Freddy Fixer Gala Centers Community Connection

The Breed's Rashad "Snacks" Johnson and Aaron Rogers. Lucy Gellman Photos.

Before they were ever Grammy-nominated producers, Aaron Rogers and Rashad Johnson were just kids growing up in New Haven, excited to drum in the Elm City Freddy Fixer Parade each year. Over a decade later, they can’t imagine the city without it.

Friday, the two—founders of The Breed Ent. and The Breed Academy— brought that energy to the Canal Dock Boathouse, as hundreds gathered for the Elm City Freddy Fixer Parade Committee's sixth annual gala. As awardees and supporters celebrated with dinner, dancing, and laughter-kissed speeches, all of them stressed the importance of keeping the parade alive for the next generation of Black New Haveners.

Diane X. Brown and Petisia Adger, who have kept the parade going for the last decade, have both said that this year is their last. (Read about the parade, which took place Sunday afternoon, here).

"We have been honored all over the world for what we have done in the music industry, but things like this matter the most to us," said Johnson. "We've seen it grow over the years and we're just honored to be here."

Top: Adger and Brown, who have both said that this is their last year. Bottom: William "Juneboy" Outlaw, who transformed his own experience with the carceral system into a career as a street outreach worker and author. 

Awardees included educator Mia Edmonds-Duff, arts organizer and literary luminary Shamain “Sha” McAllister, former mayoral hopeful and neighborhood champion Shafiq Abdussabur, Gorilla Lemonade’s Kristen Threatt and and Brian Burkett Thompson, Trachouse salon owner Renee Brown, Jazzy’s Cabaret’s Jason Watts, Black Wall Street's Rogers and Johnson and street outreach workers Ray Boyd and William “Juneboy” Outlaw.

In addition, Brown and Adger gave several special awards to longtime volunteers, from parade judges Adriane Jefferson and Samod Rankins to ambassadors Dougie Bethea and Rodney Williams to founding members Iman Hameen, Howard Boyd, and Jackie and Ayanna Little. A full list is available here.

Throughout the evening, awardees and hosts alike echoed the need to keep the Freddy alive, paying homage to the parade's standard-bearers while also calling for a new guard to take up the charge. Receiving the Maria Ponteau Award, Renee Brown remembered attending the parade every year as a child, a ritual for which she would pick her outfit weeks in advance.

By high school, she and her friends tried to find matching fits to be ready for parade day. It was, after all, the unofficial start of summer.

Top: Renee Brown, who owns Trachouse. Bottom: Educator Mia Edmonds-Duff, who rocked the dance floor later in the evening. 

"I'm hoping that more people start to come back out to make sure that the parade is a safe and welcoming place," she said. "Now that the community is coming together with different events and the climate of New Haven is just changing all around, I hope that there's more people out there celebrating family, celebrating community."'

"Having a community is like the number one thing to survive," she added of being a business owner, and the words resonated as attendees pondered the future of the Freddy. "Because otherwise you're not gonna want to do it."

Watts, who opened Jazzy's three years ago this September, also remembered growing up with the parade. When he was a kid, he would watch the Freddy with families from his church, Beulah Heights First Pentecostal, gathering after services on Orchard Street as the festivities started.

Now, he's excited to pass the tradition on to his 8-year-old daughter Jasmine, after whom the Ninth Square restaurant and music venue is named. In the past months alone, he added, recent highlights have included cooking for Jon Batiste and hosting Grammy-winner Nicole Zuraitis.

Top: Jason Watts with his daughter, Jasmine. Bottom: Iman Hameen, with her daughter Hanan. 

"Honestly, it was a yearly celebration of African American culture," he said. "Bands, music, dance troupes—it was just a part of my childhood. So I'm truly honored to be honored by the parade committee."

"I brought her here—" he added, gesturing to Jasmine, "So she could see the fruits of our labor, working so hard and doing all that. She gets to see the other side of it. Instead of just being stuck in the restaurant, this is a time to celebrate."

Accepting the Dr. Fred Smith award, lifelong New Havener Shafiq R. Fulcher Abdussabur acknowledged the impact that both Brown and Adger have had on not only New Haven, but also specifically on him personally and professionally.

Abdussabur, a Beaver Hills resident, artist, devoted father and retired police sergeant who last year ran for mayor, overlapped with Adger during her time in the New Haven Police Department.

Top: Abdussabur with his wife, fitness guru and bean pie baker extraordinaire Mubarakah Ibrahim. Bottom: The Legacy Band brings the vibe. 

As he watched her work—including her tenure as the city's first Black women assistant police chief—he saw her as a "long, long career mentor." So too for Brown, a "big sister" who he has worked closely with for years at the Stetson Branch Library and in the Dixwell community.

"This is a tough job," he said. "Many of you out there do work for free. Right? And that's what people really don't talk about. They don't talk about the time that you put in and the work that you never, ever get paid for. You go back home and put food on the table and figure out how you're going to close the gap ... you're just trying to keep your community, our community floating."

In the midst of that, he said, it's on New Haveners to keep the Freddy Fixer going. Growing up in Dixwell , he looked forward to the parade every year as the "best thing that was happening in New Haven," he said. When he marched last year as a parade marshal, he was proud to have his three-year-old granddaughter by his side. For him, Black New Haven has a right to those historic and intergenerational moments.

"That's what this is about!" he said. "Make sure you bring out your grandchildren, bring out your nieces, your nephews, your children, be a part of this parade. Let's keep the tradition going."

Top: ECFFPC Board Member Jacqueline Glover. Bottom: Master of Ceremonies DJ Majesty, who co-emceed with Jessica Carl. 

When it came time for them to speak, Johnson remembered joining the parade as a kid, and realizing even then how special and historic it was. Back then, he and Rogers would prepare weeks in advance, making sure their Air Force 1s and airbrushed t-shirts were ready to go. "We literally used to do that every year for like, 10 years," he said to laughs. 

"The Freddy Fixer is something that is a big part of our life and the community," added Rogers. "We really thank you guys for even asking us to be a part of the parade this year. It's an honor."

Top: Sha McAllister and her grandmother, Lillian Jones. Bottom: Rhonda Taylor and Phillip Modeen, who have both worked with Brown at the Stetson Branch of the New Haven Free Public Library. 

McAllister, a New Jersey transplant who has become a fixture in the city's arts community, agreed that the recognition spoke for itself. As a relative newcomer to the city—she has been in New Haven for a decade—she's humbled to work alongside people including Brown, and wants to see the parade continue. Friday, she had brought her whole family to celebrate the Maria Ponteau Award with her.

"I just feel so blessed. I just feel warm and fuzzy all over," she said. "As somebody who is not from here ... to be able to serve here, and to be received while serving, is just ... it don't feel like work. it never did."

"I hope that I've shown that I'm here to do my part," she added. "This is from Black people. I'm Black, so this is extremely important. To have my family come, and to know my family here, and to have it come together ... it's an honor. I don't want to cry, but it really is that for me."

“It’s Up To Us To Keep It”

Former Mayor Toni N. Harp.

Nowhere was that fierce love for the Freddy clearer, perhaps, than in an address from founding member and former Mayor Toni N. Harp, who made history when she was elected New Haven's first Black woman mayor in 2013.

Taking the podium to thunderous applause, Harp turned back the clock to her childhood in Salt Lake City, Utah, where the city celebrated its birthday (July 24, 1847, if anyone is asking) with a giant parade each year. For years, she attended in a pint-sized cowboy hat, boots and a toy pistol, eager to celebrate.

In New Haven, she said, city residents don't often have a working knowledge of when the city was formally incorporated. But they do remember when the Freddy is.

"On the last Sunday in May or the first Sunday in June, we should be having a Freddy Fixer Parade!" she said to applause. "But we haven't always had that, because as you've heard, it's a tough job to do it. It costs money. It costs organization. It costs getting people together."

She jumped back to the recent present, praising Brown and Adger for years of work on the parade. A decade ago, the two came into Harp's office at City Hall, asking her to restart the parade after years of dormancy. It wasn't a hard sell, she said with a smile.   

"You know, sometimes people don't want you to have something that represents who you are in a positive and productive way," she said to applause. A cheer of "c'mon!" rose from the middle of the crowd. "You know what I saw? All the little kids, the teenagers, they came out. Everybody had a special outfit for Freddy Fixer. Everybody was styling and profiling for Freddy Fixer. It was something that lived in the heart of this community."

Now, she continued, it's on New Haveners to keep it going. Pointing to the new Dixwell Community Q House—which she got over the finish line during her time in City Hall—she urged attendees to find and provide financial and logistical support from within the Black community. She invited Brown and Adger up to the podium one last time, presenting them with flowers so hearty each bouquet needed its own bag.

"It's all we got," she said. "And it's up to us to keep it."