Brooklyn’s Caribbean community erupts every year in a massive predawn street celebration to honor the abolishment of slavery on the islands. J’Ouvert, as it’s called, comes from the French term jour ouvert, meaning “daybreak,” but the party starts hours before the sun comes up.

J’Ouvert is held across the Caribbean as part of Carnival, but in Brooklyn it kicks off the West Indies Day Parade in the wee hours before Labor Day. The origins of the event coincide with the wave of emancipation in the mid-1800s. Black people who had previously been banned from Carnival suddenly had the opportunity not only to participate but also to embrace the party as an expression of their newfound freedom. Many former slaves first used J’Ouvert as a way to ridicule their former masters.

One of the most popular characters that revelers adopt as part of the festival is the Jab Jab—the devil personified. Originally intended as a critique of the institution of slavery, the Jab Jab covers his body with oil or black paint, wears devil’s horns and carries chains. At J’Ouvert today, people dressed as the Jab Jab feel they have the power to take over the streets, be sexy and do what they want without police interference. They circulate through the crowds, threatening to press their smeared bodies against spectators if they don’t “pay the devil.”

The role of the Jab Jab is an important part of African diaspora street theater and serves as a commentary on the historical Caribbean experience. By reclaiming this character and the streets, the J’Ouvert partiers are rewriting this page of history on their own terms. Check out the video below to see more of this year’s event in Brooklyn.