Caribbean Fest Lights Up The Green

Michelle Cave, Allison Lewis, Anthea Bartholomew, and Allison DeRoche of the Trinbago American Association of Southern Connecticut showed up to the Green to show off their heritage.

Their table at Saturday’s Caribbean Festival was lined with cultural objects from Trinidad and Tobago, including a steel pan, local drinks like Trinidad rum and Sole Apple J, and sweets like tamarind balls. They also had a large flag with the Trinidad and Tobago coat of arms, featuring a scarlet ibis, two hummingbirds, and a bird called a cocrico above the motto, ​“together we aspire, together we achieve.”

“This is great because people can come out and learn about other people’s culture,” Lewis said. She expressed that most of the time, we are fully immersed in our own experience, and don’t look outside of ourselves. The festival provided an opportunity to change that. ​“It’s like traveling without having to go somewhere.”

Those sentiments summed up perfectly Saturday’s festival, an annual event that celebrates Caribbean art, culture, and small businesses across the City of New Haven.

For this year’s occasion, the Green overflowed with flags, colorful tents and clothing, and excited attendees. The festival was presented by Wedehyah, Inc. in partnership with the International Festival of Arts & Ideas.

“I just walked out onto the stage and saw all the colors and flags, and it feels like they should be here,” said Arts & Ideas Executive Director Shelley Quiala, executive director of Arts and Ideas, as she stood on the stage at the center of the Caribbean fest. ​“We are so proud to party with you today.”

Shavana Clarke, this year’s Miss Connecticut USA, walked among the crowds of people visiting the stalls and sitting in fold-up chairs to watch the performances. Clarke’s parents are from Jamaica, and she is a first generation U.S. citizen, so she was looking forward to celebrating her heritage with the rest of the attendees.

“Being a representative of the Jamaican community, I think it’s really important to showcase the diversity of Connecticut,” she said. ​“My platform is about intersectionality, about celebrating all the parts of who you are, and part of that is being a proud first-generation Jamaican-American.”

The festival is ​“a way to bring the community together and represent local businesses,” explained Kimmy Miller, who ran a stall devoted to her business, Asana Skincare. She makes and sells body butters, oils, and scrubs, with a focus on selling to mothers who might need a little self-care and relaxation.

Miller is Jamaican, and found the festival to also be ​“a way to appreciate our individual identities.” For people from the Caribbean, she said, it was a great way for them to know ​“they’re not alone and that there is a community here,” she said.

Tanaya Henry attended the festival to represent her nonprofit organization, Traveler on a Mission. Traveler on a Mission provides hygiene products for men, women, and children. They service Connecticut and also host workshops in Antigua and St. Kitts. Henry was at the Green to fundraise — in part by selling t‑shirts, socks, and ​“mystery bags” of hygiene products — and to distribute literature about her organization. Any leftover products would be distributed to any homeless people in the vicinity who wanted them.

Henry appreciated that the festival gave her the opportunity to share her mission with the people of New Haven. ​“This community gets an opportunity to come together and show what we’re doing,” she said.

The clothing in Victoria’s stall, African Fashion Collabo, immediately drew the eye of anyone entering the Green with its bright colors and beautiful patterns. While Victoria was African, not Caribbean, she appreciated the way the festival allowed ​“the friends of the Caribbean community to come together and celebrate.”

“It’s not easy to bring people together,” she said, lauding the festival organizers. There were, she explained, countless things to appreciate about the Caribbean Heritage Festival, including but not limited to ​“the love, the support, the music, the food.”

On the other side of the Green, long lines formed in front of food trucks selling ice cream and traditional Jamaican food like jerk chicken or oxtail.

Nearby, Diamond Tree had provided a collection of hula hoops, and was busy teaching the children of the festival how to perform tricks, while their proud parents looked on.

On stage, the musical artist Gammy Moses performed a series of Afro-Caribbean rhythms passed down from generation to generation. ​“When we play the drums, we are paying tribute to our ancestors,” he said. ​“We are letting them know we are here.”

Moses also performed a spoken-word piece about the importance of Caribbean youth remembering their heritage. ​“Time to build and shape your destiny / Look to the past for your destination / Because you can’t build a house with no foundation,” he recited.

After him, Kendall Rice represented Jamaica with a beautiful and expressive interpretive dance, as the crowd looked on and applauded, many of them enjoying food and ice cream.

In a festival raffle, four winners could receive a prize of a roundtrip ticket to anywhere on Avelo Airlines. In order to enter, you had to make a donation to the festival (only those above 18 years old were eligible, and only one person per family). You would receive a ​“passport” and go around to different stalls that represented Caribbean islands, answering the questions they asked and getting a ​“passport stamp.” If you got all the stamps, you would be entered into the raffle, and win the chance to possibly visit a Caribbean island.

The diversity of New Haven was on full display, complete with flags, food, and music. Attendees of the festival had the chance to not only celebrate their own culture, but learn about someone else’s. Quiala’s opening words proved true: the Caribbean Heritage Festival should be here, and the people of New Haven are glad that it is.