“Who really give them the okay?”Kitchener asked in his 1974 calypso, recounting a J’ouvert celebration in Bed-Stuy that predated the widely accepted Flatbush origins by over a decade. His vivid account depicts revelers gathering at Franklin Avenue at 4 a.m. before parading down Fulton Street.
Maybe Kitchener was taking poetic license when he composed the song. Knowing how Trinidadians operate, he didn’t need to witness the Fulton Street episode to write the lyrics; he could paint the scene blindfolded.
Stories about J’ouvert’s Brooklyn origins vary. Oral historians draw from lived experience while academics piece together secondhand sources, creating narratives that suggest multiple truths. This layered, slippery history is part of J’ouvert’s magic: it resists being pinned down.
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