The Geneseo Caribbean Student Association (pictured above) hosted their own version of J’ouvert on Sept. 14 in the Letchworth field. J’ouvert is a celebration of freedom and self-expression, which encapsulates the spirit of the CSA (Xavier Delcid/photo editor).
The Geneseo Caribbean Student Association threw the club’s biggest event of the year, J’ouvert, on Saturday Sept. 14. J’ouvert originated with street parties that coincide with the anniversary of the Caribbean’s emancipation from slavery in 1838. Celebrations of this freedom have grown and morphed into several different types of parties and other large-scale events all over the world. From New York City and Trinidad to Geneseo, J’ouvert is represented across the globe.
The Caribbean Student Association’s e-board worked very hard to plan and throw this event for 2019, which marked the third annual Geneseo J’ouvert celebration.
CSA vice president sophomore Alyssa Cruz was excited to put on J’ouvert for the important themes that the celebration symbolizes.
“This event encapsulates basically everything that we stand for,” Cruz said. “It represents freedom.”
Originally, J’ouvert began as a serious and solemn event, one where tar and oil were poured over attendees if they celebrated freedom and the end of slavery. Since then, the celebration has become accepted and modernized as an expression of self-love and freedom. At Geneseo, the event was marked by laughter, paint and loud music provided by DJ Syxxfiggaz.
Bottles of paint and bags of powder were distributed among attending students—all of whom were wearing white and black, ready to get colorful. As the music swelled and more people arrived, paint and colors were thrown around with reckless abandon.
Volunteer coordinator sophomore Mariah Tidwell had fun in the crowds.
“People just walk by and they can feel the energy, they feel the music, they just want to be a part of it,” Tidwell said. “It’s united.”
There is a sense of togetherness that comes with collectively covering one another in paints and powders of different colors. The event allowed participants to be themselves in the most human, vulnerable way possible by giving them the power and permission to get messy and have a good time while remembering J’ouvert’s significance.
The Letchworth field became a joyous mess of students from several different schools spraying each other with paint and tossing powder which stuck to the wet paint until everyone was a uniformed mess of green, pink, yellow and blue, with the grins to match.
Public relations representative senior Shenea Walker wanted to emphasize that, even though J’overt is Caribbean in nature, it can and should be enjoyed by people from all walks of life.
“You don’t have to be Caribbean to enjoy Caribbean culture,” Walker said. “To add onto that, we have more than 200 people coming, from all over. Schools like Nazareth, RIT, Alfred, University of Albany, Syracuse and way more.”
“It’s bigger and better every year,” Cruz said. “The schools have really supported us, and this event was an amazing sort of coming together.”
The spirit of J’ouvert shone through not just in Geneseo’s sense of community, but the entire surrounding area brought together by this festive and jubilant event.
This event demonstrated how powerful and important J’ouvert is to a whole host of different communities. The cultural celebration of the emancipation of slaves in the Caribbean came to Geneseo with all the passion and excitement that the historical date deserved.