Hair artist, musician, and visual artists brought Haitian culture to Brooklyn’s celebration of Black creativity, while organizers consider expanding Haitian-focused programming.
The Brooklyn Navy Yard hosted CultureCon 2026 on October 3-4, drawing roughly 12,000 attendees to celebrate Black creativity under the banner “Museum of Us.” The two-day festival at the Duggal Greenhouse featured major entertainment figures and created space for emerging creatives to network, learn, and build careers through workshops, brand activations, and business development programming.
Haitian creatives made their mark across multiple dimensions of the festival. Hair artist Kayra Theodore, selected as part of CultureCon’s 2026 Creative Class, used her work to challenge traditional beauty standards shaped by her Haitian upbringing. Theodore told The Haitian Times that her Haitian identity deeply influences her artistic practice, and that seeing Haitian representation at major cultural events demonstrates that success need not follow conventional paths.
Musician C!RND!E, who was born in Haiti and raised in Queens, brought her signature “konpa drill” sound—a fusion of Haitian konpa music and New York drill—to the festival. She described feeling a sense of home when encountering a Haitian food truck playing Caribbean music at the event, though she expressed enthusiasm about the possibility of dedicated Haitian-focused panels at future CultureCons.
Other Haitian contributors included visual artist Dimithry Victor, also part of the 2026 Creative Class, whose portraiture explores Black identity and Haitian heritage, and Rogers Burgers, a Haitian-owned Flatbush restaurant founded by Josue Pierre and Jonathan Pierre-Lafleur, which served its Caribbean-American burger interpretation to festivalgoers. Actor Michael B. Jordan visited the Rogers Burgers booth during the weekend.
The festival’s energy extended beyond main stages into vendor booths, networking spaces, and spontaneous interactions. Attendees exchanged contacts, supported Black-owned businesses, and created social media content, making the crowd itself integral to the event’s impact. For Haitian participants, the weekend reinforced the importance of cultural visibility within broader celebrations of Black creativity, while also revealing opportunities for expanded representation in future programming.
CultureCon 2026 featured appearances from major entertainment and cultural figures including Michael B. Jordan, John Legend, Mahershala Ali, Aaron Pierre, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. The festival included career lounges with recruiters, speed networking, a Creative Business Stage focused on sustainable creative careers, and a small-business marketplace for Black-owned enterprises.
For Caribbean diaspora audiences, this story demonstrates how Haitian creatives are claiming space within mainstream American cultural institutions and building platforms that blend their Caribbean heritage with contemporary artistic forms. The call for deeper Haitian representation reflects broader diaspora efforts to ensure Caribbean voices shape cultural narratives rather than remaining peripheral.
Sources and attribution
- The Haitian Times
- Thousands Attend CultureCon at Brooklyn Navy Yard
- CultureCon – Time Out
- CultureCon NYC 2026 to feature John Legend, Mahershala Ali and more
- CultureCon Brings Thousands of Creatives to Brooklyn for ‘Museum of Us’
Written & Edited by Orlyn Edwards. Published by Caribbean Air Force Media.
Category: Culture · Island routing: Haiti