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General Pulaski Parade / Polish Parade in NYC – Part 1

October 8, 2007

I was late to the parade. I’m never late to parades! But, I was late. Okay, it wasn’t my fault (sorta):

See? It says the General Pulaski Memorial Parade started at 2pm. Nope. Try noon.

Actually, there was a link to the website that I didn’t bother to check, but it would have set me straight. I should never trust the http://www.nyc.gov “City Events Calendar”. They are wrong so often that I should only use them as a first pass.

The Pulaski Parade (or the Polish Parade or the Poland Parade or whatever you want to call it) is actually an old favorite of mine. Almost every parade has something distinctive about it, aside from the group it is dedicated to. With the Pulaski Parade, it is the “Miss Polonia” phenomenon. The Poles love to show off their attractive women and they do it with an odd flair: there can be lots of Miss Polonias. Lots of them.

In fact, I’m going to have a future post dedicated only to them. I have to admit that I find it wonderful and interesting and altogether different in a way that I like. They break it out as Miss Polonia of this place and that place and they also have “Junior Miss Polonia” or, alternatively, “Little Miss Polonia”. This year I even spotted one “Mr. Polonia”. Give me a day or two to write and post the story.

There were three parades this weekend, and each of them has the same issue: the crowds. The Korean Parade made due without a Korean viewing audience. I can tell you that there were lots and lots of Poles in the Pulaski Parade crowd and they have their own way of cheering: they have conversations with the marchers. In Polish, of course. More on that shortly.

I left my place before 1pm because I knew I needed to find a good spot. As I was getting toward 5th Avenue, I started hearing loudspeakers and music and saw a float go past! It had been going on for around an hour by the time I arrived. I felt guilty. But then I ended up staying until after 5:30pm so I think I can credit myself with having been to the parade.

Here’s what I saw at the corner of 41st Street and Fifth Avenue:

This was pretty new to me. They actually had a group introducing the floats over loudspeakers using both Polish and English. This parade, always a big one, has really stepped up to the plate. That’s the New York Public Library behind them. I had planned on getting a place on the steps, but it was jammed so I ended up going a couple of blocks south.

I saw this particular sweatshirt all over the place.

As I went along, I found a pretty good spot…defined as right near a lot of people speaking Polish amongst themselves. I love that kind of immersion.

Once I got there, I saw a Polish military contingent going by. The crowd started calling out to the marchers and the marchers starting having conversations back. There was tremendous good humor and fun in it and this picture typifies the joy I sensed in the crowd and the marchers.

I haven’t the foggiest idea of what they were talking about or what/whom was being pointed out. Okay, I said there was joy in this, but not always and not by everybody. Not a fair statement, but the dourness of this family probably belies something like being overwhelmed by what was going on and knowing they were headed toward the loudspeakers and the BIG crowd.

There was a big crowd, but it wasn’t Puerto Rican Parade big.

The following picture of a marching band is something of a mystery to me. I don’t know if it’s a traditional outfit, a comedy outfit, or a traditional comedy outfit.

There were at least two contigents of scouts. I don’t know if they are Boy and Girl Scouts or just an independent Polish version of it. The scouting concept seems pretty popular though.

The last bit I’ll mention in today’s post is actually a WWII group that commemorates the Polish contribution. When I first saw it, I first thought about how Poland had been overrun at the beginning of the war (by both Germans and Russians) and then remembered how many of its soldiers had ended up in Britain and fought on the Western Front where they faced execution if captured.

-H

Categories: Manhattan, Mid-town, Parades

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The Korean Parade on Broadway

October 7, 2007

It was a Saturday and the Korean Parade was set to go. Therefore, so was I.

The day was bright and sunny and I was interested in the parade in an odd way simply because it was on Broadway and I don’t recall having seen one on that avenue before. (There’s a sort of heirarchy of parades where certain avenues such as Fifth get the biggest and the smaller ones go to other streets such as Madison and 2nd and 6th.) There had been no publicity about the Korean Parade that I was aware of, which for me tends to mean a small parade which is often very interesting. Yet, there really isn’t a big link that I’m aware of between mid-town Broadway and the Korean community. There is a huge community out in Queens and I’m sure many live in Manhattan, but I was wondering why they weren’t holding it in Queens. (On the other hand, I don’t think many Nigerians live on Second Avenue, but their consulate is there and is probably a hub of their social network.) Nevertheless, I expected to see an interesting parade with some very interesting displays.

And I got it.

The parade started just about on time with the usual “cops on horses”.

The parade was from 41st Street down to 23rd. I was at 37th. The day was a bright and sunny day, but I had positioned myself in a shadier area. Later, as the earth kept turning and the sun kept creeping in, the brightness would become an issue.

There were really two signature parts of the parade. Well, maybe it’s better to say that there were two sights in the parade that I found more interesting than the others. First, was what I can only refer to as the “head whirl”. This was a marcher who had a sort of whirligig on his/her head that had a long white ribbon. By twisting the head just right, the ribbon would circle the user. It was a very nice visual.

Later in the parade, there would be a number of the headwhirlers walking together, appropriately spaced out of course.

A common sight and sound during the parade were the drummers. In the below case, wearing a hat/headcovering that was very colorful.

The music was pleasant, the drumming was very good; but the crowd was sparse.

Note that the crowd wasn’t particularly Korean, either. It wasn’t quite as lopsided as the Nigerian Parade (where I think maybe I saw very few Nigerians who weren’t in the parade), but there were very few Korean nationals in the crowd.

The usual dignitaries did arrive.

As usual, I’ve no idea who they are.

I didn’t see a single New York politician participating.

There were a number of social groups that participated. Among them were the Korean-Germany Association.

Another group was the Sygnman Rhee Association that commemorates the first post-WWII Korean president. There were Korean-American police officers, a group that maintains cultural ties for Koreans adopted by Americans, and Korean Air had a nice float (pic below).

My favorite group was this bunch: Korean War Veterans. Technically, the war continues but this group may have taken part in that incredible 1950-53 part of the war.

Getting back to the “signature” parts of the parade, the second most arresting visual was something that was called “The Royal Procession of Great King Sejong”. It took up the entire middle part of the parade. There were two characters who may have portrayed the Great King, but neither was marked as such. Here are some pictures from the procession.

The horns they were playing gave out sort of a kazoo-sound. Actually, it sounded much better than that, but that’s the closest I can describe it.

This section was a very solemn procession, but I did catch one guy showing some personality.

But note the paucity, even the absence of viewers behind him (on the sunny side of the street).

During this time, some of the head-whirlers gave a display. Very well done, but impossible to really capture in still pictures.

And, probably, one of the Great King characters.

Later, another figure may have also been the King.

I often talk about the “men in skirts” phenomenon. They sort of had it here, but they were more robes than a native dress that resembled the modern skirt. I’ve also mentioned a character with a beard wearing a skirt (and parrot and tie-dyed dog): not seen at this parade.

But this was a new one: women in beards.

They looked like they were portraying ancient scholars. I don’t know if they’re being women was important to the storyline or whether they just needed people in the march. Doesn’t matter, but it is still unique in my experience.

Part of the procession had a large drum with one person at each end banging on it. It sounded good. But, once again, note the absence of a crowd watching.

An auto company had a car with a woman in national dress.

There were several martial arts displays. The age ranges were generally pretty young.

The pictures above and below are two of my favorites. It’s all about their attitudes.

Four girls, four attitudes. And the little boy looks ready for any trouble that may come his way.

And the drummers were everywhere.

I liked this character. He was having a grand time.

And cops weren’t the only ones on horses.

But probably my favorite visual was this picture. It just shouts out something very…Korean.

An ancient and deep culture.

It was a long parade with lots of pagentry and color. Overall, it was an excellent display, but to so few of us that it loses a lot of its power. I always say that much of a parade’s appeal is in its audience. The two spectacles feed each other and make each other better.

Speaking of this, being New York there had be “another”. During the parade, I saw one nearby member of the crowd occasionally going out into the parade and taking pictures. He had a tripod, seemed to “belong” out there, but didn’t appear to be an official photographer. Right after I saw the “women in beards”, he and I talked (I wanted to make absolutely sure they were women because I was seeing them from a little distance, despite my camera zoom). It turns out that he’s originally from Russia and goes to all the parades! Kind of like Famous Ankles (excepting being Russian). We compared stories and it turns out he’s gone to a lot of the same parades as I have, although he’s more interested in the native costumes and cultures rather than the actual parades. His photos are strictly for his own viewing and he takes far fewer than I do.

Nevertheless, we both agreed that the day, although beautiful, was way too sunny and set off too many shadows that didn’t photograph well. I took tons of photos (actually more than 300), but there’s absolutely no room for such volume here.

This weekend has two more parades and we each intend to go to both. I doubt we’ll see each other as they are much, much larger than the Korean Parade.

But, it was nice meeting you Victor. Have fun.

-H

Categories: Broadway, Events, Manhattan, Mid-town, Parades

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Got Ogbono? The Nigerian Independence Parade

October 1, 2007

I was all set for what I thought would be a real downer of a parade. I expected to almost revel in how minor an event it would be. But the Nigerians ended up coming through with a pretty good parade.

Last year, I had accidently run into the parade on my way home from some wanderings and had been entranced/bemused by the display. I had seen a series of flatbed trucks packed with people just bouncing to some loud music; most of them didn’t even have any banners on the flatbeds. The parade moved incredibly slowly and I had done my grocery shopping at one point and when I came out, the parade had barely moved.

And I expected just about the same this year. But that wasn’t to happen. This year, I went out a little early for the parade and found myself a good spot around 47th. The parade was on 2nd Avenue and the cops had blocked off about half of the street (lengthwise) and still let two lanes continue on.

The parade was to start at 1pm. Well, that time came and went and all that I was seeing were me and the cops. There was a flow of Nigerians (discernable from their green and white clothing) heading northward, where the parade was to begin. A perverse part of me started to think that perhaps that was the parade…just an occasional group of one or two or five people on the sidewalk. That would have been even more low-key than last year.

At 1:25pm, it was still just me and the cops. Amazing.

At 1:30, I started to hear some music in the distance and people started to line up at the barricades. By 1:45, I’ve seen the beginning of the parade. The parade started 54th Street, so it had taken them 45 minutes or so to get 6 blocks…if they had started on time.

Finally, they arrived. This is the only Manhattan parade that I’ve been at the very beginning and not seen the cops on horses. Nor were there any politicians; although that’s happened a number of times. But they did have the other staple: the dignitaries.

Of course, I haven’t the slightest idea of who any of them are. But this guy looked pretty impressive.

It was interesting that a lot of the Nigerians were happy to pose for photos during the parade. I have to admit I liked that a lot. Usually, marchers are caught up in what they’re doing or talking with their friends or even talking on cell phones.

There were a number of different groups that came through. None of them were slickly produced or had expensively created stuff. Here are a couple of examples.

The parade had one marching band. I don’t know if they had any direct connections to Nigeria as one of the members handed me a card when he saw me taking pictures. The band is called the “Pan-American Marching Band of New York”. Nevertheless, they were good and loud; and that counts for a lot in a marching band.

But they did have some company that looked very Nigerian.

The parade was reasonably long, but the highlight of the parade came with the MoneyGram float. They were playing some loud recorded music and, during a pause in their slow progress, some of the float riders decided to dance. It was great!

And I’d be remiss not to mention that the parade did have another standard item in the parade: men in skirts. Okay, these guys cheated by also wearing pants, but I think the streak of every parade having some men in some sort of skirt does continue.

There were a number of other floats and groups and the like. But one of the more interesting items about the parade was, as usual, the crowd.

As parade viewers go, this was a pretty diverse set of people. But I think the key is that most of the Nigerians on Second Avenue during that perfect Saturday afternoon were actually in the street marching with their countrymen.

An aside: just before the parade started, a woman had come by to find out what was going on. I told her about the parade and how I had expected it to be a poorly executed and viewed parade based on what I had seen last year. I think this caught her attention and she stuck around for most of the parade. She’s with a well-known foreign policy thinktank (in a staff support role) and may simply have had a sympathetic reaction to such a pronouncement. Instead, she got a pretty good parade and she was actually very supportive of the groups that were marching past. (My apologies for leading you astray.)

And finally: ogbono. I dunno. It was on a shirt that I saw. Apparently ogbono is a type of nut that Nigerians use to make a variety of their staple foods.

-H

Categories: Events, Manhattan, Mid-town, Parades

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Ankling to Harlem’s African-American Day Parade

September 18, 2007

You can’t keep me out of Harlem too long. And I had a great excuse for going back: a parade.

A strange parade. A political parade. A pretty fun parade. The bad part: it was on the same day as the Mexican Day Parade and one day after the Steuben Day Parade. I was pretty much paraded out. But I had to go, if only to complain about having too much to do on a NYC weekend. And NYC can keep you very busy, even if you don’t go clubbing or whatever. Hey, I’m cheap and the parades are free.

Another bit of bad news. In the two days of parades, I had neglected to re-charge my camera’s battery. It started getting low during the Mexican Day Parade and I had to conserve power. That’s one of the reasons that my Mexican Day pictures were more sparse than the Steuben Day Parade and why this post will also have relatively fewer pictures.

On the other hand, the African-American Day Parade had fewer can’t-miss-this-picture shots. The parade was interesting, but the best parts were all about movement and it’s hard to capture the movement in a shot.

For example, one of the first sights was this group. (REMEMBER, you can enlarge the photo by clicking it.)

Great music, but the dance sequence they did, where they all did a sort of “bust-out” move was unexpected and way too quick for me to capture. I tried, but the move was sudden as they all moved to the side while playing. They were a little distant from me when they did it. I waited for another, but no-go.

Some of the costumes were great. There was a lot of Egyptian motif stuff at the parade. This group had the best of the costumes, but they weren’t alone.

Note the group toward the back. Recognize what they’re carrying?

Yeah, Anubis and Sobek and others….escorting a version of the Hebrew Ark of the Covenant. A little bizarre bit of mix and match, methinks. (You know it’s the Ark because of the Cherubim are on it. Yeah, Famous Ankles knows of the cherubim.)

One of the more disconcerting moments came shortly after the Egyptians. It was a pretty small group, but very loud. They were calling for reparations in a call-and-response with a bullhorn. Some members of the crowd joined in, not many. But when people start calling out “They stole us, they owe us” with me there, I get a little uneasy. Hey, I didn’t do it, folks. They also showed signs saying “Mugabe is right”, and I’m no fan of the president of Zimbabwe.

A couple of them were really photogenic and I would have loved a photo. But I thought it was the better part of disgression….

They also were calling for Harlem to be left alone (“They are pushing us out of Harlem” was repeated on the bullhorn a number of times). They don’t want it developed. Sorry, folks, but that ain’t gonna happen. Harlem’s way too interesting to be left a backwater.

The African-American and the Steuben Day Parades both shared a large measure of traditional parade type displays. I really, really liked this group on all levels.

“Miss Hal Jackson’s Talented Teens” all done up and looking very retro. Very cool. There was a larger group behind them. The most fun part is that they had developed their own way of waving to the crowd. It looked very much like a variation on how Queen Elizabeth does is (by holding the hand and wrist steady and just twisting the forearm). There was a slight other arm movement that I can’t quite remember, but I think you can tell I had a fine moment waving to them.

The majority of the parade was civic minded, very unlike the Mexican Day Parade. There were several groups with similar name variations. The first and the one that the crowd seemed to cheer the most was called “100 Black Men“. It was a pretty well spread-out group so I only got a quick photo (and my battery was showing near empty). There were groups with names like 100 Black Women and, I think, 100 Black Young Men.

There were a couple of African Chieftan versions.

The guy above never looked in my direction. I kept waiting for a good shot, but apparently he knew some people on the other side as he greeted one guy and two children with him. But the guy below was a big hit with the crowd.

It was a very traditional parade in another way: politics. They were everywhere in the parade. Anthony Weiner did show up. He didn’t have a bullhorn so I guess it wasn’t his favorite kind of parade. I’ve noticed he has a trick when he goes without the bullhorn: he does a lot of running. He’ll meet and greet members of the crowd (always being followed by a staffer with a sign saying “Meet Congressman Anthony Weiner”) and then he’ll suddenly take off at a sprint to a distant part across the street.

In other politics, there was a group that did a Hillary Clinton versus Barak Obama question that was kind of loaded.

The backs of the shirts said “Let the people decide between Clinton and Obama” and some placards that read something like “Who says that Clinton represents us?” or something like that.

As I always say, the crowd is half the show. One thing about this crowd was they had no compunctions about their comfort or in making themselves heard.

Notice the chairs. Lots of the first spots next to the barricades were held by people who had brought chairs from home. Some were nice chairs, some wicker, some were cheap. But all looked relatively comfortable. For a while, I stood behind a woman who had a chair that looked designed for the day. Lightweight, with a high back and even a cupholder. I was rather envious.

The crowd did a fair amount of whooping and cheering. Lots of whistles and the like. Behind me, there was a line of vendors plying their trade. A lot of people would get up from their chairs to grab something to eat/drink and then go back to their seats. You can’t do that at most parades as people will stand where you were standing.

There were a number of other groups. Lots of civil service groups, including the transportation workers. Well, I’ve seen them at other parades, but they never paraded with a bus!

Actually, they had two. There were large groups of police marchers, corrections officers, sanitation workers, and educators.

The group below is associated with some civic group called “North Star”. It was more than the wheelchair group, but they were the most interesting part of it.

The Muslims were present, too. But I noticed very few Christian Church groups. In fact, I only spotted one. It was the only group that was calling for peace in Darfur. I would have expected more mention of Darfur, but I think I only saw one other placard in a different group.

The NAACP had a fair sized group under the banner of “Legislate justice for all.” (I don’t think a lawyer wrote that slogan.) There was a cancer survivors group and a HIV-awareness group.

McDonalds sponsored a dance group, complete with Ronald McDonald. The dancers were great, but Ronald was the crowd favorite in that group.

There was one very odd group: Brahma Kumaris. They appeared to be almost all of India nationality.

One odd group (hey, it’s a NYC parade and it needs lots of “odd groups”) was some bodybuilders and physical fitness types who carried a pullup bar and did exhibitions of strength.

A bunch of them also did pushups and some general running around. No placards identifying them, but they did appear to be a Muslim group.

Another group identified with American Indians. They didn’t mention any tribal identifiers so I don’t know if it is an official association with them or not.

You know, I’ve gotten this far and barely mentioned the music! It was loud and continuous. There were lots and lots of marching bands and quite a few radio stations blaring out rap and the like. Fun stuff, I just wish I had remembered ear plugs. I think everyone can enjoy every kind of music at a parade, it passes by quickly and is often replaced by something altogether different. The crowd was into it. You could always spot someone doing some bouncing/dancing to the music.

I did mention the vendors. I walked the parade route from 125th down to 110th (it actually did go up to around 140th – it’s a big parade). There were vendors all along the way.

They sold everything. For a while there was a young girl walking back and forth calling our what was for sale. Always one item only (an air horn or camera were what she was selling). She seemed to be doing a good business.

After a while, the sun was getting too much. I ended up close to the beginning point of the parade where there was some nice shade.

I finally ended up walking through the setup area of the parade and on the other side I saw an unusual sight.

I don’t know if they had been at the very beginning of the parade and I missed them, but saw them coming back to load up; or whether they were scheduled to go later on. In either case, I was tuckered out and needed to go home. And did.

Overall, a wonderful parade. Big and loud with a crowd to match.

When I first contemplated doing three parades in the weekend, I thought about ranking them. The more I thought about it the more I realized such a ranking couldn’t capture the ways that the groups attempted to portray themselves to the viewers and to their peers. Each had elements that I really liked, but for different reasons; and each had points that I couldn’t really get into. But they’re free and they’re the creation of a whole host of individuals who are just trying to put forth their best face. And I think they do.

-H

Categories: Events, Harlem, Manhattan, Parades

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Manhattan and the Mexican Day Parade

September 17, 2007

This weekend, I decided to check out two very different parades: the Steuben Day Parade (very German) and the Mexican Day Parade. I ended up doing three (including the African-American Day Parade).

Nevertheless, the two initial parades were very different. If you’ve read my other parade posts, you’ll note the audience reaction is a key point in my evaluation. The Mexicans reacted loudly with flag-waving and singing and shouting and whistling. A fun and enthusiastic crowd.

There was the usual crowd of dignitaries whom I didn’t recognize.

It always helps to have a camera and a reporter to get the crowd roaring though.

You can’t see the female reporter here, but she went back and forth throughout the parade. Distance-wise, it was a relatively short parade (27th to 41st, going north to south on Madison Avenue). Any Madison Avenue parade is, in my way of looking at them, a second-tier parade. I think the Mexicans need to move to Fifth or 6th next time. Too much crowd and noise and fun for a Madison Avenue parade. (Note that some of my favorite parades have been on Madison, it’s just that those tend to be less well-attended.)

An old mystery was solved. At the Dominican Day Parade, I saw a weird figure that I thought was a Dominican folk character. In that case, this bearded guy in a dress with a parrot on his head was running around. Well, he showed up at the Mexican Day Parade. He’s no folk character. Just a weird guy.

He also has a dyed dog. He must have shown up five times during the parade. Enough said about the guy.

The parade was pretty typical. They had very loud music (I forgot my earplugs, of course) and floats and dancers. Lots and lots of dancers.

Perhaps my favorite moment was an oddball one. Some of the crowd had perched on top of a phone across the street. A cop went over and rousted them. Hey, join the club.

In terms of the parade itself, nothing beat the “dancing conquistadors”. There were a bunch of them.

And they danced. Danced big time.

There were even other versions of them.

But there were other dancers. Really good ones, and very traditional.

There was a group of Mexican soap opera actors.

Or that could have been a channel 41 news crew…I’m not sure. There was one stunning blonde that I got a bad picture of (she sure wasn’t part of the news crew).

And another cool part of the parade…lowriders. Cars and bicycles.

There were maybe 40 or 50 cars. Some of them had the bouncing hydraulics, which the crowd loved. And then it ground to a halt.

Yeah, the car on the left broke down. After a few minutes they pushed it off the street.

The cars were fine, but the bikes were more fun.

There were a bunch of them. Lots of chrome, chains, and bad taste.

A group that I had passed on my way back from Church arrived. Little Aztec girls. Very cute.

(Another picture that I had taken and thought was perfect was actually pretty bad.)

Then, Aztec women.

And finally, Aztec….creatures?

Okay, obviously Aztec men, but stylized like the conquistadors. I don’t know why.

At this point, I knew the parade was winding down and that I needed to get to Harlem for the African-American Parade. So I left. I missed maybe another 20 minutes or so, at least by my reckoning.

A good parade. I’m going to have to resist the temptation to rate the parades. I really did like the Steuben Day Parade for its traditional look and feel and for the fact that they didn’t do recorded music. Most of the Mexican Day Parade music was also generated live, but they really love the amplifiers, which were almost unknown in the Steuben Day Parade. The crowd reaction from the Germans was, of course, much more muted than the Mexicans; but both crowds seemed to enjoy the events. I know I did.

-H

Categories: Events, Manhattan, Mid-town, Parades

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