For Haitian culture keepers, NYC’s Labor Day parade burst with joy, pride and affirmation

BROOKLYN—Growing up on Long Island, Michael Desrosiers spent many a Labor Day on Eastern Parkway since high school with fellow Caribbean kids. As he got older, the Haitian American often played mas with the Sesame Flyers on the Parkway and other cities. This year, after sitting out the parade for the three years prior, Desrosiers felt compelled to represent.

“I am here to celebrate who we are as America, who we are as New York. We’re Haitians, Jamaicans, Granadians, all of the Caribbean, Cuba, the Democratic Republic— we all celebrate one love,” said Desrosiers, a flight attendant now based in Pennsylvania.

“Despite the current administration trying to erase who we are, America is so diverse, has been since before Christopher Columbus came to America, and it will be diverse after the current administration leaves,” he elaborated while strolling with other masquerades. “America is so diverse. You can’t stop it.”

Among the millions who converged on the Parkway for the 58th edition of New York Carnival, Haitians from all walks of life and locations made their presence known. Despite rumors that the parade might draw immigration enforcement, Haitians turned out by the tens of thousands. They showed up in red-and-blue flags flying with bands back-to-back, as masqueraders, in “Zoe” and “Haitian” t-shirts, on konpa- and rabòday-infused floats—including Kreyòl La, T-Vice, Ekip, Tony Mix, Madada and Vaglavi—and in crushing hugs between friends over barricades. Costumed dancers also performed “the spirit of Haiti,” crafted by designer Michel Châtelain, for the carnival judges.

• Revelers accompanying floats pumping Haitian music during the New York Carnival parade along Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn on Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. Photo by Bill Farrington
• Revelers accompanying floats pumping Haitian music during the New York Carnival parade along Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn on Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. Photo by Bill Farrington
• Revelers accompanying floats pumping Haitian music during the New York Carnival parade along Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn on Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. Photo by Bill Farrington
• Revelers accompanying floats pumping Haitian music during the New York Carnival parade along Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn on Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. Photo by Bill Farrington
• Revelers accompanying floats pumping Haitian music during the New York Carnival parade along Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn on Monday, Sept. 1, 2025. Photo by Bill Farrington

As usual along the 6.2-mile parade route, the scent of fried foods battled with pungent smoke, sweat flew off jiggling body parts and ornate costumes in every color twirled under the day’s bright, but not too hot, sunny skies. Between marching, jumping, whining and, yes, reports of criminal acts, several Haitians said this year’s carnival was also a way to reaffirm the country’s multicultural diversity as Black and brown communities face a barrage of anti-immigrant policies.

“And from what I saw, it looked like there were more Haitians than anyone else.”

“It’s very important to see a whole bunch of people who are from the same place as you are and who grew up eating the same things, listening to the same music,” said Jacqueline Torres, of Valley Stream. “A lot of people come here to find their kin and find togetherness in our country, especially in a time like this where we’re all being attacked essentially for being here. 

“I think it’s very important that we all come together and show community,” the 22-year-old said.

Cultural pride (re)affirmed 

Her friend Damani Bailey, a Grenadian who said she’s “25 percent Haitian,” agreed and added that the parade reinforces cultural pride.

“Coming out here is really important because it engrains a certain amount of appreciation and awareness for your culture and of others as well,” Bailey said. “It’s important to come out here just to show the youth that it’s okay to be proud of your culture.”

Daphnée Sanon, an art and public speaking teacher who works with youth, saw the parade in a different light this year from her lens as a performer for the first time. The Les Cayes native said in the past, she followed the floats and partied on the sidelines, an amazing experience in itself. This year, she strolled down the Parkway with Zaman International Dancer, an Indo-Caribbean group.

“I love to see the costumes, the creativity,” Sanon said, from her perch near the judges after her performance. “I appreciate it even more being back here, seeing the organization behind this, the organization of the people in these bands.”

Desrosiers shared similar sentiments.

“It is more than dancing and having a good time,” he said. “It’s to affirm the fact of our heritage, our belonging, something that has been instilled by our parents. [It] is pride in who we are.”

Haitians represent en foule

Monday dawned with Haitians in full force. With flags blazing, pop-up paté and pikliz vendors, all music genres from Haiti and with friends from other cultures.

“I’m killing stress, and it’s fun and I’m trying to show my pride,” said Nadege Ademiju, a Léogâne native who came especially for the rara bands and got a bit of that fix when Tony Mix passed.

Likewise, a woman who identified herself only as Nerlande—“manman mizik la [music mama]”—said she got on the Parkway at Utica Avenue and enjoyed herself all the way to Flatbush Avenue, where she got into a dollar van. During the ride, she and three other Haitians debated the sound quality of some floats being subpar, not having enough Haitian djaz compared to DJs, and missing certain stars— like Ayino, the son of Kreyol La’s TJoe. Still, she had fun on her sick day.

“We Haitians love fun, we love dancing,” said the woman, wearing a white t-shirt with ‘Haiti’ emblazoned across it. “It’s our music, so we shook our bodies a little.

“And from what I saw, it looked like there were more Haitians than anyone else.”

For Marie Daniel, who traveled from Montreal to attend, the music and dance is irresistible.

“The energy is so powerful,” the Gonaïves native said. “Sometimes the energy is calling me. And I have to go in front and represent my country. It makes me feel powerful and great.

Chatelain, the designer and creative director behind “the spirit of a Haiti” performance, said he created costumes featuring butterflies of varying colors to convey that change is in the air

“It’s renewal, a kind of a transformation, [a] metamorphosis,” he said. “This is the message I want to send.”

Photographer Bill Farrington contributed to this story.

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