C3 Carnival & Jouvert

The Commonwealth Caribbean Council, (C3), hosted Carnival and Jouvert on April 22. The event started around 10:45 a.m. and ended by 1 p.m. The event was held in Lot E of the Harborside Campus. Originally, Carnival and Jouvert was slated to begin at 8 a.m. and end by noon. There’s a historical precedent for this- J’ouvert comes from the French term jour ouvert, which means daybreak or dawn. It typically starts at 2 a.m. and ends after sunrise. J’ouvert also signifies the start of carnival and celebrates the emancipation of some Caribbean islands. However, the event didn’t begin until 10:45 a.m.

Carnival and Jouvert opened with food being served. There was curry chicken, jerk chicken, mac and cheese, curry potato, saltfish, mac pie, polourie, banana fritters, mango sour, cucumber chutney, chana, and sucker, which are frozen juice bags. Refreshments were available for people to take. A featured table there was Caren’s Cupcakes.

Far away from the food was the table with colored powder. There were tiny bags filled with pink, teal, orange, green, blue, yellow, and mauve powder. There were also ponchos, for the people who didn’t want to get their clothes dirtied. As soon as everyone finished eating, the paint came out. Some chased their friends to powder them, others just tossed powder on people who stood still. While people threw paint, others wined (a Caribbean dance, where you move your hips and waist.) 

At one point, the President of C3, Nia James-Knight, grabbed the microphone to give a quick speech. She said, “I’m a senior, this was my baby. I love all the E-board, but I wanna get powdered before I leave in two weeks.” James-Knight then called up the other seniors to be powdered alongside her. Four seniors stepped up, and they all walked to the back. DJ Krazzmatic gave a countdown and everyone pelted the seniors with colored powder.

After that, all the members of E-board stepped to the front and fired confetti. The music started again and people went back to dancing. Fraternity and sorority members began strolling; others wined and kept powdering people. As the event wrapped up, James-Knight was about how she felt about the event. She stated, “Honestly, it started off slow as everyone could’ve seen.” She sang praises for DJ Krazzmatic, her fellow E-board members, and everyone who came out to partake in the event. “It was a village and we couldn’t have done it without everyone.” With that, the event finished. Members walked away happy, covered in powder and food.