Early last Saturday morning, about 15 festively dressed Black New Yorkers gathered outside the Dyckman Farmhouse Museum on 204th Street in Upper Manhattan. Women were wearing colorful prints and head wraps, and men had on loosely fitting white shirts and white or khaki pants. Accompanied by the beat of a drum and the clang of a cowbell, they began chanting to the tune of “Frère Jacques”: “Pinkster Stroll, Pinkster Stroll, here we go, here we go, ancestors smiling, ancestors smiling, we answered the call, we answered the call.”
Then the group set off on a seven-mile walk south, which ended at the New York Historical museum along 77th Street on the Upper West Side. The march was reminiscent of a sight New Yorkers might have witnessed some 200 years ago as people celebrated Pinkster, considered to be the oldest African American holiday.
Cheyney McKnight, who organized the recent Pinkster Stroll, likened historical celebrations of Pinkster to family reunions. They typically involved participants traveling together on foot or by boat to a location where, for several days, they would eat, dance, sing and crown a Pinkster King. “It was very joyful,” she said. “Very exciting.”
Pinkster, a Christian holiday celebrating the Pentecost, was originally brought to New York by the Dutch people who colonized the area. Its name, derived from a Dutch word, is also associated with that of the pink pinxter flower, which blooms in New York and across North America every spring.
Many of the Africans that were enslaved and brought to New York were also Christian (most came from Congo or Angola). Over time, they began celebrating Pinkster in their own way and, by the late 1700s, it had largely become an African American holiday. It was also the rare occasion when both enslaved and free Black people living in and outside New York City, Albany and other places could gather together.
“Being enslaved in New York was very lonely and isolating,” said Ms. McKnight, 35, the manager of living history at the New York Historical, and the founder of Not Your Momma’s History, which develops programming and content about African American history. As she explained, households in New York would often have one or two enslaved people, while tens or hundreds could be living on Southern plantations.
“Pinkster was, for many, the only time that they could connect with other Black people,” she added. “To have joy during Pinkster, despite their circumstances, was a really significant thing. It was resistance.”
In the early 1800s, as slave revolts and uprisings grew in America and around the world, laws prohibiting Black gatherings ceased many Pinkster celebrations. In Albany, the holiday was banned in 1811. The Pinkster Stroll organized by Ms. McKnight, which took place for the first time last year, is among a handful of celebrations reviving the holiday in New York State. Others have been held in the Hudson Valley and in Albany, which repealed its local Pinkster ban in 2011.
Fashion plays a major part in Ms. McKnight’s event. Participants were given replicas of historical garments to wear, most of which were adapted to meet modern times. Women celebrating Pinkster in the past, for instance, would have worn stays (or bodices) — the proper undergarments of the day. But the clothing Ms. McKnight provided was less structured and restrictive. Some people wore bed gowns, which are among her favorite garments. “I call them the sweatpants of the 18th century,” she said.
The replica garments also have a more joyful look than those worn by Black people who celebrated Pinkster centuries ago. “I wanted to pay homage to the ancestors, but I did not want modern New Yorkers dressed in ‘Negro cloth,’ which was fabric marketed in the 18th and 19th centuries specifically to enslavers,” Ms. McKnight said. She produced the clothing for the Pinkster Stroll in collaboration with Angela Burnley, an owner of Burnley and Trowbridge, a company specializing in the curation of linens, wool, silks and other fabrics for people who work in living history.
“There isn’t just one type of Negro cloth, but it kind of has a look to it,” Ms. McKnight said. “It’s very rough, usually undyed, or dyed with very cheap dyes.” Her event is about “healing and building community,” she added, “so I wanted the clothing to be almost regal.”
On the morning of the stroll, she spent time with all of the participants, dressing them and tying the women’s head wraps. “Usually, I kind of have an idea of which fabric I want to go with which person,” she said. “But sometimes, when the person arrives, I just have a feeling that certain fabrics want to be with certain people.” Dressing participants is “one of the most special parts of the Pinkster Stroll for me,” she added.
As the group made its way through Manhattan, its members sang chants chosen by Funmilayo Chesney, the owner of Fusha Dance Co. in New York. “We did so many different chants,” said Ms. Chesney, explaining that most originated in Congo or in Ghana.
Kim Murray, 40, came from Brooklyn to walk in the stroll. She loved history and historical re-enactments growing up, she said, but saw many as “making caricatures” of Black people, “or flattening their humanity.” The Pinkster Stroll “really honored our ancestors,” Ms. Murray added, noting that she hopes to participate again next year with her young daughter.
She said Ms. McKnight’s attention to detail also helped to set the event apart. “It was really beautiful being dressed by Cheyney,” Ms. Murray said. “And as a person living in a larger body, the fact that there were options for me to wear that were real options also made a big difference to me.”
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