J’Ouvert show immerses viewers in Brooklyn

RAY FUNK

An amazing exhibition on J’Ouvert and traditional mas, J’Ouvert Genesis Immersive Experience, fills the many rooms of the Lefferts Historic House in the southeast corner of Prospect Park, in Brooklyn.

It was produced by JouvayFest Collective in partnership with City Lore and the Prospect Park Alliance, with Sandra AM Bell as the curator and executive producer.

New York City mayor Eric Adams, in his message in support of Brooklyn Carnival this year, noted, “J’Ouvert was first celebrated by freed slaves after Emancipation. Now it is a Brooklyn tradition.”

Despite isolated incidents of violence and a two-year hiatus owing to the pandemic, Brooklyn J’Ouvert is safely back, and seems to be growing stronger every year.

The exhibition further enriched the 2023 J’Ouvert celebration that processed past Lefferts Historic House on Labour Day morning on September 4.

Over the last several years, the JouvayFest Collective, led by Bell, has presented talks, forums, and film presentations on various aspects of Carnival culture, as well as collaborating with mas bands Pagwah Mas and 2J and Friends for Labour Day J’Ouvert. It has also partnered with Something Positive, Inc, a performance organisation of dancers and musicians, founded by the late Cheryl Byron and led by artistic director Michael Manswell, putting on events across New York.

Raised in Belmont, Bell is the niece of legendary visual artist and masmaker Ken Morris (1924-1992), and cousin of his son Glendon Morris, who has been a mas designer and artist in copper for decades and was a 2016 Mentoring Master for Mas.

Bell grew up in the family compound surrounded by mas and was involved with everything from the most traditional costumes to working with Peter Minshall’s bands. She loved J’Ouvert most and has come home annually for Trinidad Carnival, and won the Brooklyn J’Ouvert Individual of Year from 2016-2019 and in Trinidad as well.

Belmont is also the home of Brooklyn J’Ouvert stalwarts Roy Pierre and poet Mervyn Taylor, whose bands won Brooklyn’s J’Ouvert Band of the Year many times before their recent retirement. Another Belmont native, Roland Guy, is well known in Brooklyn for his unique takes on dame Lorraine.

As a great lover of J’Ouvert, Bell wanted to develop an exhibition that celebrated the spirit of resistance and rebellion going back centuries, along with the joy that still is present every Carnival morning in the streets of Port of Spain and central Brooklyn.

Bell wanted an exhibit that was immersive, more than just images on the wall, to help convey to the visitor as much as possible the feeling of being in J’Ouvert. The exhibition includes photos, costumes, film, and 3D virtual reality.

Bell started working with City Lore director Steve Zeitlin, who came to Trinidad several years ago to make a film on extempo. Zeitlin helped build the complex of collaborative organisations that have come together for this exhibition.

The exhibition venue, Lefferts Historic House, is an 18th-century farmhouse, originally on Flatbush Avenue, which was moved to Prospect Park in 1918. The original owners were slaveholders and the exhibition is part of a broader initiative called ReImagine Lefferts, “to engage the public in thoughtful dialogue about the legacy of enslavement and the exploitation of marginalised communities in Brooklyn and beyond.”

Maria Carrasco, Prospect Park alliance vice president of public programmes, said, “We want Brooklyn’s Caribbean community to see themselves represented in the park, as well as at Lefferts Historic House.”

The costumes were organised by Kendell Julien, a John John expatriate known in Brooklyn for his dynamic portrayal of the midnight robber, who has led 2J and Friends for the last decade. Among the dozen traditional mas characters featured in the show are fancy sailor, pierrot grenade, dragon, baby doll, midnight robber and dame Lorraine. Several were designed by leading Trinidad masmakers, others by masmakers in Brooklyn.

The Black Indian costume is from the Warriors of Huracan, whose chief is Anderson Patrick, a band founded decades ago by the recently deceased Narrie Approo.

The jab jab costume was made by Shalima Alfred, the Whip Queen, whose husband is the Original Whipmaster and leader of the premier jab jab band in Trinidad, Ronald Alfred. Their daughter Renella, the Whip Princess, is gaining press attention and gave talks on jab jabs at the last Carifesta and at a University of California Santa Barbara Carnival conference.

The king jab costume is by Cynthia “Cinti” Salandy and Curtis “Bruiser” Noel. Noel is the leader of King Jab and Friends, who won this year at J’Ouvert. Originally from Central, he has played traditional mas for many years in Trinidad and more recently in Brooklyn. With the demise of Pagwah Mas, he started his own band, which this year was 90 strong.

Besides costumes, the exhibition includes large blowups of ten photographs of traditional Carnival in Trinidad. Bell also collaborated with experienced multimedia professionals, starting with her co-producer Ricardo Springer, who brought in two experienced filmmakers.

Mario Lathan has made a series of jazz documentaries and was executive producer of a TV series that “explores the African/Caribbean immigrant influence in the US.” His short films on J’Ouvert in Trinidad and Brooklyn bring a dynamic audiovisual component.

The exhibition also has a virtual-reality component for which viewers wear special headsets to experience 3D footage shot by DeAndré Vidale at the 2023 Trinidad Carnival on the streets of Port of Spain and in the hills of Paramin. Vidale’s family is from Trinidad and he is an experienced filmmaker and editor working in mainstream film and television whose work also includes a documentary on Baltimore Carnival.

An informative and handsomely illustrated exhibition booklet was edited by Ray Allen, a consultant for City Lore and author of the definitive book on Carnival music in New York, Jump Up (2019).

Allen notes: “In recent years pessimists have surmised that creeping gentrification, the high costs of mounting steel and mas bands, and fearmongering on the part of the press will lead to the shutdown of Brooklyn J’Ouvert. This exhibit pushes back against that narrative. Today the J’Ouvert spirit continues to thrive in Brooklyn, igniting a joyful celebration of human creativity, liberation, and a cry for social justice.”

This exhibition debuted at the beginning of August and will be open through Thanksgiving in late November, Thursdays-Sunday, 12-4pm and by appointment.

Discussions are being held on taking it on tour.

The J’Ouvert Genesis Immersive Experience booklet can be accessed at:

https://citylore.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/JGIE-BOOKLET-TO-CITY-LORE-AUGUST-11-2023.pdf