Jennifer Gaskin held the first Worcester Caribbean American Carnival 10 years ago to celebrate her family’s culture. Now, she’s worried people will lump her event with violence, and said the issue is not her event, but rather gun violence in America.
WORCESTER —Worcester Caribbean American Carnival is a family affair for Jennifer Gaskin.
When Gaskin spotted her father’s face in the crowd of smiles as the parade turned the corner to Institute Park in its inaugural year, it was “an amazing feeling.”
In fact, Gaskin first organized the Carnival in the city 10 years ago inspired by love for the culture her father and grandparents bestowed upon her, Gaskin told the Worcester Guardian.
Gaskin’s family is from Grenada and Montserrat. Grenada’s famous carnival, also known as “Spicemas,” dates back to the 19th century when the country was under colonial rule that enslaved Africans. Montserrat began celebrating an annual carnival in the 1960s.
Through holding a carnival in Worcester, Gaskin has been able to share her family’s culture with her children and grandchildren. Her daughter has acted as Grand Marshal in nine out of the ten years of the event. This year her granddaughter also dressed in costume and led the parade alongside her daughter.
“When we came together and started doing this event,” Gaskin said, “my entire board all agreed that the purpose of us doing this was to show the community that we’re here to educate the community on our culture and our legacy and to create a legacy for our children.”
So, when a nearby shooting led the Worcester Police Department to end the Aug. 27 event early, it was heartbreaking, Gaskin said.
Gaskin was on the event stage at Institute Park, which was filled with vendors, performers and onlookers, when the shooting near the intersection of Salisbury and Boynton streets took place around 6 p.m.
A 15-year-old and 23-year-old, who the police described as innocent bystanders, were shot and taken to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries, according to a statement police released after the shooting.
“So I watched the crowd of thousands of people running and there were people in chairs, there were people that were disabled people that could have been trampled and killed in a situation like that,” Gaskin said. “So to see what was such an amazing day have to end on that note was truly, truly heartbreaking.”
The day started with a carnival parade that made its way from Worcester City Hall to Institute Park, which was filled with vendors selling traditional Caribbean food, garments and crafts and areas for children to play soccer and make their own crafts.
The parade featured 11 masquerade bands that each had unique costumes intricately crafted with feathers, sequins, and fabric. Masqueraders can spend thousands of dollars on their costumes.
“It’s all about the beauty of it—you want to be the most beautiful one,” Gaskin said. “It’s the one day a year that you can be whoever you are and whatever body you’re in and you can be beautiful.”
The carefully planned designs make Carnival like a street art festival, according to Gaskin.
“These are designs made by a designer and put together,” Gaskin said. “It’s art.”
While the masqueraders made their way down Main Street Aug. 27, trucks carrying massive speakers played music by Soca and Dancehall artists Kes, Patrice Roberts, Machel Montano, GBMNutron and more.
Gaskin said she and festival organizers have had to face misconceptions about the event.
“People think it’s just a big street party and that we just want to come out there half naked and party…it’s really not about that,” Gaskin said.
Gaskin has also been vocal about the difficulties she said she’s faced hosting the event in the city, saying she’s had to jump through hoops she feels that other events have not had to in terms of permitting and fees and doesn’t feel she’s received the same support from the city.
City Manager Eric Batista has said that he and his administration are going to rework the process for holding events in the city to make it more streamlined, using the advice of event organizers that they provided through a survey.
“We have a lot of work to do in our policies and our systems and our processes of event planning, especially around special events, permitting application processes,” Batisa told the Worcester Guardian.
He said it will take a lot of external work, but he hopes to have something ready in the spring.
“I strongly believe that a festival like the Worcester Caribbean American Festival is extremely important to have in the city,” Batista said, “just like any other festival that celebrates culture and their foods, their dances, their customs. It’s extremely important. That’s what we are as a city. We’re a diverse city that has many different nations and we support that and we celebrate that and we want to continue to celebrate that.”
Carnival historically is about the liberation of enslaved Africans, Gaskin said, pointing to the roots of Carnival in Trinidad and Tobago where enslaved African held the event when they weren’t allowed to congregate or have instruments. Participants would make their own instruments so they could have music.
In Grenada, the tradition of Jouvert and Jab Jab, a celebration in the early morning where those celebrating throw powder, paint and oil on each other, is tied to the enslaved Africans and their eventual emancipation.
“They throw the powder in Jouvert because you want to be hidden, you didn’t want people to see you as an enslaved African participating in this,” Gaskin said.
Obscuring identities also meant that anyone was accepted at the event, which is a general feeling in all Carnival events.
“You should be able to come no matter what you look like and be proud and show up and enjoy and have a good time,” she said, adding that it’s about being free to be whomever you want to be.
Gaskin said she holds the event not just for the Caribbean American community in Worcester, but for the entire city to unify it and provide an outlet of joy.
After how this year’s event ended, Gaskin said there needs to be conversation with the community and the city about how it returns next year and how to make sure it continues to be a positive event for the community and people are safe.
Worcester Caribbean American Carnival Association has offered to help people who attended the event get resources to help process the trauma surrounding the shooting, which Gaskin said she’s used to process what happened.
Gaskin said she also fully intends to show up for the court dates of the suspect who was arrested in the shooting.
“Because as a community…we shouldn’t stand for this and it should be known that we’re not standing for this,” Gaskin said.
Omar Molina was arrested in Holden on Sept. 12 in connection with the double shooting and faces charges that include armed assault with intent to murder.
WCACA has also reached out to the youth injured in the shooting to see if they need support.
In the aftermath of the shooting, Gaskin said it was disheartening and discouraging that the majority of the media coverage of Carnival was related to the shooting.
“At the same time it gives us the conversations we need to have about gun violence in our community because clearly it’s impacting our community,” Gaskin said. “And it’s impacting our celebrations and our ability to celebrate and unify as one.”
She said if this “unfortunate situation” is a mechanism for us to wake up and have conversations surrounding gun violence, then “fine let’s have those conversations.”
Gaskin is worried that people will lump her event in with the violence, and said the issue is not her event but rather gun violence in America.
“I want us to be able to celebrate our heritage, educate around our heritage and be part of our community in a safe environment,” she said. “And that’s what we’ve enjoyed for nine years. And I’d like to continue to enjoy that.”
The conversations around gun violence will be added to existing conversations WCACA has been having about how people from across the African diaspora come together. Those conversations took place at a Juneteenth event WCACA held in collaboration with The Village Worcester, according to Gaskin.
While Carnival usually takes a full year to plan, this year’s planning has been a bit delayed, according to Gaskin, because everybody’s trying “to get their mind right” following the way this year’s event ended.
“When negative things happen in life, it’s about what you do on the other side of it,” Gaskin said. “So I want to make sure that I’m being responsible as leader and we as an organization are being responsible in terms of how we return.”
Kiernan Dunlop is an award-winning journalist who has spent the past five years reporting in Worcester, New Bedford and Antigua and Barbuda. She’s been published in Bloomberg, USA Today, Canary Media, MassLive, and the New Bedford Standard Times, among other outlets. She can be contacted at kdunlop@theworcesterguardian.org
