June 10, 2025 • 29 mins
This episode introduces The Caribbean Diaspora Experience Model™ (CDEM). The model offers a guide for understanding how Caribbean cultural identity forms, evolves, and expresses itself in diaspora communities. Based on real-life experiences and stories shared through ten years of podcasting, this model validates the diverse ways people connect to their Caribbean heritage outside the region.
The 6 Lenses of CDEM
- Where You Start Shapes the Journey
- Where You Live + What You Seek = How You Connect
- Cultural Anchors Keep Us Rooted
- Your Identity Will Shift—That’s the Point
- Cultural Identity Influences How We Show Up at Work
- You’re Not Either/Or—You’re Both/And
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I'd love to hear if this model resonates with your experience and which elements reflect your journey.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode
of Carry On Friends theCaribbean American experience
and I am excited that you'retuning in to listen to the
podcast.
If you're just tuning into thepodcast, know that this year the
podcast is celebrating its 10thyear anniversary.
Yes, the podcast officiallylaunched January 2015, 2015 and
(00:27):
we're in 2025.
And so we're celebrating 10years and I have to say that
this year feels like one of thebest years of doing the podcast.
The audience is engaged in thenewsletter.
So if you are not locked intothe newsletter, I'm going to
make sure I put the link in theshow notes for you to sign up to
(00:48):
the newsletter.
I don't know.
You know it's some really goodtopics that we're talking about
and everyone's really engaging.
So if you're not locked intothe Carry On Friends newsletter,
make sure say you're on, go andsign up and you get something
in your inbox every week aboutculture, about our experience,
(01:10):
about the diaspora, about lifeall of them things there.
And of course, there are someupdates about what's going on
with the podcast and ting.
So make sure that you keep itlocked there.
So this episode is just me andthat's how I want it.
Because may you agor reason?
Because I'm excited to sharesomething that I've been working
(01:32):
on for a while and thatsomething is called the
Caribbean Diaspora ExperienceModel, which I shorten as CEDEM,
is a model to better understandhow Caribbean cultural identity
forms, evolves and expressesitself in diaspora communities.
Now I'm going to get more intothis, but the model is grounded
(01:55):
in real-life experiences my ownfamily experiences, my
experiences, my friends'experiences, my experiences, my
friends' experiences and, ofcourse, stories shared through
the podcast.
Cdem offers a simple andrelatable way to explore the
complexity and identity outsideof the Caribbean region and and
(02:17):
sharing some of that with eachother.
The model incorporatesobservations about how different
people experience theirCaribbean identity, based on
(02:39):
when they migrated, where theylived and what stage of life
they were in, and I realizedthat we needed a way to talk
about these experiences thatvalidated them and helped us to
understand ourselves and eachother.
So the Caribbean DiasporaExperience Model has six
components, and I'm going to gothrough the components with some
(03:00):
personal examples.
So the first component isstarting points matter.
When and how you first connectto Caribbean culture
fundamentally shapes yourexperience.
So someone who moved as anadult, like my mom did, has a
completely different foundationfrom someone born in the US, and
(03:21):
that's pretty obvious to mostpeople.
Right when you begin yourjourney with Caribbean, culture
shapes everything else.
I see it in my own family.
My experience moving here as ateenager gave me really strong
cultural bonds, while my brother, who moved, that too has a very
different relationship withJamaica entirely the difference
(03:44):
with my story, though.
Unlike many barrel children andwe covered an episode of that
in the podcast who came yearsafter their appearance, my whole
family arrived together on theplane my mom and my three
brothers, and this gave me adifferent experience from my
peers, my classmates and evensome members in my family, and I
(04:06):
didn't realize how uncommonthis was until I went to a
one-woman play, maybe in 2015.
And that's how I realized thatthis was not a common occurrence
in the migration pattern.
I think in my life here in themigration pattern, I think in my
(04:27):
life here, I've only met oneother family, that they all
arrived together.
So the model identifies sixstarting points, from people who
grew up in the Caribbean andmoved as adults, to people born
outside of the Caribbean withlimited cultural connections, to
folks who regularly movebetween the worlds.
None of these starting pointsis better than others.
(04:51):
There's just different journeysand with each journeys comes
its strength and challenges.
So component number two whereyou live changes how you connect
.
One of the other mosteye-opening experience that I
had was when I moved fromCaribbean-rich, jamaican-rich
(05:12):
Brooklyn to Wisconsin, where theJamaican community was much
smaller.
And to this day people areasking me like how you reach out
Wisconsin.
But let me tell you, my unclehad been living there for years,
so there was a sizable Jamaicancommunity there and many years
(05:32):
later it has grown.
So in Brooklyn in the ninetiesI was immersed in dance, art,
culture, caribbean foods, music,events, pots, everything,
everything.
I didn't have to work hard.
You step outside and music, ablast, caribbean culture,
carnation, cook shop, whateverright.
But in Wisconsin it was verydifferent.
(05:53):
My uncles and my cousins andtheir friends from back home
they were there, but they hadjust as strong Jamaican accents
and cultural practices as peoplein Brooklyn.
It's because they wereintentional about making sure
that they kept the links forlack of a better word with
(06:13):
culture.
There was a sound system thateven was birthed out of
Milwaukee.
I want to say it's calledCataract.
But they had Jamaican clubs,they had restaurants and again,
people always say Milwaukee,wisconsin.
And yes, I want to say that,and if I thought the Jamaican
(06:37):
community was a sizablecommunity with intention of
going to this store to getJamaican products or this place
to get Jamaican food, there's anexplosion in Milwaukee where
there are Jamaican restaurantsall over and I am proud to see
it and it's just a sight to see.
So big up Milwaukee you don'tknow.
(06:57):
And so that experience living inMilwaukee, looking at my
uncle's experience before whohad lived there longer, what
happened after I moved back toNew York and just go back to
visit it showed me somethingaround connection.
So, as I mentioned, living in aplace like Brooklyn and other
(07:18):
places people might live likeToronto, you know, florida,
miami with large it's going tobe totally different from
someone who lives in a smalltown somewhere in the middle of
the US or further out in someother state where you're not
going to have such a largepopulation.
(07:38):
In bigger communities like NewYork City, maintaining the
culture happens almostautomatically.
You have a lot of food places,there's music and events all
around.
My move from Brooklyn toWisconsin contrast in my life
showed me how geographic contextshapes how you connect to
culture.
(07:58):
You know, in Brooklyn at thetime when I moved and still now
Caribbean culture was everywherein Wisconsin.
It really took deliberate effortback then.
You know Milwaukee isn'tBrooklyn, while there's a lot
more Jamaican places.
There's still a deliberateeffort.
You know you don't walk out andhear you know music blasting or
(08:18):
there's a restaurant at thecorner.
But you know that you have tobe intentional that you're going
to go to this Jamaicanrestaurant and they get ready
for the experience.
The long lines, them kind ofline, them long.
I watched the people inMilwaukee, specifically
Jamaicans.
I cannot tell you if there'sTrinities or anything.
I've just really come across avibrant Jamaican community.
(08:40):
By then I'm sure other peoplehave moved, but the Jamaican
community, specifically inMilwaukee, created spaces and
businesses to maintain culturalconnection in a way that I
didn't have to in New York,right.
So they created mini marketslike little grocery stores so
you can get your Jamaicanproducts.
(09:01):
They had clubs where they, youknow they would make sure that
the promoter could bring a BeresHammond or, you know, you had
Cataract who had a sound system.
So we can still, you know, getto experience the dancehall
culture and the sound classculture.
Those were things that they did.
That was intentional.
So while you feel like, oh, youwon't go to Brooklyn, where a
(09:25):
lot of Caribbean people are.
When you move to smaller places, you have to work harder to
find them, but when you do findthem, you create a stronger bond
to the culture because you findyour people.
The third component is aboutcultural anchors that help
ground our identity.
So there are certain tangibleelements that ground our
(09:48):
cultural identity food, music,language, celebration, even the
way of the church and how ourfamily is structured right.
That is very distinct in theway that we experience culture
Now.
There are certain elements thatkeep us connected to culture,
no matter where you are.
For me, music was a huge thingwhen I was younger.
(10:11):
I knew all the dances.
You know I'd song clash tapes.
You know I stayed current indancehall culture.
Language was another anchor.
When I moved from Jamaica toNew York, my language changed.
It was more emphasized and itwas something that I had noticed
when I moved here with myuncles, because I had uncles
that were living here since theywere 10.
(10:32):
And I was like why?
Why?
They sound like they just leftJamaica right.
When I went back to Jamaica forthe first time to visit after I
moved, my cousins said to methat my accent was thicker and
stronger than when I was inJamaica for lack of a better
word, as Jamaicans would say mytop more brawling.
You know my chap bud, and thatwas because I was using language
(10:56):
to hold on to the culture.
It is something that we areholding on to as part of our
cultural identity.
Food, of course, is a constantconnection, right?
I don't even have to explainthis.
Right?
We see all the stories aboutjerk chicken, you know oxtail,
whatever it is right, butessentially the food is what we
(11:21):
exported, you know, and itdisseminated across the diaspora
, and that's how a lot ofCaribbean foods are popular and
it holds memory.
You know language, food, music,they, you know they hold memory
and we hold on to them as partof our cultural identity.
In addition to memory, it'sreally cultural knowledge.
(11:44):
The way we cook rice and peas,you know, is very different.
How we cook curry goat, thereason why they're like when
Jamaicans, the oxtail is just acertain way.
So it holds cultural knowledgeand you know some of the things
that we do, the way we do church, or the way that you know our
families are set up.
You know, growing up in theCaribbean, I lived in a
multi-generational home.
(12:04):
Most people grew up living in amulti-generational home and we
kind of replicated that when wecame here.
So when I lived in Brooklynthere was a lot of us living in
the house different generationsand so those are elements of
cultural anchors that ground ouridentity.
(12:25):
Number four is what you'veprobably heard me talk about
before in an earlier episode ofthe podcast, but I'll get into
it.
Our cultural expressions changeas we age.
How we connect with our culturenaturally evolves as we get
older, and that is normal.
I just developed the languagefor this for this.
(12:54):
I've been observing this for atleast almost 10 years, I would
say definitely the last six toseven years.
I knew it was there, I justdidn't have language to say it
the way that I've just said it,which is our connection to
culture naturally evolves as weget older, and that is normal.
When I was younger I wasfocused on trends like the music
.
You know what's hot, all ofthese other things.
(13:16):
But as I got older I have kidsand you know I'm working like
things shift, so I can't keep upthe same way.
That doesn't make me lessJamaican, it just makes me
connect to different aspects ofthe culture.
I'm more now focused in themusic that I did enjoy growing
(13:36):
up and of a certain era.
I do still check out some newmusic, but the difference is I
don't feel like compelled tokeep up Like I hear it and I
like it, I'll consume it, but Ino longer feel like, okay, it is
my job to make sure that maykeep up with the latest.
And I tell myself like I don'twant to be an old person in a
(13:58):
young person's space.
You know I remember growing up.
You know like we knew whenthere was a big person in our
space it was just like, eh, youtry too hard, I didn't want to
be that person.
So you know, there's somethings that I just said.
You know what this is youngpeople, things, let them have
them things right.
Losing my grandmother and otherelders in the family made me
(14:19):
realize that I needed to do morein documenting our stories.
As a podcaster, I regret notsitting down and recording my
grandmother having these stories.
So, as a podcaster, I regretnot sitting down and recording
my grandmother and having thesestories.
And you know I'm a naturalfamily historian and archivist.
Like I kind of do these thingsnaturally and most of us do
right them.
Keep everything, like we keeppictures.
(14:42):
I know this is a thing with me,my grandmother and my mother.
At the time we used to quarrelabout who get which pictures,
and even now I have somepictures that my mom is like
where get these pictures from?
I said every time I went toJamaica I'm going to take them,
carry the picture then backRight.
So I'm at a point in my lifewhere it's about understanding
(15:03):
how my cultural identity isevolving, preservation and also
handing off some of this to mychildren.
And I covered culturalexpression, this evolution from
young to old, and preservationin an earlier episode of the
podcast called Preservation,culture, identity and the
(15:25):
Evolution of the Caribbean Self,and this came out of the
newsletter.
I asked the newsletter audienceabout how they were keeping up
and I got really rich responsesthat gave me the confidence to
finally reveal or share theCaribbean diaspora experience
(15:48):
model, because it was just datathat I now had.
A lot of times it wasobservation and I said I think
this is what's happening, butthere was no way for me to
confirm, and so that's what itdid, right, and I shared the
audience survey in two episodesthat I did with Style and Vibes,
and Style and Vibes is apodcast that I produced through
(16:09):
Breadfruit Media and I did it inStyle and Vibes because Style
and Vibes is mostly we talkabout music, and so the first
episode we did it's called OurLove for Dancehall Remains, but
Our Relationship to the Musichas Changed, and there we just
kind of went through how peoplewere evolving and changing with
the music.
The second episode was keepingup with Dan saw a listener's
(16:32):
perspective where I kind ofreiterated some of the findings,
some of the surveys and havingmore conversation.
I'll make sure I put those inthe show notes right.
I'm at a place where myexpression is different.
It's not better, it's not worse.
It's just where I am for whereI am in my stage of life.
(16:52):
And I want to be clear that I'mevolving because of age and
where I am in my life.
But not because I'm at thatplace means that someone else is
at that place.
There are different underlyingmotivations that can impact that
.
I was talking to my cousin theother day that I grew up with.
I'm going to tell her so whenwe did young, we did just do
(17:14):
road, and no, we don't do roadagain because we're like we did
a lot of that when we wereyounger.
So do.
Road is not the same thing, andso there's other underlying
factors that impact how itevolves.
But it will evolve right, andso those episodes, we kind of
talk through some of thatevolution, all right.
So component five is work andprofessional identity.
(17:38):
Now, this aspect was really theimpetus why I started the
podcast.
I felt like I needed somecareer mentorship and advice and
I wasn't getting it and I saidyou know what?
Let me just talk about this andyou know, among other things,
and kind of see, you know whatconversations happen, but how we
express our Caribbean identityat work is a huge part of our
(18:01):
experience.
And when I say Caribbeanidentity at work and how we
express it, that's differentways.
Caribbean people, we do a lotof verbal expression, obviously,
but we do a lot of nonverbalexpressions, right, and some of
that I've learned over the yearsand I've done workshops about
this.
(18:21):
There are some things that arestrength and some things that
they can impact us negatively atwork, depending on the type of
work we do, the industry that wework in.
The last workshop that I didwas Confidently Caribbean, and
that was in 2020.
And before that, in 2016, I didanother workshop around being
(18:45):
Caribbean in the workplace andhow we can navigate better and
set ourselves up for success,addressing some of the
challenges and pet peeves thatwe all have, which I now look at
very differently, and I had tolearn that the hard way because
I was like I don't want to dothis, I don't want to do that,
and a lot of that is from howour parents kind of told us how
(19:09):
we should be at work right.
So, based on where we work andsometimes the type of work we do
, some of us code switch, someof us bring with full self.
So if you are working at one ofthe major hospitals in Brooklyn
or in New York I said Brooklynyou might walk the hall and chat
Pierre Patois, you show up asyourself, because the hospitals
(19:32):
in New York particularly have alot of Caribbean people working
in them, so you can show up thatway.
And then for most of us, we arestrategic about when and how we
express our cultural background.
So, as I said, navigating myCaribbean identity in
professional spaces has been asignificant part of my
(19:54):
professional journey and I'veexperienced the challenge of
being perceived as unfriendly ormean when I was simply just
being serious, heads down doingmy work and this work ethic that
I was told to have, whichdidn't translate as such in the
workplace.
Right, I've mentored otherCaribbean professionals who
(20:18):
sought me out because theyneeded guidance.
I'm someone who understoodtheir cultural background.
That was something that I didin one role in particular,
because this particular employeewas very frustrated and felt
disrespected and I knew whatthey meant, because as a
Caribbean person, we saw it asdisrespect, but in the workplace
(20:40):
it wasn't seen as a big thing.
And then you've heard me sharethe story of interviewing a
young man for our position.
He was Jamaican and I asked atypical question in an interview
asking him what his weaknesswas, and he saw his accent as a
weakness rather than an asset.
(21:02):
So those were some of the thingsthat kind of gave me some early
desire to start the podcast andwhy career was one of the main
and early focus and stillongoing focus of the podcast.
So the blog itself has beenaround for 12 years and the
(21:24):
podcast 10 years.
And so since I startedcarryonfriendscom, career has
been an ongoing theme because itis what pulled me to start
Carry On Friends and obviouslyin the podcast we've talked
about that.
So what I learned through the12 years, particularly doing the
(21:48):
podcast, doing a lot of thework on myself and learning and
all of the other books thathelped me, is that my Caribbean
work ethic is part of the legacythat my parents handed over to
me, and the desire, andsometimes the pressure, for me
to succeed is based onsacrifices, right, but at the
(22:11):
same time, there's an element tothat that we just have to be
mindful of, and it's again, it'sjust how much we turn it up or
turn it down, based on theplaying field that we are in.
So, based on the job and theculture of the job that we have,
that we just have to know howto adjust the dials as we go in
(22:36):
to the workplace.
And lastly, the sixth componentis embracing both slash and
identity.
So one of the most importantthings that the model embraces
is that we're not either, orwe're, and right, being fully
Caribbean and American orBritish or Canadian at the same
(23:02):
time is our reality.
So I identify as a Jamaicanwoman and I've also embraced the
other aspects of my identity,and I also cover this in another
episode, right.
So, depending on who I'mtalking to, you know I'm
Caribbean American.
I'm a New Yorker, I live inBrooklyn, midwest.
All of these aspects are partof my identities and I don't
(23:27):
have to choose right.
The ability to be fully all ofthose identities simultaneously
is something I see as a strengthand not something as a source
of confusion, and it's notsomething that I have to choose
between.
So why did I create this model?
(23:47):
So, as I mentioned before, Istarted Carry On Friends because
I needed mentorship fromsomeone who understood my
specific cultural background,and I didn't get that.
And so, through starting CarryOn Friends as a platform and
through the 10 years of podcastinterviews, I learned a lot of
(24:09):
things that I had to do my ownself-development, and which is
what Carry On Friends has been aplace for not just for me to
interview guests and share themwith you, the audience, but it
was a source of my ownself-development.
I saw patterns emerge in howCaribbean people experience life
in the diaspora and as Ilistened to the stories, there
(24:32):
are times that I'm makingconnections real time in the
episode by saying, oh, I hadanother guest who kind of said
this, or I noticed this right,said this, or I noticed this
right.
I wanted to create this model tohelp us navigate this cultural
journey with more awareness andintention than I had available
(24:53):
to me, or something to helpCaribbean people understand,
because I don't know if thegeneration before had the
language for it to help meunderstand and process how, over
time, you know, the longer Ilive away from Jamaica, what
does that mean for me?
Or how my culture is evolving,right?
Or how I'm evolving alongsidemy culture and trends, et cetera
(25:15):
.
All right, so you're thinkinghow does this model help you or
people?
This model gives language tounderstand maybe your own
experience, or recognizefeelings and challenges that you
have that others might have.
It could also help explain whyyou might connect to your
(25:36):
Caribbean identity and culturedifferently than your parents,
your siblings or even yourchildren, or how your children
will maybe eventually connectdifferently, right?
The model validates that thecultural connection looks
different for different peopleand there's no right way to be
(25:57):
Caribbean.
It also validates that changesin how you express your culture
across your life is just normaland not a sign of you're losing
your roots.
It can actually help you bemore intentional about
maintaining the culturalconnections that matter to you
most Now as a community.
This model can help us respectthe diversity of the Caribbean
(26:20):
diaspora experiences rather thanjudging who's Caribbean enough,
and you know a lot of peoplewho were born in the diaspora.
I found that through thepodcast, they're the ones who
are having their identitieschallenged by not being
Caribbean enough.
You know, they weren't bornthere, they were born here, et
(26:40):
cetera.
Right, I think this model canhelp improve communications
between generations by creatingsome kind of understanding of
why they approach culturedifferently.
And a perfect example of thatis when my grandparents'
generation, so when mygrandfather left Jamaica to move
here, some people in thatgeneration, and also depending
(27:03):
on which Caribbean country youcome from, you, didn't want
people to know that you're aCaribbean Versus.
When I came here in the 90s,everybody wanted to tell
everybody they were a Caribbeanright.
And so, in summary, theCaribbean diaspora experience
model it's not academic, it'snot theoretical, it's built from
real experiences, again, likemine, my family, my friends and
(27:27):
maybe yours.
I will be going more into eachof these more deeply in the
coming months.
I just wanted to give a veryhigh level view of the Caribbean
Diaspora Experience Modelbecause it's the first time I'm
introducing it and I'm reallyexcited to share this work.
(27:48):
I would love to hear if thismodel resonates with you and how
.
Which elements reflect yourexperience.
So we talked about everyone hasa different starting point.
Where you live impacts how youconnect with culture, cultural
anchors like food and music.
(28:09):
They ground our identity.
We talked about our culturalexpressions changed as we age.
We talk about work andprofessional identity and we
talked about the embracing theboth slash and identity.
Right.
So, instead of either, or it'sboth and right.
So let me know which elementsresonate with you.
(28:32):
What would you add, what wouldyou change?
And stay tuned over the nextcouple months because I'm going
to go deeper into the model.
My hope is that this modelgives us a better way to
understand ourselves, connectwith each other and celebrate
this beautiful complexity andlayers of the Caribbean diaspora
(28:55):
identity.
Thank you for listening to meto the very end.
If you're here at the end ofthis recording, thank you for
listening Again.
This model is not just myprofessional work through Carry
On Friends, but my personaljourney of understanding who I
am as a Black woman, as aJamaican, as a Caribbean woman
(29:17):
in America, and so, as I love tosay at the end of every episode
, until next time, walk good.
Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode
of Carry On Friends theCaribbean American experience
and I am excited that you'retuning in to listen to the
podcast.
If you're just tuning into thepodcast, know that this year the
podcast is celebrating its 10thyear anniversary.
Yes, the podcast officiallylaunched January 2015, 2015 and
(00:27):
we're in 2025.
And so we're celebrating 10years and I have to say that
this year feels like one of thebest years of doing the podcast.
The audience is engaged in thenewsletter.
So if you are not locked intothe newsletter, I'm going to
make sure I put the link in theshow notes for you to sign up to
(00:48):
the newsletter.
I don't know.
You know it's some really goodtopics that we're talking about
and everyone's really engaging.
So if you're not locked intothe Carry On Friends newsletter,
make sure say you're on, go andsign up and you get something
in your inbox every week aboutculture, about our experience,
(01:10):
about the diaspora, about lifeall of them things there.
And of course, there are someupdates about what's going on
with the podcast and ting.
So make sure that you keep itlocked there.
So this episode is just me andthat's how I want it.
Because may you agor reason?
Because I'm excited to sharesomething that I've been working
(01:32):
on for a while and thatsomething is called the
Caribbean Diaspora ExperienceModel, which I shorten as CEDEM,
is a model to better understandhow Caribbean cultural identity
forms, evolves and expressesitself in diaspora communities.
Now I'm going to get more intothis, but the model is grounded
(01:55):
in real-life experiences my ownfamily experiences, my
experiences, my friends'experiences, my experiences, my
friends' experiences and, ofcourse, stories shared through
the podcast.
Cdem offers a simple andrelatable way to explore the
complexity and identity outsideof the Caribbean region and and
(02:17):
sharing some of that with eachother.
The model incorporatesobservations about how different
people experience theirCaribbean identity, based on
(02:39):
when they migrated, where theylived and what stage of life
they were in, and I realizedthat we needed a way to talk
about these experiences thatvalidated them and helped us to
understand ourselves and eachother.
So the Caribbean DiasporaExperience Model has six
components, and I'm going to gothrough the components with some
(03:00):
personal examples.
So the first component isstarting points matter.
When and how you first connectto Caribbean culture
fundamentally shapes yourexperience.
So someone who moved as anadult, like my mom did, has a
completely different foundationfrom someone born in the US, and
(03:21):
that's pretty obvious to mostpeople.
Right when you begin yourjourney with Caribbean, culture
shapes everything else.
I see it in my own family.
My experience moving here as ateenager gave me really strong
cultural bonds, while my brother, who moved, that too has a very
different relationship withJamaica entirely the difference
(03:44):
with my story, though.
Unlike many barrel children andwe covered an episode of that
in the podcast who came yearsafter their appearance, my whole
family arrived together on theplane my mom and my three
brothers, and this gave me adifferent experience from my
peers, my classmates and evensome members in my family, and I
(04:06):
didn't realize how uncommonthis was until I went to a
one-woman play, maybe in 2015.
And that's how I realized thatthis was not a common occurrence
in the migration pattern.
I think in my life here in themigration pattern, I think in my
(04:27):
life here, I've only met oneother family, that they all
arrived together.
So the model identifies sixstarting points, from people who
grew up in the Caribbean andmoved as adults, to people born
outside of the Caribbean withlimited cultural connections, to
folks who regularly movebetween the worlds.
None of these starting pointsis better than others.
(04:51):
There's just different journeysand with each journeys comes
its strength and challenges.
So component number two whereyou live changes how you connect
.
One of the other mosteye-opening experience that I
had was when I moved fromCaribbean-rich, jamaican-rich
(05:12):
Brooklyn to Wisconsin, where theJamaican community was much
smaller.
And to this day people areasking me like how you reach out
Wisconsin.
But let me tell you, my unclehad been living there for years,
so there was a sizable Jamaicancommunity there and many years
(05:32):
later it has grown.
So in Brooklyn in the ninetiesI was immersed in dance, art,
culture, caribbean foods, music,events, pots, everything,
everything.
I didn't have to work hard.
You step outside and music, ablast, caribbean culture,
carnation, cook shop, whateverright.
But in Wisconsin it was verydifferent.
(05:53):
My uncles and my cousins andtheir friends from back home
they were there, but they hadjust as strong Jamaican accents
and cultural practices as peoplein Brooklyn.
It's because they wereintentional about making sure
that they kept the links forlack of a better word with
(06:13):
culture.
There was a sound system thateven was birthed out of
Milwaukee.
I want to say it's calledCataract.
But they had Jamaican clubs,they had restaurants and again,
people always say Milwaukee,wisconsin.
And yes, I want to say that,and if I thought the Jamaican
(06:37):
community was a sizablecommunity with intention of
going to this store to getJamaican products or this place
to get Jamaican food, there's anexplosion in Milwaukee where
there are Jamaican restaurantsall over and I am proud to see
it and it's just a sight to see.
So big up Milwaukee you don'tknow.
(06:57):
And so that experience living inMilwaukee, looking at my
uncle's experience before whohad lived there longer, what
happened after I moved back toNew York and just go back to
visit it showed me somethingaround connection.
So, as I mentioned, living in aplace like Brooklyn and other
(07:18):
places people might live likeToronto, you know, florida,
miami with large it's going tobe totally different from
someone who lives in a smalltown somewhere in the middle of
the US or further out in someother state where you're not
going to have such a largepopulation.
(07:38):
In bigger communities like NewYork City, maintaining the
culture happens almostautomatically.
You have a lot of food places,there's music and events all
around.
My move from Brooklyn toWisconsin contrast in my life
showed me how geographic contextshapes how you connect to
culture.
(07:58):
You know, in Brooklyn at thetime when I moved and still now
Caribbean culture was everywherein Wisconsin.
It really took deliberate effortback then.
You know Milwaukee isn'tBrooklyn, while there's a lot
more Jamaican places.
There's still a deliberateeffort.
You know you don't walk out andhear you know music blasting or
(08:18):
there's a restaurant at thecorner.
But you know that you have tobe intentional that you're going
to go to this Jamaicanrestaurant and they get ready
for the experience.
The long lines, them kind ofline, them long.
I watched the people inMilwaukee, specifically
Jamaicans.
I cannot tell you if there'sTrinities or anything.
I've just really come across avibrant Jamaican community.
(08:40):
By then I'm sure other peoplehave moved, but the Jamaican
community, specifically inMilwaukee, created spaces and
businesses to maintain culturalconnection in a way that I
didn't have to in New York,right.
So they created mini marketslike little grocery stores so
you can get your Jamaicanproducts.
(09:01):
They had clubs where they, youknow they would make sure that
the promoter could bring a BeresHammond or, you know, you had
Cataract who had a sound system.
So we can still, you know, getto experience the dancehall
culture and the sound classculture.
Those were things that they did.
That was intentional.
So while you feel like, oh, youwon't go to Brooklyn, where a
(09:25):
lot of Caribbean people are.
When you move to smaller places, you have to work harder to
find them, but when you do findthem, you create a stronger bond
to the culture because you findyour people.
The third component is aboutcultural anchors that help
ground our identity.
So there are certain tangibleelements that ground our
(09:48):
cultural identity food, music,language, celebration, even the
way of the church and how ourfamily is structured right.
That is very distinct in theway that we experience culture
Now.
There are certain elements thatkeep us connected to culture,
no matter where you are.
For me, music was a huge thingwhen I was younger.
(10:11):
I knew all the dances.
You know I'd song clash tapes.
You know I stayed current indancehall culture.
Language was another anchor.
When I moved from Jamaica toNew York, my language changed.
It was more emphasized and itwas something that I had noticed
when I moved here with myuncles, because I had uncles
that were living here since theywere 10.
(10:32):
And I was like why?
Why?
They sound like they just leftJamaica right.
When I went back to Jamaica forthe first time to visit after I
moved, my cousins said to methat my accent was thicker and
stronger than when I was inJamaica for lack of a better
word, as Jamaicans would say mytop more brawling.
You know my chap bud, and thatwas because I was using language
(10:56):
to hold on to the culture.
It is something that we areholding on to as part of our
cultural identity.
Food, of course, is a constantconnection, right?
I don't even have to explainthis.
Right?
We see all the stories aboutjerk chicken, you know oxtail,
whatever it is right, butessentially the food is what we
(11:21):
exported, you know, and itdisseminated across the diaspora
, and that's how a lot ofCaribbean foods are popular and
it holds memory.
You know language, food, music,they, you know they hold memory
and we hold on to them as partof our cultural identity.
In addition to memory, it'sreally cultural knowledge.
(11:44):
The way we cook rice and peas,you know, is very different.
How we cook curry goat, thereason why they're like when
Jamaicans, the oxtail is just acertain way.
So it holds cultural knowledgeand you know some of the things
that we do, the way we do church, or the way that you know our
families are set up.
You know, growing up in theCaribbean, I lived in a
multi-generational home.
(12:04):
Most people grew up living in amulti-generational home and we
kind of replicated that when wecame here.
So when I lived in Brooklynthere was a lot of us living in
the house different generationsand so those are elements of
cultural anchors that ground ouridentity.
(12:25):
Number four is what you'veprobably heard me talk about
before in an earlier episode ofthe podcast, but I'll get into
it.
Our cultural expressions changeas we age.
How we connect with our culturenaturally evolves as we get
older, and that is normal.
I just developed the languagefor this for this.
(12:54):
I've been observing this for atleast almost 10 years, I would
say definitely the last six toseven years.
I knew it was there, I justdidn't have language to say it
the way that I've just said it,which is our connection to
culture naturally evolves as weget older, and that is normal.
When I was younger I wasfocused on trends like the music
.
You know what's hot, all ofthese other things.
(13:16):
But as I got older I have kidsand you know I'm working like
things shift, so I can't keep upthe same way.
That doesn't make me lessJamaican, it just makes me
connect to different aspects ofthe culture.
I'm more now focused in themusic that I did enjoy growing
(13:36):
up and of a certain era.
I do still check out some newmusic, but the difference is I
don't feel like compelled tokeep up Like I hear it and I
like it, I'll consume it, but Ino longer feel like, okay, it is
my job to make sure that maykeep up with the latest.
And I tell myself like I don'twant to be an old person in a
(13:58):
young person's space.
You know I remember growing up.
You know like we knew whenthere was a big person in our
space it was just like, eh, youtry too hard, I didn't want to
be that person.
So you know, there's somethings that I just said.
You know what this is youngpeople, things, let them have
them things right.
Losing my grandmother and otherelders in the family made me
(14:19):
realize that I needed to do morein documenting our stories.
As a podcaster, I regret notsitting down and recording my
grandmother having these stories.
So, as a podcaster, I regretnot sitting down and recording
my grandmother and having thesestories.
And you know I'm a naturalfamily historian and archivist.
Like I kind of do these thingsnaturally and most of us do
right them.
Keep everything, like we keeppictures.
(14:42):
I know this is a thing with me,my grandmother and my mother.
At the time we used to quarrelabout who get which pictures,
and even now I have somepictures that my mom is like
where get these pictures from?
I said every time I went toJamaica I'm going to take them,
carry the picture then backRight.
So I'm at a point in my lifewhere it's about understanding
(15:03):
how my cultural identity isevolving, preservation and also
handing off some of this to mychildren.
And I covered culturalexpression, this evolution from
young to old, and preservationin an earlier episode of the
podcast called Preservation,culture, identity and the
(15:25):
Evolution of the Caribbean Self,and this came out of the
newsletter.
I asked the newsletter audienceabout how they were keeping up
and I got really rich responsesthat gave me the confidence to
finally reveal or share theCaribbean diaspora experience
(15:48):
model, because it was just datathat I now had.
A lot of times it wasobservation and I said I think
this is what's happening, butthere was no way for me to
confirm, and so that's what itdid, right, and I shared the
audience survey in two episodesthat I did with Style and Vibes,
and Style and Vibes is apodcast that I produced through
(16:09):
Breadfruit Media and I did it inStyle and Vibes because Style
and Vibes is mostly we talkabout music, and so the first
episode we did it's called OurLove for Dancehall Remains, but
Our Relationship to the Musichas Changed, and there we just
kind of went through how peoplewere evolving and changing with
the music.
The second episode was keepingup with Dan saw a listener's
(16:32):
perspective where I kind ofreiterated some of the findings,
some of the surveys and havingmore conversation.
I'll make sure I put those inthe show notes right.
I'm at a place where myexpression is different.
It's not better, it's not worse.
It's just where I am for whereI am in my stage of life.
(16:52):
And I want to be clear that I'mevolving because of age and
where I am in my life.
But not because I'm at thatplace means that someone else is
at that place.
There are different underlyingmotivations that can impact that
.
I was talking to my cousin theother day that I grew up with.
I'm going to tell her so whenwe did young, we did just do
(17:14):
road, and no, we don't do roadagain because we're like we did
a lot of that when we wereyounger.
So do.
Road is not the same thing, andso there's other underlying
factors that impact how itevolves.
But it will evolve right, andso those episodes, we kind of
talk through some of thatevolution, all right.
So component five is work andprofessional identity.
(17:38):
Now, this aspect was really theimpetus why I started the
podcast.
I felt like I needed somecareer mentorship and advice and
I wasn't getting it and I saidyou know what?
Let me just talk about this andyou know, among other things,
and kind of see, you know whatconversations happen, but how we
express our Caribbean identityat work is a huge part of our
(18:01):
experience.
And when I say Caribbeanidentity at work and how we
express it, that's differentways.
Caribbean people, we do a lotof verbal expression, obviously,
but we do a lot of nonverbalexpressions, right, and some of
that I've learned over the yearsand I've done workshops about
this.
(18:21):
There are some things that arestrength and some things that
they can impact us negatively atwork, depending on the type of
work we do, the industry that wework in.
The last workshop that I didwas Confidently Caribbean, and
that was in 2020.
And before that, in 2016, I didanother workshop around being
(18:45):
Caribbean in the workplace andhow we can navigate better and
set ourselves up for success,addressing some of the
challenges and pet peeves thatwe all have, which I now look at
very differently, and I had tolearn that the hard way because
I was like I don't want to dothis, I don't want to do that,
and a lot of that is from howour parents kind of told us how
(19:09):
we should be at work right.
So, based on where we work andsometimes the type of work we do
, some of us code switch, someof us bring with full self.
So if you are working at one ofthe major hospitals in Brooklyn
or in New York I said Brooklynyou might walk the hall and chat
Pierre Patois, you show up asyourself, because the hospitals
(19:32):
in New York particularly have alot of Caribbean people working
in them, so you can show up thatway.
And then for most of us, we arestrategic about when and how we
express our cultural background.
So, as I said, navigating myCaribbean identity in
professional spaces has been asignificant part of my
(19:54):
professional journey and I'veexperienced the challenge of
being perceived as unfriendly ormean when I was simply just
being serious, heads down doingmy work and this work ethic that
I was told to have, whichdidn't translate as such in the
workplace.
Right, I've mentored otherCaribbean professionals who
(20:18):
sought me out because theyneeded guidance.
I'm someone who understoodtheir cultural background.
That was something that I didin one role in particular,
because this particular employeewas very frustrated and felt
disrespected and I knew whatthey meant, because as a
Caribbean person, we saw it asdisrespect, but in the workplace
(20:40):
it wasn't seen as a big thing.
And then you've heard me sharethe story of interviewing a
young man for our position.
He was Jamaican and I asked atypical question in an interview
asking him what his weaknesswas, and he saw his accent as a
weakness rather than an asset.
(21:02):
So those were some of the thingsthat kind of gave me some early
desire to start the podcast andwhy career was one of the main
and early focus and stillongoing focus of the podcast.
So the blog itself has beenaround for 12 years and the
(21:24):
podcast 10 years.
And so since I startedcarryonfriendscom, career has
been an ongoing theme because itis what pulled me to start
Carry On Friends and obviouslyin the podcast we've talked
about that.
So what I learned through the12 years, particularly doing the
(21:48):
podcast, doing a lot of thework on myself and learning and
all of the other books thathelped me, is that my Caribbean
work ethic is part of the legacythat my parents handed over to
me, and the desire, andsometimes the pressure, for me
to succeed is based onsacrifices, right, but at the
(22:11):
same time, there's an element tothat that we just have to be
mindful of, and it's again, it'sjust how much we turn it up or
turn it down, based on theplaying field that we are in.
So, based on the job and theculture of the job that we have,
that we just have to know howto adjust the dials as we go in
(22:36):
to the workplace.
And lastly, the sixth componentis embracing both slash and
identity.
So one of the most importantthings that the model embraces
is that we're not either, orwe're, and right, being fully
Caribbean and American orBritish or Canadian at the same
(23:02):
time is our reality.
So I identify as a Jamaicanwoman and I've also embraced the
other aspects of my identity,and I also cover this in another
episode, right.
So, depending on who I'mtalking to, you know I'm
Caribbean American.
I'm a New Yorker, I live inBrooklyn, midwest.
All of these aspects are partof my identities and I don't
(23:27):
have to choose right.
The ability to be fully all ofthose identities simultaneously
is something I see as a strengthand not something as a source
of confusion, and it's notsomething that I have to choose
between.
So why did I create this model?
(23:47):
So, as I mentioned before, Istarted Carry On Friends because
I needed mentorship fromsomeone who understood my
specific cultural background,and I didn't get that.
And so, through starting CarryOn Friends as a platform and
through the 10 years of podcastinterviews, I learned a lot of
(24:09):
things that I had to do my ownself-development, and which is
what Carry On Friends has been aplace for not just for me to
interview guests and share themwith you, the audience, but it
was a source of my ownself-development.
I saw patterns emerge in howCaribbean people experience life
in the diaspora and as Ilistened to the stories, there
(24:32):
are times that I'm makingconnections real time in the
episode by saying, oh, I hadanother guest who kind of said
this, or I noticed this right,said this, or I noticed this
right.
I wanted to create this model tohelp us navigate this cultural
journey with more awareness andintention than I had available
(24:53):
to me, or something to helpCaribbean people understand,
because I don't know if thegeneration before had the
language for it to help meunderstand and process how, over
time, you know, the longer Ilive away from Jamaica, what
does that mean for me?
Or how my culture is evolving,right?
Or how I'm evolving alongsidemy culture and trends, et cetera
(25:15):
.
All right, so you're thinkinghow does this model help you or
people?
This model gives language tounderstand maybe your own
experience, or recognizefeelings and challenges that you
have that others might have.
It could also help explain whyyou might connect to your
(25:36):
Caribbean identity and culturedifferently than your parents,
your siblings or even yourchildren, or how your children
will maybe eventually connectdifferently, right?
The model validates that thecultural connection looks
different for different peopleand there's no right way to be
(25:57):
Caribbean.
It also validates that changesin how you express your culture
across your life is just normaland not a sign of you're losing
your roots.
It can actually help you bemore intentional about
maintaining the culturalconnections that matter to you
most Now as a community.
This model can help us respectthe diversity of the Caribbean
(26:20):
diaspora experiences rather thanjudging who's Caribbean enough,
and you know a lot of peoplewho were born in the diaspora.
I found that through thepodcast, they're the ones who
are having their identitieschallenged by not being
Caribbean enough.
You know, they weren't bornthere, they were born here, et
(26:40):
cetera.
Right, I think this model canhelp improve communications
between generations by creatingsome kind of understanding of
why they approach culturedifferently.
And a perfect example of thatis when my grandparents'
generation, so when mygrandfather left Jamaica to move
here, some people in thatgeneration, and also depending
(27:03):
on which Caribbean country youcome from, you, didn't want
people to know that you're aCaribbean Versus.
When I came here in the 90s,everybody wanted to tell
everybody they were a Caribbeanright.
And so, in summary, theCaribbean diaspora experience
model it's not academic, it'snot theoretical, it's built from
real experiences, again, likemine, my family, my friends and
(27:27):
maybe yours.
I will be going more into eachof these more deeply in the
coming months.
I just wanted to give a veryhigh level view of the Caribbean
Diaspora Experience Modelbecause it's the first time I'm
introducing it and I'm reallyexcited to share this work.
(27:48):
I would love to hear if thismodel resonates with you and how
.
Which elements reflect yourexperience.
So we talked about everyone hasa different starting point.
Where you live impacts how youconnect with culture, cultural
anchors like food and music.
(28:09):
They ground our identity.
We talked about our culturalexpressions changed as we age.
We talk about work andprofessional identity and we
talked about the embracing theboth slash and identity.
Right.
So, instead of either, or it'sboth and right.
So let me know which elementsresonate with you.
(28:32):
What would you add, what wouldyou change?
And stay tuned over the nextcouple months because I'm going
to go deeper into the model.
My hope is that this modelgives us a better way to
understand ourselves, connectwith each other and celebrate
this beautiful complexity andlayers of the Caribbean diaspora
(28:55):
identity.
Thank you for listening to meto the very end.
If you're here at the end ofthis recording, thank you for
listening Again.
This model is not just myprofessional work through Carry
On Friends, but my personaljourney of understanding who I
am as a Black woman, as aJamaican, as a Caribbean woman
(29:17):
in America, and so, as I love tosay at the end of every episode
, until next time, walk good.
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