Jamaica Rising Day Parade opens with grand breakfast in Flatbush
Founder Dr Bill Tinglin thanked supporters including Dr Una Clarke and former ambassador Nick Perry, and honoured Holocaust survivors who recalled Jamaica’s wartime refuge.
NEW YORK, United States. The inaugural Jamaica Rising Day Parade was launched on Saturday 8 August with a grand breakfast at the headquarters of the Caribbean American Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CACCI) on Caton Avenue in Flatbush, Brooklyn.
“The Jamaican Rising Day Parade is a historic celebration of Jamaica: our culture, heritage, resilience, international influence, and extraordinary contributions to New York City and the world,” said Dr Bill Tinglin, chairman and founder of the parade committee, who hails from Westmoreland.
He paid special tribute to former US Ambassador to Jamaica N. Nick Perry and to the committee’s founding dignitary, Dr Una S. T. Clarke, the first Caribbean-born woman elected to the New York City Council.
He also thanked Ariel Bowen, Jamaica’s acting consul general in New York and ambassador-designate to Japan, and the consular staff.
Wartime history recalled
Tinglin gave special recognition to Holocaust survivors at the ceremony, including Mark Appel. He noted that during the Second World War Jamaica took in refugees fleeing Nazi persecution, many at Gibraltar Camp in Mona, St Andrew, on land that later became part of the University of the West Indies Mona campus.
“To have Holocaust survivors standing with us generations later at the first Jamaican Rising Day Parade brought that history full circle,” he said.
Grand marshals
Reggae singer Nadine Sutherland, who flew in from Jamaica the day before, served as grand marshal. Honorary grand marshals included Bowen, Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams, Assemblywoman Monique Chandler-Waterman and Jamaican-born Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels. Perry was also named an honorary grand marshal.
Perry wished “happy independence to Jamaica, land of my birth that I will always claim”.
CACCI President Jean Joseph called it “an historic day for our Jamaican community, for our Caribbean diaspora, and for New York City”.
Haitian-born singer Felina Baker sang the Jamaican national anthem.
Dr Lawman Lynch, co-founder, deputy chair and parade director, said: “This was bigger than a parade. We witnessed the birth of a movement and, potentially, a new Jamaican tradition in New York City.”
