Tag: Caribbean

You In Others

In the summer of 2020 I took a DNA test through Ancestry. There were a few things that I hoped to accomplish with the test: to find out which African countries were in my DNA (mostly Nigeria); to learn more about my maternal, West Indian ancestry, which has been very difficult to research; and to find my biological father. For most of my life I have known that I had another parent out there somewhere. Small, tentative attempts to...

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Childhood, Stories

Women’s Day

On International Women’s Day we celebrate women who inspire us, who accomplish great things. Women we look up to. I’m not going to do that. Instead, I am going to recognize the women who shaped me, for better or worse. I always qualify with those words, because so little was better; much was worse. But they are my kin. My lineage.

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Childhood, Stories

Caribbean Literature: A Reading List

This is a list of the books I have read, am currently reading, or plan to read for what I have often referred to as my Self-Directed Caribbean Literature course. This course has no syllabus, order, certification, or end for that matter. This is for life. I read what I want as I am compelled to and I add books as I find them.

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Books

Bone

With Day of the Dead just around the corner, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about cemeteries, death, the way we deal with remains, and how those practices vary around the world. Wherever I go, I always try to check out the cemeteries.

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Photography, Places, Stories

Create Dangerously

I am currently reading a book called, “Create Dangerously: The Immigrant Artist at Work” by Haitian-born writer Edwidge Danticat and I am loving it. In addition to the story-telling, Danticat speaks about the importance of breaking silences, self doubt, and writing through fear.

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On Creativity, On Writing, Photography

Bath Road

Dominicans are considered to be very modest and religious people. They do not take kindly to revelling holidayers that walk the streets in bikinis and clingy mesh shirts. [Who among us does?]

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Childhood, Stories