Freddy Fixer Returns Joyfully To Dixwell Avenue

Top: Members of Infamous Fusion Drill Team and Drum Core. Middle: Students from Elm City College Prep, including Asca Azcona, Yamile Castillo, Binta Dem, and D'Maria Coleman. Bottom: Longtime Newhallville resident Helen Adams and her four great-grandchildren Amir, Amiyah, Lander and Mason. Lucy Gellman Photos.

It was just beyond the corner of Willis Street that Helen Adams first heard the strains of Kirk Franklin’s “Melodies from Heaven,” rolling off Dixwell Avenue in a way that stretched Sunday morning worship right into the afternoon. On a patch of grass down the block, a few neighbors raised their hands skyward, letting the sun spill over their faces. Somewhere in the distance, the blue-and-silver sequins of the Majorette & Dance Factory caught in the light and gleamed.

At Adams’ feet, her four great-grandchildren looked out onto the street, and marveled at a neighborhood that had come out to celebrate. Everywhere, there was the sound of summer arriving: undulating, heartbeat-like drums, hundreds of syncopated footfalls, the growl of motorcycle engines a few blocks behind. It was here.

Sunday afternoon, thousands of people lined Dixwell Avenue for the return of the Elm City Freddy Fixer Parade, as close to 100 marching units made their way down the wide, long street to drums, propulsive drill routines, balloon-festooned floats and enough Elm City pride to last at least the whole month of June. Drenched in bright sunlight and hours of cheering and applause, the event marked the unofficial start of summer in New Haven, with a celebration that included at least four generations and often felt like a family reunion.

For the fourth consecutive year, it has been made possible by members of the Elm City Freddy Fixer Parade Committee (ECFFPC), this year helmed by President Reese McLeod-Brunson, Parade Coordinator Krista Gibbs, and a dedicated team that is entirely volunteer-based. This year, the parade’s theme was “Honoring the Past, Inspiring the Future."

Reese McLeod-Brunson: Months of hard work for this moment.

“It’s here! It’s the grand finale [to Freddy Fixer weekend],” said McLeod-Brunson, her purple Freddy Fixer t-shirt clinched at the waist as she made her way up and down Dixwell Avenue Sunday morning. After a 400-person gala Friday night and Dixwell neighborhood festival Saturday, she was excited for the main event. A pair of fabric earrings with black fringe bobbed gleefully as she spoke. “The Elm City Freddy Fixer is about legacy, and we are honoring that today.”

The Freddy Fixer Parade was originally founded as a community clean-up in 1962, by New Haveners Frederick F. Smith, Edna Carnegie-Baker, and Charles Twyman. In the decades since, it has become a rich and storied neighborhood tradition. At its wildly beating heart is a sense of deep, literally booming neighborhood pride, which travels just over a mile from Dixwell Avenue and Bassett Street in Newhallville to Dixwell Avenue and Foote Street in Dixwell.

From the parade’s late-morning staging to the grand finale hours later, that pride was in full bloom, with a sense of history that wove through conversations and often made its way to the end of the route, a jam-packed stage just outside the new First Haven in Dixwell. Back at Bassett Street, where the parade later stepped off, volunteers buzzed around each other, picking up clipboards as they prepared to check marching units in.

Top: Avery Harris. Bottom: Dancers from Studio 143.

Standing back from the activity, Parade King Avery Harris watched in wonder, taking it all in before a volunteer whisked him away to find the car he would be riding in with Queen Timilia Thomas. A senior at the Sound School, Harris said that he was both excited and a little amazed to be joining the event, its history woven deep into the fabric of the city that raised him.

“It feels unreal,” he said. As a kid, Harris was born with hearing loss in both of his ears, a challenge that meant learning how to navigate the educational system from a very young age. During his first years at Wintergreen Interdistrict Magnet School in Hamden, he learned how to advocate for himself, like asking for extra time on an exam, or reminding a teacher to follow an IEP. By the time he got to the Sound School, he realized that he wanted to do the same for other students.

“I want to give that back to the community,” he said as a few young football players caught sight of Grand Marshal Tyler Booker, and scurried over to him in their gold-colored jerseys for a selfie. Well before he was named parade king this year, Harris had already started doing so, as a member of the Total Joy are You (TJAY) Foundation and the youth affiliate of Phi Beta Sigma. He intends to continue it this fall, as he begins his freshman year at Winston-Salem State University studying social work and criminal justice.

Top: Mary Beverly and Hope Howard with Grand Marshal Tyler Booker. Bottom: Samantha Myers Galberth of Style 2000, who received recognition from the Parade Committee at Friday night's gala. 

Just a few yards away, Booker took a moment to connect with Hope Howard and Mary Beverly, who have kept the organization Guns Down Book Up going after the passing of its founder, Ray Wallace, in April 2024. Howard, who is Wallace’s sister, said she’s honored to carry on her late brother’s legacy all year long—and especially at the Freddy, which dovetails with the work he did to lift up young people and inspire them to reach further than they once thought they could.

Years ago, she marched in the Freddy Fixer as a teenager, Howard remembered. Now, she’s happy to see it back, and growing, as a days-long celebration of community. When she thinks of the young people who will see her marching, and learn more about the organization’s work, “I would like to tell them to stay true to what your dreams are,” she said. “That’s how they can succeed.”

Booker, home for the first time since last June, smiled as he spoke to the two, who have known his family for years. Now the offensive guard for the Dallas Cowboys, Booker can still remember watching his first Freddy Fixer at just three or four years old, watching souped-up cars and dance and drill teams make their way down the avenue. “It was really fun to spend the day” out in the community, he remembered.

As a kid, Booker ran with that creative spark, doing after-school arts activities at the Foote School and soaking up the concerts on the New Haven Green he remembered. Even in Dallas, a cultural epicenter where his parents have joined him on the football journey, he misses that.

“Being back in New Haven is awesome,” he said between posing for photos with adoring fans, many of whom are close with his family. “Everyone is very talented and creative … to be honored [as Grand Marshal] is truly a blessing, truly.”

Andrea Roux, a senior executive administrator at ConnCORP, with Rachel Graziano and Chef Jenna Martin. 

Across the street, Connecticut Center for Arts & Technology’s (ConnCAT) Jenna Martin, Rachel Graziano and Andrea Roux made their way towards the avenue, where staff was meeting to march for the fourth year in a row. Graziano, who grew up in New Haven, remembered what an event the parade once was for young people in the city like herself, who started thinking about their outfits weeks beforehand.

As a high school student, she and a friend would make their way to the now-defunct Chapel Square Mall, discerning as they picked out the perfect parade day fits. Years later, “I like that I’m closer to the history,” as both an artist and educator. As the youth program assistant at ConnCAT, she’s learned about the Freddy Fixer through both teaching—the summer program fêtes New Haven in all that it does—and her colleague Steve Driffin, a playwright whose work Be Your Own Hero honors the life of Dr. Fred Smith.

This year is extra special, she added: thanks to a housing initiative from the Connecticut Community Outreach Revitalization Program (ConnCORP), Graziano lives on West Hazel Street, in the neighborhood where it all started over six decades ago. Working for ConnCAT, she’s also seen the avenue transform in recent years, from the opening of the new Q House to the June 19 launch of First Haven, a mixed-use retail, residential and child care space from ConnCAT where a shopping plaza and branch library once stood.

“We’re grateful that it’s a safe community event,” she said.

Top: James leads the band one last time. Bottom: The men of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity have their moment in front of the stage. 

Across Bassett Street, current Wilbur Cross High School senior Dontae James was equally excited for the parade, and feeling emotional after marching for four years with Cross’ band. As a senior bound for the prestigious Juilliard School next year, “it’s been really exciting to see the growth of everybody in the band,” he said. At the same time, Sunday afternoon felt a little bittersweet: it was the last time he would march as drum major with the band in a major public event.

Just down the street, that good juju turned into a blossoming of drum and dance, as middle school students from Elm City College Prep ran through their routine one last time. In the thick of it, dance director Tyler Tucker looked around and smiled, answering last-minute questions as she pointed students to a wagon filled with water, fresh fruit, and snacks meant to keep young people nourished in the heat.

“My biggest thing is being able to create community connections for the children,” she said, crediting band director Jay Forman as her collaborator. Already the words were coming to life: students practiced one last time as the street came alive, from drill teams to marching units from the Divine Nine. A block away, mother-daughter duo Jenny and Janea Richardson proudly repped the Twin Islands Heritage Foundation, an homage to Trinidad & Tobago. Everywhere, the cacophony was bright and joyful.

Back on Dixwell Avenue, it was nearly time for stepoff, and members of the James Hillhouse High School Alumni Network walked briskly towards their place in the lineup on one side of the street. On the other, members of Bereavement Care Network and Sisters’ Journey hurried toward theirs.

Top: Kiya Wallace, Janea Richardson, Jenny Richardson, and Isaiah Brightly. "It feels good! It's all about heritage and the homeland," he said. Middle: Gloria Charles, Elsie Santana and Tajhma Bromell. 

As the Mighty Marching Blue practiced in the background, 1988 Hillhouse grad Tajhma Bromell stopped just briefly for a breeze, the warm wind on her face. Growing up in New Haven, Bromell started marching in the Freddy Fixer when she was just a young girl, as the mascot for the then-young Ashmun Street Dance Team (“I was responsible for doing splits!” she remembered with a laugh). “When I was younger, I didn’t understand how big the Freddy was,” she said.

That changed by the time she was in high school. As a student at Hillhouse, Bromell picked her outfit out weeks ahead of time. Her junior year, she marched alongside the school after students won a basketball championship. And then, after college in Massachusetts and a few years at home, she decided it was time for a change of scene, She moved away to Georgia, with several family members who still live in New Haven.

“To come back as an alum, I’m in awe,” she said, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with fellow alumni Elsie Santana and Gloria Charles, who former classmates still know as Gloria Mills. With Santana, who leads the alumni association, she explained that “we’re really here to help too:” alumni can see how bad the market is, and want to be a resource for current Hillhouse students and recent graduates.

As she spoke, her words felt right on time: the sound of music from nine graduating seniors in the Hillhouse band traveled skyward, as director Josh Smith wove in and out of the woodwinds, nodding partly to his students, partly to himself. By the time the band was marching, he had picked up the trombone and was playing alone.

Top: Na'rai and her ferret, Muhammad, prepare for the parade. "It's very exciting. I love everything about it," she said. Bottom: Bereavement Care Network members Naomi Carter, Beverly Richardson, and Shawneeque McClam-Edwards.

Across the street, Bereavement Care Network’s Beverly Richardson said she was thankful that the organization, which provides grief support and financial aid to bereaved families, hasn’t been as active this year—there have been no homicides in the city—and that she still marches to let families know that they are never alone, even on their darkest days.

She wouldn’t miss the event, she added: as a lifelong New Havener, the history of the Freddy Fixer is her history. Sixty-three years ago, Richardson marched in her first Freddy Fixer Parade as a Girl Scout. Back then, Dr. Fred K. Smith wasn’t just a name associated with a community clean up: he was her doctor, fixing hearts and minds and bodies with the love he had for his city and the trailblazing work he did as a Black physician. During school hours, she was among students who got to prep for the parade by decorating floats.

“I love it!” she said. “I feel good we’ve gotten it back.”

Those words remained in the air as the parade stepped off, in a line of yellow and purple that glowed beneath the sun. As drums rang over the street, dancers jumped into their routines, wrists and arms soaring through the air as knees bent, heels kicked forward and back, and heads turned on cue, not one person missing a beat. Horses and their riders, thanks to the Ebony Horsewomen, made it feel like Dixwell had never needed cars in the first place.

Middle: Three generations of Crockett family women came out for this year's parade. Bottom: The parade rolls on. 

Further back, strains of gospel music filled the air, as Scotticesa Miller raised her hands, and the newly minted Elm City Freddy Fixer Mass Choir, standing together on a large truck bed decorated with balloons, knew exactly what to do. For weeks, they’d been rehearsing for this moment, and now it was time to shine.

As he listened, pushing an Italian ice cart up the sidewalk with his nephew, Chezeray Boykin took a moment to savor it all. Raised in Church Street South, he can remember Freddy Fixers of years past, and is grateful to see the community come out to celebrate.

“It’s a New Haven thing,” he said. “This is our culture.”

“My favorite part is watching the community come together,” echoed Dixwell Avenue neighbor Angela Renee, holding her two-year-old daughter, just a few houses down the street.

Up and down the avenue, that seemed to be the consensus. As she waited for her son, Joshua McCown, to roll down Dixwell with a float from his homegrown clothing brand, Time A Tell, proud mom Cleo Fulcher remembered marching years ago, when she was a student at Dr. Susan S. Sheridan School, which today is Mauro-Sheridan Interdistrict Magnet. Years later, she returned to the route as a drummer for Hillhouse.

“It’s everything,” she said. Half a block down, the gospel choir had stopped, and Rev. Scott Marks was delivering a benediction over the avenue. “We pray for safety! We pray for health!” he said before the truck lurched back to life, and the parade continued on.

Waiting for her daughter and grandson at the opposite corner, Beaver Hills resident Deidre Moore cheered the parade on, smiling as her own memories from past Freddy Fixer parades bubbled to the surface. Growing up on Hazel Street, Moore marched in the Freddy when she was a student at Lincoln-Bassett School, then Abraham Lincoln School, as a member of the school’s drill team.

Moore went on to the Troupe School, and then Hillhouse. Years later, with her daughter Rebekah now a member of the school’s alumni association, “it’s a little emotional to see her marching for Hillhouse.” As McLeod-Brunson’s former Sunday school teacher, she added, she’s proud to see the role model and community-focused woman that McLeod-Brunson has become.

Members of Dynamic You.

That pride extended, of course, back to the alumni association, members decked out in sparkly blue Mardi Gras beads. When Rebekah rounded the corner, hand-in-hand with her five-year-old son Curtis, Moore raised her arms and cheered.

Back at the Foote Street stage, that momentum—carried by knots of people on the soundwalk—was contagious. In the air, cheers and applause mingled with the smells of grilling meat, coconut-scented sunscreen, sweat and motor oil. As Slay Washington called out each marching unit, members stepped up to the judges, and performed with their hearts wide open.

“It feels great to be back,” William Moore, director of the martial arts studio Dynamic You, had said earlier in the day, and the words seemed true for every unit that had made it to parade day.

Rebekah Moore repping Hillhouse. 

Meg Fountain and Jaala Welch, repping the New Haven Federation of Teachers. 

Mae Gibson Brown, who still remembers when her children, who are now in their 60s, marched in the parade.