21991: Esser: Flag Day events Sunday in Spring Valley and Brooklyn (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: D. Esser torx@joimail.com

www.hardbeatnews.com

May 2, 2004

SPRING VALLEY, N.Y., Fri. May 21: Internationally acclaimed Haitian
singer and composer Emeline Michel is among the performers set to
take the stage in Spring Valley this weekend for the 14th annual
parade to commemorate Haiti's Flag Day.

A fair featuring arts, crafts, food and music will also be part of
this year's parade, which according to the Journal News, is being
presented under the theme, "Motivate, Mobilize and Organize."

Organizers told the paper the event is meant to inspire dejected
Haitians around the world to take pride in their nation's
achievements and unite to improve the country.

Jean-Yves Charlot, IFG's executive director, said Haiti and it's flag
would always stand as symbols of pride and urged Haitians to emulate
the example of Americans, who he said displayed their patriotic pride
particularly during times of great distress.

Rockland is home to 30,000 people of Haitian descent, community
activists say, although the 2000 census puts the county's Haitian
population at 11,000. Spring Valley has the largest concentration of
Haitian residents in the county.

Meanwhile, the celebration of Haiti continues in Brooklyn next
weekend. On Sunday, May 30, a parade of Haitian pride will be held on
Nostrand Ave. in Crown Heights and Flatbush to commemorate the
bicentennial of the Caribbean nation.

It will conclude with a fair in the park at Nostrand and Foster
Avenues. Fifteen floats, beauty queens, deejays, musical bands and
drum corps are set to participate, parade official James Debrosse,
told the NY Daily News recently. For information about the parade or
for sponsorships, call (718) 740-3000 or (718) 434-9250..