Wearing a 2007 West Indies Cricket World Cup jersey under his suit jacket, Mayor Mamdani walked out to the music of Jamaican rapper Sean Paul and received a rockstar welcome on Aug. 27 at his first Caribbean American Heritage celebration as mayor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is an honor to welcome you to Gracie Mansion as we celebrate our Caribbean community right here in New York City,\u201d the mayor said before recognizing members of his administration, including Deputy Mayor for Community Safety Renita Francois, Chancellor Kamar Samuels, New York City Sheriff Edwin Raymond, and Peter White, the Director of the Office of Deed Theft. He also acknowledged Public Advocate Jumaane Williams and New York State Senator Jabari Brisport of Brooklyn.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny night that I can walk out to Sean Paul is a good night,\u201d the mayor said. \u201cI\u2019ve met people who have wondered for years why Sean Paul has spent so much of his career opening every song by singing \u2018Sean De Paul.\u2019 Those people are clearly not from the West Indies or the Caribbean. If you were, you would know that Sean Paul\u2019s actually shouting out a man who is a hero to many. And that is Shivnarine Chanderpaul, one of the greatest batsmen of his time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayor drew parallels between cricket and the greatness of the Caribbean, noting that he \u201ccan say that because I\u2019m wearing a West Indies 2007 World Cup jersey, and even for me, as someone who grew up in tropical Morningside Heights, it was obvious why you would want to invoke Shivnarine Chanderpaul. It is because he was evidence of the greatness that is the Caribbean.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mamdani spoke of attending the 2007 Cricket World Cup with his family, recalling how joyous it was sitting in Sir Vivian Richards Stadium. He later co-founded his school\u2019s cricket team and went on to play against kids from across the Caribbean diaspora.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the earliest things I learned about the Caribbean was its greatness,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cI grew up learning about the West Indies cricket team, and being told stories of the \u201980s and players like Clive Lloyd from Guyana, players like Viv Richards and Curtly Ambrose from Antigua, players like Michael Holding from Jamaica, Malcolm Marshall from Barbados,\u201d he said, adding, \u201cit\u2019s a story of solidarity. It may have been a tall order for any of these islands to compete against teams as strong as England or Australia or India, but together as the West Indies, this was a team that went 15 years without losing to any of them.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"New](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/78515_n.png-e1788219861490.jpeg\" "\\"Mayor")
New York City Corporate Counsel Sylvia O. Hinds-Radix, left, and Head of the Caricom Consular Corp. Jeremiah Hyacient, stop for a picture at Gracie Mansion during Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s first Caribbean Heritage celebration on Aug. 27.Tangerine Clarke<\/p>\n
Mamdani said the legacy of Caribbean greatness has stayed with him because it\u2019s a legacy that is not limited to cricket, but rather, it can be seen across the city \u201cin the neighborhoods where Caribbean New Yorkers show up for one another, where they help make this the joyous, beautiful, hopeful city that it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
The mayor said the community\u2019s resilience is being tested due to the federal government\u2019s revocation of Haitian neighbors\u2019 Temporary Protected Status that has plunged many Caribbean New Yorkers\u2019 lives into fear.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the face of this kind of a sudden and immense instability, of this kind of cruelty, what the Caribbean community has done has been what the Caribbean has done for decades in this city: founding benevolent associations to look after one another, supporting each other when there is nowhere else to turn and no one else to turn to,\u201d Mamdani said.<\/p>\n
He said it is not just Haitian New Yorkers helping other Haitian New Yorkers. It is Caribbean New Yorkers, no matter which island they think is the best, helping one another out.\n<\/p>\n
Mayor Mamdani said City Hall is looking to learn from that legacy and be a part of it, too \u2014 whether through sanctuary city policies, the Mayor\u2019s Office of Immigrant Affairs, or its hotline, its clinics or the work that it\u2019s doing with many New Yorkers.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe heard from our chancellor, who spoke about coming here from Kingston, teaching in Bronx classrooms, and now running a school system of nearly a million students,\u201d Mamdani said. \u201cThink of our sheriff, Edwin Raymond, who grew up in East Flatbush.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"From](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/78491_n.png.jpeg\" "\\"Mayor")
From left: She\u2019d line Pierre, Renee Hastick-Motes, New York Sheriff Edwin Raymond, and Arlene Rodriguez celebrate the first Caribbean heritage reception hosted by Mayor Zohran Mamdani.Tangerine Clarke<\/p>\n
Samuels, NYC Schools\u2019 Jamaican-born chancellor, thanked Mayor Mamdani for the great welcome, recalling how homesick he was when he moved to New York at age 16 before finding the Caribbean he had missed while living in New York.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter my family settled in the Bronx, I realized that Jamaicans had not only come to build a better life, but to build a better city,\u201d Samuels said. \u201cThey are Home Health Aids, Subway Conductor, Teachers, service workers,\u00a0 cleaners, and principals.\u201d<\/p>\n
Public Advocate Williams, who displayed his Grenadian flag, thanked Mayor Mamdani for bringing good energy to Gracie Mansion, adding that he was excited to be celebrating with the Caribbean community.<\/p>\n
![\"Nationals](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/78067_n.png.jpeg\" "\\"Mayor")
Nationals are all smiles at Mayor Zohran Mamdani\u2019s first Caribbean Heritage reception at Gracie Mansion on August 27. From left, a guest joins Ernest Skinner, Public Advocate Jumaane Williams, and Assemblymember Monique Chandler Waterman.Tangerine Clarke<\/p>\n
\u201cWe raise our flags on Labor Day, and celebrate the culture, the music, food, that makes the Caribbean, the Caribbean,\u201d Williams said. \u201cWe are going to have a safe and fun Labor Day. When we come back we have a lot of work to do. Immigration is under attack; the Haitian community is under attack. One Caribbean, One New York.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wearing a 2007 West Indies Cricket World Cup jersey under his suit jacket, Mayor Mamdani walked out to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334327,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10],"class_list":["post-334326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}