about getting dirty, dancing behind the truck, covering yourself in paint or powder and enjoying the music before the formal Carnival road experience begins.
That distinction was especially noticeable during Miami Carnival weekend in 2012.
The following day would bring more than twenty mas bands, a major stage show and thousands of Carnival fans to Sun Life Stadium. Miami Broward Carnival organizers later described the wider 2012 festival as a week of events that included J’Ouvert before the Sunday finale.
Saturday morning belonged to a different kind of Carnival energy.
“Viva Miami”
Vivaa was already becoming closely associated with Julianspromos’ event coverage by 2012, and the surviving photographs from this assignment capture that Miami chapter in a simple way.
Her bright pink shirt reads:
“Viva Miami.”
Only two original photographs of Vivaa and the event flyer are currently known to survive from the Julianspromos coverage.
The full-body image showing Vivaa wearing her Julianspromos media credential works especially well as the featured photograph because it places her directly within the assignment rather than simply serving as an event portrait.
A Full Miami Carnival Weekend
J’Ouvert was only one piece of an unusually busy 2012 Miami Carnival run for Julianspromos.
Coverage during the trip stretched across major fêtes, artist interviews, J’Ouvert and ultimately Carnival Sunday at Sun Life Stadium.
The following day, Vivaa would again be on the road as Julianspromos captured the broader Miami Broward Carnival parade as well as dedicated footage of Freaks NY / Natural Freaks’ RIO presentation.
RELATED ARCHIVE:
Miami Broward Carnival 2012: Road Highlights with Vivaa
https://julianspromos.com/archives/freaks-ny-rio-miami-carnival-2012
Seen together, the surviving footage provides two very different views of the same Carnival weekend: the raw morning energy of J’Ouvert on Saturday and the color and spectacle of pretty mas on Sunday.
From the Julianspromos Archives
More than a decade later, this surviving video offers a rare look back at an important early chapter of Miami Carnival’s J’Ouvert tradition.
The cameras captured Ram Jam 4 Life on the road at Central Broward Regional Park, but the footage also preserves the larger atmosphere surrounding Miami Broward Carnival’s developing J’Ouvert celebration — the music trucks, artists, DJs and revelers who came out early Saturday morning before Carnival Sunday took over South Florida.
With Sheniele “Vivaa” Dodson hosting from inside the action and Julian C. Hackett shooting and editing the coverage, the video feels less like a distant event recap and more like being dropped back into the road in 2012.
Together with the two surviving photographs and original flyer, it preserves a small but distinctive piece of Miami Carnival history: J’Ouvert morning, before the costumes of Sunday, when the weekend was already in full motion.
