The West Indian-American Day Parade is underway now, but the party started about 10 hours earlier, when hundreds of Brooklyn residents flooded the streets for the annual J'Ouvert festival and parade.
In case you're not familiar with what J'Ouvert is, it's the "predawn, precarnival procession that features hand-pushed racks of nonamplified steel bands and other percussionist instruments, masqueraders wearing in oil, mud, powder and paint and revelers satirically costumed to mock celebrities and VIPS."
Festivities got underway around 4 a.m., although people had already been out and about celebrating around Grand Army Plaza and the nearby area. Photographer Ellen Moynihan says that while some were in costume, most people were wearing flags, bandanas, and shirts of the West Indies and Carribean. People stayed out partying until well past dawn.
There were several shootings and stabbings in the area before and during the festivities—Gov. Cuomo's deputy counsel was among those who were shot. Amongst the photos above, you can see one shot of the crime scene from one of the stabbings in front of a food cart on Eastern Parkway, as well as a shot of a man being arrested on Flatbush Avenue.
