Freddy Fixer Dances Down Dixwell Avenue

Top: Elite Drill Squad & Drum Corps. Bottom: "Atomic Veteran" Hank Bolden with longtime ECFFPC volunteer and board member Monique Cain and James "Dinky" Johnson. Lucy Gellman Photos. 

The drums seemed to emanate from every direction, ringing Dixwell Avenue into being. In the center of the road, Ya’nae Whitebritt and Ja’mese Hunter placed their hands on their hips, looked to fellow members of Elite Drill Squad & Drum Corps, and began to step. As their blue tassels bounced through the air, hundreds of New Haveners cheered them on.

Rolling drums, synchronized and sequin-clad dancers, Elm City jazz legends and dozens of marching units took over Dixwell Avenue Sunday afternoon, as the Elm City Freddy Fixer Parade returned for its 57th year in New Haven. As it traveled from Newhallville into Dixwell, it drew generations of Black New Haveners, for whom the parade has become an annual tradition.

It also marked a bittersweet goodbye: Elm City Freddy Fixer Parade Committee (ECFFPC) Board Members Diane Brown and Petisia Adger, who have helped steer the parade for the past decade, both announced their departure earlier this year. After trying to pass the baton more than once, both have said they do not plan to return. 

Top: Diane Brown, in a fit from Donald Carter. Bottom, clockwise: Eli Bolden, Kim Harris and Jayden Bolden, the Wilbur Cross High School Marching Band, members of Magic Soul Drumline, luminaries Babz Rawls-Ivy and IfeMichelle Gardin cheer marchers on. 

“It feels good to be here,” said Brown Sunday, as volunteers buzzed from unit to unit in yellow and purple t-shirts. “I’m tired, but it feels good. It’s time for me to spend time with my family, with my son, with my grandchildren.”

In their final year, Brown and Adger brought together 80 marching units, including a tribute to jazz greats Hank Bolden, Jesse “Cheese” Hameen and James “Dinky” Johnson. They tapped fashion icon Donald Carter as artistic director, celebrating the parade in purple-and-gold style. With a panel of judges, they also reveled in a number of prizes (see all of them here), from best marching unit to the Elm City Freddy Fixer Spirit Award.

Well before the parade began Sunday, they were on site with a small army of volunteers, ready to check people in as the morning clouds gave way to sun, and the temperatures continued to climb. As hundreds of people lined up, decades of parade stories wove between them, a history of family and legacy embedded in each.

Top: Dynamic U students Tameir Cruz, Kayron Brooks, and Cayden Brooks. Bottom, clockwise: James Hillhouse Marching Band member Zariah Dumas, Hafeeza Ture, Zariyah Whitehurst, Belito Garcia and Arden Santana. 

In a lot beside Visels Pharmacy, lifelong New Havener William Moore watched students run through an array of jujitsu moves, some punching out into the warm air as others bent at the knees and kicked outward. Born and raised in New Haven, Moore grew up with the Freddy, watching his dad Mustafa help build out the event’s infrastructure for several years.

“It has to be a family event, he said. In years past, that has meant he attends the parade with his parents, siblings, cousins. This year, he chose to march with his students from Dynamic U, a dojo on Whalley Avenue that teaches jujitsu and aikido. Just like the Freddy, he said, his mission is “to keep young people off the streets and motivated.”

“We get to represent our dojo!” chimed in student Tamir Criuz, a sixth grader at Ridge Hill School who holds a green belt. “It’s really an honor.”

At a volunteer table nearby, Hafeeza Ture called it a full-circle moment. Growing up around the corner from Visels on Willis Street, “you prepared for months” before the Freddy arrived, so that everything would be in order. By middle school, she was part of a championship-winning New Haven double dutch league that marched in the parade. While the league fizzled ended, the Freddy stayed with her.    

“I think it’s important to give energy to the things that have historic meaning,” she said. “Look at all the young people that are part of it.”

Top: Dinky Johnson. Bottom: Members of The Majorette Dance Factory, directed by Johnny Johnson.

That sense of obligation—and of hope—echoed over Dixwell Avenue as marching units got into position, some fanning themselves or loosening their layers of wool, lycra, spandex and polyester in the rising heat. Watching the James Hillhouse High School band warm up, jazz legend James “Dinky” Johnson perched one hand on the front seat of his ride, the other resting gingerly on his cane.

“This is wonderful!” he said as the band flowed into Bill DeVoe’s “Poison,” trombone heavy on the hook. During his own childhood in New Haven, Johnson got used to hearing that there was no money for music equipment in the schools, let alone band uniforms or field trips. He’s never forgotten the teacher who, in fifth grade, put a horn in his hand for the first time.

That moment—and the sweet music it made—inspired his own career as a musician, an educator, and the owner of Dinkie’s, a jazz club on Dixwell Avenue. In 1957, Johnson started his teaching career at Fair Haven School, then a junior high school. New Haven became his home. It meant that the Freddy Fixer, which started as a neighborhood clean up in 1962, was part of his adult life for decades.

“We would meet at the Elks Club,” he said with a smile, looking down the avenue as if he could see the building’s now-demolished shell. This year, he was proud to be returning to it as part of New Haven’s living history, with the hopes of inspiring the next generation of Black musicians, culture bearers, and small business owners in the city.

Top: Samantha Myers Galberth, owner of Style 2000. The salon later won the Grand Marshal’s Award for its costumes, designed by artist Edmund "B-Wak" Comfort. Bottom: Jeremiah, Leah, and London with Angel and Rynell Eady. All three kids agreed that the drumming and dance were the highlight of the parade.  

Beside him, ECFFPC member Monique Cain checked in to see if there was anything he needed, regal in a purple t-shirt and matching white and purple sash. Just days earlier on Friday night, she had been among several longtime volunteers and board members to receive recognition from the committee. Sunday, she celebrated by hopping into the driver’s seat, driving through decades of New Haven music history as she stepped gently on the gas. 

Standing nearby, “Atomic Veteran” and fellow jazz legend Hank Bolden bobbed to the steady bass of the Hillhouse drumline, smiling as he soaked in the sun with his son, Anthony “Blaze” Bolden. A founding member of the Flaming Knights Motorcycle Club, Blaze has taken part in the parade for years; at this point, it's family tradition. Beside him, his dad called it “a blessing” to be part of the festivities. Now in his 80s, Bolden never thought he’d be in the parade—but said that coming back to Dixwell Avenue felt right.

Growing up around Ashmun Street, Bolden can still remember the early years of the parade, and the joy he got from seeing it travel from Dixwell Avenue to downtown New Haven. He was no stranger to Dixwell: he spent years sneaking into the storied Monterey Club before he was old enough to play, and then years playing at the club when he became a genius on the saxophone.

The Guns Down Books Up crew marches in memory of Wallace. 

Meanwhile his late brother, Leroy, founded the Flaming Knight in 1968—just six years after the Freddy started. The Freddy was part of what it meant to be Black and live in New Haven. 

But back then, “I had no reason to even think that in the future, I’d be a part of it,” Bolden said. With just half an hour to go until step off, he added, he was hoping for a day filled with “peace and love.”

As attendees began to gather on the sidewalk, members of Elite Drill Squad & Drum Corps danced to the music, braids tightly wound and swinging in the summery air. Jayda Hunter, a sophomore at Wilbur Cross High School, praised the day as a sort of family reunion. With her sister Ja’mese and members of Elite, she’s been part of the parade for four years.

Just a few feet away, Guns Down Books Up President Hope Wallace-Howard double checked the organization’s banner, decorated as a tribute to Founder and her younger brother Ray Wallace. Earlier this year, Wallace died unexpectedly at just 58. This year, she was marching with friends and family members as a way to both honor and carry on her baby brother’s legacy.

“What we strive for is excellence and success,” she said. “We want everyone to know that there’s a better way [than violence]. That’s what my brother would have wanted.” 

Top: Members of the Village Drill Team & Drum Corps, helmed by Tayvon Berryman. Bottom: Sharon McLeod, Dream Harrington, Skyler Powell, Tiffanie Holmes, Shabrena Hammonds, Kiara Turner and Journee Harrington. 

For so many there Sunday, it was a family affair. As Adger leaned down to fuss over 3-year-old New Havener Dream Harrington, the toddler giggled and waved a cluster of blue streamers through the air. This year, she and her sister Journee mark three generations of marching in and attending the Freddy.

“This is a family tradition!” said proud auntie Tiffanie Holmes, who has attended it with her sister and mom on and off for decades. Beside her, Dream pumped her arms up and down, and the streamers glowed in the sunlight.  “Everything we do is about exposing kids to the community at large and giving back.”

“I love it,” chimed in Sharon MCLeod, the matriarch of the family. Growing up in Church Street South, she never missed a parade year. Now she’s passing that on to her granddaughters.

Percel Boyd: A tradition that he's excited to pass on to his daughter. 

Just a block away at Dixwell Avenue and Bassett Street, a fleet of police motorcycles revved their engines, signaling the start of the parade. Behind them, Dixwell Avenue burst into sound and color and movement as marching units lurched forward. On both sides of Bassett Street, a wave of excitement traveled down the sidewalks, where dozens more marchers, parade floats, and cars waited to join the action.

As he unwrapped a pink, cloud-like plume of cotton candy for his daughter Samiyra, attendee Percel Boyd declared the parade “the nicest one they’ve had in a long time.” Born and raised in Newhallville, where he still lives with his family today, “this was something we always looked forward to,” he said. He loves the idea of Samiyra, who is two, also growing up with it as part of her summer.   

Closer to Dixwell and Thompson Street, siblings Vondeen and Alonzo Ricks found a patch of shade and set up their lawn chairs, cheering on an event they’ve attended since they were kids growing up in the Hill. For years, Vondeen marched as a member of the Prince Street School drill team, which ceased to exist decades ago. At some point Alonzo joined her as a member of the Betsy Ross Arts Magnet School band. While he now lives in Atlanta, he loves coming home to tradition.

Siblings Vondeen and Alonzo Ricks with Vondeen's dog, 14-year-old Max. 

“It was always such a big event,” said Vondeen as she cheered on a group of breast cancer survivors. In her lap, her 14-year-old poodle, Max, watched young musicians from Roberto Clemente Academy lift their horns and flutes and begin to play. “We looked forward to this every year.”

“It’s amazing!” added Alonzo. “I love to see all of the young kids participating.”

That sense—that it’s on a new generation to take up the Freddy—was everywhere, from knots of children on Bassett Street to drumlines with members who haven’t yet celebrated their seventh or eighth birthdays. Before the parade began Sunday, both Brown and Adgre stressed the importance of a younger guard taking up the charge, to keep it going as they join the ranks of community elders.

Musician Moe Peace. 

As he watched the action unfold from his front yard, musician Moe Peace remembered watching the Freddy for years, as new marching units joined its ranks and parents, aunts, uncles and cousins put aside work for a day to be with each other. “It was always a family event,” he said.

Now that he’s grown, he can’t imagine summer in New Haven without it. When he heard that Brown and Adger would be stepping down, he worried for the future of the parade. Sunday, he said that he hopes young people take it up to keep it going.

“It’s an evolution,” he said. “For sure, it’s something we can’t lose.”    

The team at New Haven Reads rocks their literacy-focused mission!

Gary Dixon and Naiani Barrett, both wearing clothes by Donald Carter. 

Close to the parade's terminus at Dixwell Avenue and Foote Street. 

Delta Sigma Theta New Haven Alumnae Chapter First Vice President Katrina Rice and President Paula Irvin. Rice will step up as president in July.  

Members of Zeta Phi Beta march. "This is family," said Freddy Fixer Awardee Sha McAllister. 

Artsucation Academy Network Founder Hanan Hameen representing the Official Juneteenth Coalition of Greater New Haven. This year, celebrations unfold from June 14 through 17 downtown. 

For more from the parade, check out the Arts Council's Instagram or I Love New Haven.