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[Last name, First name], Oral history interview conducted by [Interviewer’s First name Last name], [Month DD, YYYY], [Title of Collection], [Call #]; Brooklyn Historical Society.
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Joyce Quamina
Oral history interview conducted by Bill Pincheon
June 23, 1994
Call number: 2010.019.20
504
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Interview Description
Oral History Interview with Joyce Quamina
Joyce Quamina was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad. In 1969, she immigrated to the United States and settled in Brooklyn, New York. A participant of Carnival in her native Trinidad, Quamina was a spectator of the original West Indian American parades in Harlem, New York and became an active participant when the parade began in Brooklyn, New York. In 1994, at the time of the interview, she was the business manager of the West Indian American Day Carnival Association (WIADCA). Quamina was the founder and organizer of the Carnival's Kiddies Carnival; an event in which children between the ages of infancy and sixteen participate in their own mas or masquerade parade. She was also a contributor to the Westchester County Caribbean Carnival, in White Plains, New York. After retiring from WIADCA, Quamina continued as a business consultant for the association.
This is the second of two interviews with Joyce Quamina. The first interview was conducted on May 12, 1994. Here Quamina provides a more in depth discussion of her role as the West Indian American Day Carnival Association business manager. She discusses the process of registering vendors, acquiring information for the press and media outlets, and booking the performers for concerts conducted behind the Brooklyn Museum. Quamina relates her experiences initiating the Kiddies Carnival and the Junior Steel Band Panorama, noting the importance of each in ensuring the continuation of the Carnival and as a source for providing summer activities for community children. She provides an assessment of the future struggles of the Carnival, noting that obtaining consistent sponsorship will continue to be central to the Carnival's survival. Quamina discusses the history of the pan steel band in Trinidad and the United States, specifically addressing the role of girls and women. She also relates her opinions of the continuing cultural conflict between the Hasidic Jewish and West Indian communities of Crown Heights. Interview conducted by Bill Pincheon.
The West Indian Carnival Documentation Project records include photographs, oral histories (audio and transcripts), publications and research, and ephemeral materials relating to the Carnival and the project itself. The materials were collected and created within the context of a documentation project undertaken by the Brooklyn Historical Society in 1994, which later culminated in an exhibition. Exhibition materials are not included in the collection.
Citation
Quamina, Joyce, Oral history interview conducted by Bill Pincheon, June 23, 1994, West Indian Carnival Documentation Project records, 2010.019.20; Brooklyn Historical Society.People
- Quamina, Joyce
- West Indian American Day Carnival Parade (Brooklyn, N.Y.)
- West Indian-American Day Carnival Association
Topics
- Caribbean Americans
- Carnival
- Emigration and immigration
- Ethnic identity
- Immigrants
- Jews
- Multiculturalism
- Parades
- Race relations
- Trinidadian Americans
Places
- Brooklyn (New York, N.Y.)
- Crown Heights (New York, N.Y.)
- Eastern Parkway (New York, N.Y.)
Transcript
Download PDFFinding Aid
West Indian Carnival Documentation Project records