Paris Alston: This is GBH's Morning Edition. In a little over a week, the streets of Roxbury and Dorchester will be filled with soca music and colorful, elaborate costumes to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Boston Carnival. It's a beloved tradition, given Greater Boston is home to the third-largest Caribbean population in the U.S. But tomorrow, a rite of passage will be taking place to help usher in the big parade: Kiddies Carnival.
Danielle Johnson: We have about seven Mas Bands, or floats, which have about 20 kids each in full costume and regalia. It's going to be a breath of fresh air.
Alston: That's Danielle Johnson of the Boston Society of Caribbean Culture and Heritage, or BSOCCAH. The group organizing this year's Kiddies Carnival. She's also the founder and CEO of SparkFM Online. The parade is being put on by a different organization, the Caribbean Carnival Association of Boston. In recent years, there have been calls for the organization to make room for new leadership. I recently spoke with Danielle about that and she told me how Kiddies Carnival is one place to start.
Johnson: There's been a steady decline in it for a while, even before the pandemic. I think that there's always been maybe a lack of passion in organizing it because it's not really a big revenue generator, and it was time that we put together a new organization that really was intentional and focused about reaching back to the next generation and making sure that the Carnival had a future. So it's kind of been a passion project for a separate group, BSOCCAH, to put this on and just to elevate it and evolve it into something that is fun to go to and hella cute to witness.
Alston: How does this relate to the growing calls for new leadership?
Johnson: There is a little bit of controversy surrounding it. I believe that Boston Carnival could do a lot better to showcase the products and the pageantry of what Carnival is. I think over the years it has grown into — the adult carnival, we'll call that — over the years, the adult carnival has grown into moreso of a street parade instead of a showcasing of culture. Right now, I believe that they are working with two mas bands that are full-costume, and we're used to seeing about 14 to 20 on the roads in different carnivals across the country. So what we're doing with Kiddies is actually trying to mirror what we're seeing everywhere else with the little ones. And hopefully, that will rejuvenate the adults to get back out there.
Alston: With this being the 50th anniversary of the Carnival tradition here in Boston, what's the conversation been like to bridge that divide?
Johnson: The conversation has been the same for the last 20 years. There is overall a lack thereof when it comes to organization and strategy around this weekend in particular. So this weekend usually starts off with the Kiddies Carnival. In yester years, it would be followed by Panorama, Pan on the Plaza, that we're also redoing this year as well. It would have like a King and Queens event where large costumes, very large pieces, would be on display. And in the last maybe 10 to 20 years, we have literally seen a decline in all of that. We've seen so much not being done around it to the point where this year we're feeling like, okay, it's the 50th anniversary of Carnival and a lot of people are still very unaware that it is even happening on the day that it usually happens for the last 50 years. The community has gotten together to start a movement called, Save Boston Carnival to make sure that the organizers understand that we really want to highlight and showcase culture and heritage. The current administration has been there for over 30 years, and for again, the last 10 to 20 years, there have been people on the ground really fighting to have a seat at that table to help improve and evolutionize what was being done 30 years ago. We need fresh ideas. We need a strategy for marketing and promotion. We need an evolution of the events in themselves. I just, I overall believe that there needs to be new leadership when it comes to how things progress. And we're seeing that in so many different sectors. We've seen that with the Pride parade. We've seen it with Juneteenth. We've seen it across the board of the older generation really not being able to accept change and wanting to see, you know, new ideas, new blood — at least at the table. Not saying that they have to go completely away. And before that was the goal: To be collaborative, to work together, the old with the new, cross-generation, to really make this both traditional, cultural, and new. I think that if we're not doing that, then we are failing at making sure that the next generation has something to look forward to. I'm not really sure how we're going to rope them in in a couple more years, or if there's even going to be anything to rope them in to in a couple more years, when the whole aspect of what Carnival represents has almost been lost.
Alston: And what does Carnival represent, Danielle?
Johnson: Carnival is a rebellion. Carnival is a rebellion from slavery. It is a rebellion of freeing up yourself and being able to hold jurisdiction over yourself. It's a celebration of culture. It's a celebration of heritage. And even starting a new organization and doing things around without necessarily having permission from the people who are leading is an act of rebellion, to make sure that we know and we understand that our ancestors fought for this right to have these celebrations, and that it's not fair to them that it has gone to where it has gone. And that if we're serious about having this event and continuing it, we've got to be okay with taking accountability for the lack thereof. And we also need to be okay with opening up to new ideas and making sure that there is organization and also discipline inside of that rebellion.
Alston: That was Danielle Johnson of BSOCCAH, the group organizing the Kiddies Carnival that kicks off at Franklin Park tomorrow at 10 a.m. There will be a number of festivities to follow in the week leading up to the Boston Carnival parade on Aug. 26. And a note that we do have a request for comment out to the Caribbean Carnival Association of Boston and hope to bring you their response in the days ahead. You're listening to GBH News.
In a little over a week, the streets of Roxbury and Dorchester will be filled with soca music and colorful, elaborate costumes to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Boston Carnival. It's a beloved tradition — Greater Boston is home to the third-largest Caribbean population in the U.S.
But tomorrow, a rite of passage will help usher in the big parade: Kiddies Carnival.
“It's going to be a breath of fresh air,” said Danielle Johnson, communications director for the Boston Society of Caribbean Culture and Heritage, or BSOCCAH, and founder and CEO of SparkFM Online.
Children will dress up in colorful costumes and learn about Caribbean heritage and the origins of Carnival celebrations, she said. Seven mas bands, floats of people in full regalia, will parade around Franklin Park. The hope is that as they grow older, they’ll stay involved and energize Boston’s Carnival for years to come.
The parade, celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, is being put on by a different organization: the Caribbean Carnival Association of Boston.
In recent years, Johnson said, there have been calls for the organization to make room for new leadership.
“There's been a steady decline in it for a while, even before the pandemic,” Johnson said. “I think that there's always been maybe a lack of passion in organizing it because it's not really a big revenue generator, and it was time that we put together a new organization that really was intentional and focused about reaching back to the next generation and making sure that the Carnival had a future.”
In a later interview with GBH News, organizers said they have heard the concerns and are working to address them.
“A lot of times people think the grass is greener on the other side and they think it's as easy as it seemed to be,” Shirley Shillingford, the president of the Caribbean American Carnival Association of Boston told Morning Edition. “Just working with the city to get all this stuff done is the biggest challenge. You understand? They talk about change, and for the 50th anniversary, we as an association was never one that don't want people to collaborate."
Johnson, meanwhile, said the annual parade has been a matter of “a bit of controversy.”
“I believe that Boston Carnival could do a lot better to showcase the products and the pageantry of what Carnival is,” she said. “Over the years, the adult carnival has grown into more so of a street parade instead of a showcasing of culture.”
At its heart, Carnival is a rebellion, she said.
“Carnival is a rebellion from slavery,” she said. “It is a rebellion of freeing up yourself and being able to hold jurisdiction over yourself. It's a celebration of culture. It's a celebration of heritage. And even starting a new organization and doing things around without necessarily having permission from the people who are leading is an act of rebellion, to make sure that we know and we understand that our ancestors fought for this right to have these celebrations, and that it's not fair to them that it has gone to where it has gone.”
Johnson said the conversation around Boston Carnival has not changed much in the last 20 years. When she looks to other cities, she said, she sees vibrant celebrations with more community involvement.
“There is overall a lack thereof when it comes to organization and strategy around this weekend in particular,” she said. “We've seen so much not being done around it to the point where this year we're feeling like, okay, it's the 50th anniversary of Carnival and a lot of people are still very unaware that it is even happening on the day that it usually happens for the last 50 years.”
With Kiddies Carnival, she hopes to change that. Other longstanding celebrations in the city have changed in recent years, like Boston Pride and Juneteenth, with the goal of making them more inclusive.
“We need fresh ideas. We need a strategy for marketing and promotion. We need an evolution of the events in themselves,” Johnson said.
Kiddies Carnival kicks off at Franklin Park Saturday, Aug. 19 at 10 a.m. There will be a number of festivities to follow in the week leading up to the Boston Carnival parade on Aug. 26.
