On Monday, New York City Mayor Eric Adams honored four Caribbean nationals during his annual grand Caribbean-American Heritage Month Celebration at Gracie Mansion, the mayor’s official residence on East 88th St., Upper East Side, Manhattan.

The honorees were: Angela P. Sealy, the Trinidadian-born former chairperson and treasurer, current member and senior advisor of the Brooklyn-based West Indian American Day Carnival Association (WIADCA); Jacqueline T. Lopardo, a Staten Island-born strategic legal counselor, marketing and branding executive, who boasts of a “powerful Caribbean lineage,” with Barbadian, Montserratian, Antiguan and Trinidadian roots; Alexandra Actie, St. Lucian-born, former New York City Corrections Officer and founding member of the St. Lucia House Foundation, an umbrella organization representing several St. Lucian groups in New York City; Grenadian International DJ Kevin Crown; and Claudia Cynthia Smith, daughter of Allan and Gloria Smith of Caribbean descent, founders and owners of the popular Allan’s Bakery on Nostrand Avenue in Brooklyn.

Claudia was not present at the celebration to personally receive the proclamation.

Sealy, who celebrated her 90th birthday on Jan. 11, thanked the mayor for “all he had done for the Caribbean community.”

Lopardo also thanked Mayor Adams for the proclamation, stating it was “an honor to receive this award and this acknowledgement.

“I love my roots and culture,” she added.  “I’ve been in community service for all of my life, and my Caribbean heritage is everything to me.”

Trinidadian-born Hazra Ali, the mayor’s Community Lead on planning the Caribbean-American Heritage Month Celebration at Gracie Mansion, said: “This year, we celebrate 20 years of Caribbean-American Heritage Month. Our purpose for the celebrations is two-fold: to raise awareness of the diversity and beauty of our region as a multicultural and multi-ethnic society, and to highlight our contributions to this, our new home, the American culture.

“As Caribbean Americans, we thank the mayor for his various initiatives and kind gestures towards our community,” added Ali, stating that many Caribbean Americans work in Adams’s administration, “holding office as high as commissioner and deputy commissioners.”

More about the honorees

Angela Sealy

Born on Jan. 11, 1935, Sealy has been involved in WIADCA Carnival activities since its inception. She became active with a small group of Carnival enthusiasts who focused on developing strategies to relocate the Harlem Carnival Parade to Brooklyn in the late 1960s.

Sealy became an official WIADCA member in 1967 and, through this cultural work, along with her fellow WIADCA members, forged a 58-year legacy of what we know today as the Labor Day Parade or   “New York Caribbean Carnival Week & Parade” – “NYC’s Greatest Show on Earth.”

Sealy was part of the team negotiating WIADCA’s new office space at the Major Owens Community Center on Bedford Avenue in Brooklyn.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she worked alongside elected officials to create WIADCA Cares, a human resource initiative that addressed food and maternal health insecurity.

Jacqueline T. Lopardo, Esq.

Lopardo boasts over 20 years of experience in the entertainment industry.

Her career spans the music, film, sports and advertising industries, representing clients such as Mike Tyson’s Legends Only League, The Wu-Tang Clan, Denise “Saucy Wow” Belfon, Sony Corporation of America, The Rza, Culture Blend Sound, Fab 5 Freddy, Ford, Lincoln, Colgate, Amtrak, Whirlpool, and Door Dash and Venmo.

Lopardo’s vast experience includes negotiation, drafting, and reviewing of recording agreements, synchronization licenses, sample rights, director/screenwriter agreements, talent service agreements, and social media influencer agreements.

She handles review and legal approval of creative assets for client productions (TV, Radio, Web/Digital, etc.), as well as the creation of personnel policies and guidelines, including policies in the ever-changing social media realm.

Though she possesses a strong transactional background, Lopardo also brings her expertise to the courtroom as a litigator, with one of her biggest wins ending in a judgment for upwards of $1 1million in a copyright infringement/breach of contract case before the US District Court, Southern District of New York.

Lopardo said her current litigation with the United States Patent & Trademark Office is set to make “a historic impact on the Reggae music industry.”

Her prowess and unstoppable leadership are responsible for single-handedly creating the first-ever in-house Business and Legal Affairs Division for Uniworld Group, the longest-standing multicultural advertising agency in the U.S, which Byron Lewis, the Godfather of Black Media, founded.

Lopardo graduated with her BS in human and organizational development in 1996, and worked her last year assisting in the creation of the curriculum and requirements necessary for students wishing to minor in African Diaspora Studies, an academic program that Vanderbilt University made an official programmatic minor in 2005.

She received her Juris Doctor from the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law and was admitted to the New York State Bar in May 2005.

Lopardo is certified to stand in the Southern and Eastern US District Courts of New York. 

She is a member of Mayor Adams’s Caribbean Advisory Committee

Alexandra Actie

After migrating to the United States in 1976, Actie, a single mother of three, took a job as a New York City Corrections Officer on Rikers Island to support her family. She retired from that position in 2005.

Not one to remain idle, Actie soon followed her lifelong passion for cooking, launching a Caribbean catering business and proudly bringing the vibrant flavors and traditions of St. Lucia to the New York community.

In 2010, she became one of the founding members of the St. Lucia House Foundation. She served two consecutive terms as vice president and has been chairperson of the foundation’s entertainment committee since 2011. In that role, she has led a devoted team organizing large-scale cultural events and fundraisers supporting the foundation’s mission.

In 2024, Actie was appointed by the Consulate General of St. Lucia in New York as chair of the St. Lucia House’s Management Committee.

Additionally, Actie is a founding member of 4Roots Entertainment Group, a community-based entity responsible for, among other things, inaugurating the Miss St. Lucia USA Pageant in New York.

Kevin Crown

Crown, dubbed the “Natural Born Club Killa,” is “distinct“ in engaging his audience and keeping them mesmerized while delivering a “genuine, yet evocative“ performance that captivates a crowd even days later.

Crown said he began DJing at 12, following in his father’s footsteps.

By 16, he booked his first professional gig and graduated from Brooklyn Technical High School simultaneously.

Crown said he became a Local 3 electrician, working on major city projects, including being part of the crew that helped build the iconic Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

But Crown said he took a leap of faith and decided to put his passion for music at the forefront. He left the hard hat behind and never looked back.

Years later, Crown said he stood in front of 20,000 people in that building, opening for a historic Machel Montano concert.

In 2003, Crown released his first single, “Follow Me,“ alongside Canadian superstar Mr. Killa, marking his early entry into music production and artistry.

From there, Crown built a name for himself across the international stage, performing in countries such as Japan, London, Mexico, Canada, and across the US, as well as in several Caribbean islands, including Anguilla, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia, Martinique, Guadeloupe, St. Martin, Haiti, Bermuda, Guyana, US Virgin Islands, and St. Kitts and Nevis.

Claudia Cynthia Smith

 In 1980, Smith received her Bachelor of Arts degree from Adelphi University and was a proud member of Delta Sigma Pi.

After graduation, she tested her skills by occupying several positions in the workplace, including as a Court Stenographer for Mineola courts. She then went on to work for the law firm Dehert Price & Rhodes.

Later, Smith became the executive manager of Local 608, retiring in 2010.

Simultaneously, she worked at Allan’s Bakery under the watchful eye of her father, Allan, where she discovered, along with her two sisters, Delia and Sharon, the acumen and passion for baking and enhancing the original pastries of their West Indian parents.

Throughout her life and juggling several jobs, Smith said she always maintained a love for the community by participating in events such as annual cancer walks and other fundraising celebrations.

In the early 2000s, Smith and her two sisters assumed responsibility of Allan’s Bakery.

Smith said her nephew, Christian, soon “came on board and further expanded the bakery to a second location in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.”

In keeping with their entrepreneurial spirit, Smith said she and her family opened an event space, Hidden Gem by Allan’s and Allan’s Bar and Café.

Smith said she and her sisters stand by Allans’s Bakery’s slogan, “‘ Quality is our Passion‘, because we love people to be satisfied and happy.“