@nytimes

For decades, Brooklyn bid farewell to summer with J’Ouvert, a predawn reverie with roots in the emancipation of enslaved people in the Caribbean, followed by the West Indian American Day Parade, where throngs of costumed paraders dance into the dusk. These Labor Day traditions represent New York City’s nearly 600,000 residents of non-Hispanic Caribbean descent, and typically attract more than two million people to a daylong party that, at its roots, seeks to reaffirm the diasporic bonds of the West Indies. While the Covid-19 pandemic forced the celebrations to be scaled down for the past two years into a series of virtual events and smaller gatherings, J’Ouvert and the day parade returned in their original incarnations in 2022. The theme this year is “life,” said Anne-Rhea Smith, a board member of the West Indian American Day Carnival Association, which organizes the parade. It is a reference to all that was lost during the pandemic — the lives, livelihoods and sharing of customs — as well as to a celebration of the West Indian way of life. Tap the link in our bio to see all the color and joy of the parade’s comeback. Photos by @steffikeith, @jordy.png, @malikmeetslik and @stephaniemeiling