Strictly Facts: A Guide to Caribbean History and Culture

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One of the most defining events of the last century in St. Lucia is the Great Fire of Castries Fire, which destroyed most of the island's capital on June 19, 1948.  In this episode, Milt Moise joins us to discuss the events of the fire, its impact in rebuilding St. Lucia's infrastructure, and its social and creative legacies as a the subject of one of the nation's most revered poems.

Milt Moise is a PhD candidate in the Department of English at the University of Florida. His current project examines the uses of absence in contemporary American bipolar fiction. His research interests include consciousness in literature, film and television, prestige TV aesthetics, self-referentiality, Caribbean and Postcolonial literature, and trauma narratives. He is the co-founder of the Television Reading Group at the University of Florida. Follow Milt on Twitter and Letterboxd. 

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Produced by Breadfruit Media

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Closing out Hispanic Heritage Month, Marley Pulido joins us for this second of a two-part conversation on Cuban independence. Together, we highlight the importance of Afro-Cubans to the island's early movements for liberation and discuss the consequences of their erasure in the subsequent storytelling late-19th and early 20th century Cuba.
 
Marley Pulido is a Cuban-born community builder, historian and archivist. Marley runs Historia Negra de Cuba, a multilingual digital archive and multimedia creative hub preserving the Black Cuban historical memory of the island and the diaspora. Follow Historia Negra de Cuba on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

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Rarely do nationalist movements arise over night. This is also true for Cuba as we discuss in this first of a two-part series on Cuba's independence movement. Join us in commemorating 154 years since Cuba's Declaration of Independence this week by listening and sharing this episode. 

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Did you know that, outside of Ireland, the only other nation to celebrate St. Patrick's Day as a national holiday is the Caribbean island of Montserrat? Montserrat's celebration of its Irish connections go beyond a long history of Irish migration and colonialism to also honor its history of Black freedom and attempted emancipation. Ursula Petula Barzey joins this episode to discuss this history and prompts us to consider racial myths and identity in contemporary times. 

Ursula Petula Barzey is the Founder & Digital Content Creator of Caribbean & Co. Established in 2014 the aim is to promote Caribbean travel, culture and its expanding luxury lifestyle to potential visitors from across the globe. A native of Montserrat who resides in London, United Kingdom, she travels to the Caribbean often to feature the best cultural and foodie experiences, places to stay and live/work opportunities.  Thrown in the mix is Caribbean history and heritage.  Ursula's mission is to showcase that there is more to the Caribbean than sun, sea and sand.  It is this distinction that has earned Caribbean & Co. has won five Travel Media Awards in recent years. Follow Ursula and Caribbean & Co. on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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The West Indian Day Parade is a decades long staple in New York culture. In this brief episode, listen to how the parade was founded as an ode to its post-pandemic return. 

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Bush medicine, herbal medicine, or roots are all names for traditional forms of medicine used across the African diaspora. These traditional forms of healing carry legacies of history and knowledge as we discuss with Dr. Julia S. Jordan-Zachery following the release of her documentary, Healing Roots, on Bajan women's healing practices.

Julia S. Jordan-Zachery is professor and chair of the Women’s Gender and Sexualtiy Studies Department at Wake Forest University. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on African American women and public policy. She is also the author of the award winning books “Black women, cultural images and social policy” (2009 Routledge) and “Shadow Bodies: Black Women, Ideology, Representation, and Politics” (Rutgers University Press, 2017) as well as a number of articles and edited volumes including “Black Girl Magic Beyond the Hashtag” (Arizona University Press, 2019). Jordan-Zachery was awarded the Accinno Teaching Award, Providence College (2015-2016). Jordan-Zachery serves as the President of the Association for Ethnic Studies. Follow Dr. Jordan-Zachery on Twitter.

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In the bonus episode, of Strictly Facts: A Guide to Caribbean History and Culture, we’re doing an episode swap with Carry on Friends: The Caribbean American Podcast. 

In this episode, Keisha and Ashley are American-born with strong Jamaican family ties and discuss how their identities motivated them to obtain their Jamaican citizenship. They dive into what inspired them to consider dual citizenship. Ashley explains that while she didn’t need validation from getting her Jamaican citizenship, it is an opportunity that exists and she chose to take advantage of it. She also encourages others to explore this option.

We also touch on dual citizenship for children. Keisha, who has applied for Jamaican citizenship for both her daughter and herself, shares that Jamaica feels like a second home and she wants her daughter to feel the same way through having official Jamaican citizenship.

Additionally, they speak about the application process for Jamaican citizenship. Due to COVID, the process has been delayed so those considering this option should manage expectations, and ensure that they have all the details and documents they need to avoid delays. The process is relatively simple and Ashley’s platform provides resources to help guide those interested in dual citizenship. 

While this conversation mainly focused on Jamaican citizenship, it can and should be extended to all other Caribbean countries. It’s a privilege to have dual citizenship and we should take advantage of it.

Mentioned in this episode:

• American Born, Caribbean Raised
• Reimagining the American Dream

Watch Ashley’s video on Dual Citizenship

Connect with Ashley:  Instagram | Twitter | Website 

Connect with Keisha: Instagram | Website

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The anglophone Caribbean and other parts of the former British empire celebrate Emancipation Day on the First of August, commemorating the abolition of slavery on August 1, 1804. In this episode, Dr. Natasha Lightfoot joins us for a discussion on Antigua's intricate story of emancipation, freedom, and the impact of colonialism then and now. 

Natasha Lightfoot is an Associate Professor in the Department of History and Faculty Fellow in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at Columbia University. Her research and teaching interests include Atlantic slavery and emancipation, Black community formation and acts of resistance, and daily practices of freedom in the nineteenth-century English speaking Caribbean. She is the author of Troubling Freedom: Antigua and the Aftermath of British Emancipation (Duke University Press, 2015), which focuses on black working people’s struggles and everyday forms of liberation in British colonial Antigua after slavery’s end. She has also been published in The New York Times, as well as a number of academic journals including The CLR James Journal, Slavery & Abolition, Small Axe, and most recently the William and Mary Quarterly. Her research has been supported by fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society, the Ford Foundation, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, the British Library, and most recently from the American Council of Learned Societies. She is currently writing a book titled Fugitive Cosmopolitans about enslaved people’s mobility, imperial subjecthood and struggles for freedom between empires in the Caribbean. Follow Dr. Lightfoot on Twitter. 

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Produced by Breadfruit Media

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US Immigration policies have historically marginalized people of color across the world. In this episode, Joy Charles joins us to discuss how these policies have disproportionately affected immigrants from the Caribbean despite our long history and major contributions in the United States.

A proud daughter of Afro-Latino heritage, a New Yorker and practitioner of the Afro-Brazilian tradition Candomblé, Joy Charles graduated from Hunter College, CUNY, with a BA in Political Science and Anthropology. As a student at Quinnipiac Law, Joy is interested in the areas of international and immigration law where she seeks to become a powerful agent of change by creating policies that effectively address the pressing concerns of communities of color. She is an active member of Juristas Negras (Black Women Jurists), an international collective based in Brazil that focuses on the empowerment and advancement of Black women in the law. Joy is particularly interested in championing the advancement of more people of color in the legal profession and building connections with legal professionals and leaders across the Afro-Diaspora. She is also interested in pursuing research that explores Caribbean migration and US immigration policies as well as the intersectionality between religious racism and the law. In her spare time, Joy likes to travel, read, and practice self-care.

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Produced by Breadfruit Media

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Long before Puerto Rico became known for reggaeton, the island had bomba. A music and dance tradition created by enslaved and self-emancipated Africans to forge community and even incite rebellion, bomba has continued to grow as a space of Black identity, community, and ancestral connection. In this episode, Dr. Sarah Bruno shares with us this history.  

Sarah Bruno is the 2022-2023 postdoctoral fellow in Latinx Art, Cultures, and Religions in the Humanities Research Center at Rice University. Her research and art lie at the intersections of performance, diaspora, and digitality. She is currently creating a digital exhibition of the Fernando Pico papers, and as a member of LifeXCode: Digital Humanities Against Enclosure and Taller Electric Marronage. The Pico Papers informs her first manuscript, Re-Sounding Resistencia where she uses the Afro-Puerto Rican genre of bomba as a site and method in constructing a cartography of Black Puerto Rican femme feeling throughout history.  Dr. Bruno was a Mellon ACLS Dissertation Fellow in 2020-2021 and the 2020 awardee of the Association of Black Anthropologists Vera Green Prize for Public Anthropology. Bruno was the 2021-2022 ACLS Emerging Voices Race and Digital Technologies postdoctoral fellow at the Franklin Humanities Institute and in the Department of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University.  She charges herself to continue to write with care about the never-ending process of enduring, imagining, thriving, and healing in Puerto Rico and its diaspora. 

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Produced by Breadfruit Media