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Our second "Big People Tings" highlight is Trinidadian Marxist, Black Feminist writer and political organizer Claudia Jones (1915-1964). Jones was one of the leading Black female organizers in the Communist Party in the USA and later went on to organize and celebrate the Afro-Caribbean community in the UK through her founding of the West Indian Gazette and Afro-Asian Caribbean News, Britain's first major Black newspaper, and first Caribbean carnival in the 1950s.  

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Caribbean writers have undoubtedly left their mark on history. In this episode, we talk with  author Desiree C. Bailey about Caribbean literature, common themes that have inspired her story and her recently published book What Noise Against the Cane, which combines Caribbean history, music, and culture.

Desiree C. Bailey is the author of What Noise Against the Cane (Yale University Press, 2021), winner of the 2020 Yale Series of Younger Poets Prize. She is also the author of the fiction chapbook In Dirt or Saltwater (O'clock Press, 2016) and has short stories and poems published in Best American Poetry, Best New Poets, American Short Fiction, Callaloo, the Academy of American Poets and elsewhere. Desiree has a BA from Georgetown University, an MFA in Fiction from Brown University and an MFA in Poetry from New York University. She has received fellowships from the Norman Mailer Center, Kimbilio Fiction, Callaloo Creative Writing Workshop, Poets House, The Conversation and Princeton in Africa. She has received awards from the New York State Council on the Arts/New York Foundation for the Arts and Poets & Writers. Desiree was born in Trinidad and Tobago, and lives in Brooklyn, NY. Connect with Desiree on Instagram and Twitter. 

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Celebrate Caribbean American Heritage Month with us this June as we journey through movements of Caribbean people to the US in the latter twentieth century!

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"Big People Tings" is a new continuing series where we highlight an individual Caribbean changemaker and discuss their contributions to our history and future. For our first episode of the series, we discuss Guyanese-born public intellectual and Pan-Africanist Dr. Walter Rodney (1942-1980) who played an integral role in the Black Power movement in the Caribbean and helped found the Working People's Alliance, a Guyanese political party for working class' rights, in the 1970s. 

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The Caribbean is made up of a number of ethnic groups, mostly as a result of colonialism between the 18th and 20th centuries. To commemorate Indian Arrival Day throughout the Caribbean, this week's episode discusses the roots of Indian indentureship with doctoral student Cristine Khan and how connecting these histories is integral to Caribbean connections moving forward.  

Cristine Khan is a Ph.D. student in Sociology at the CUNY Graduate Center where she works at the Teaching and Learning Center and also teaches at Hunter College and Queens College. With experience as a critical educator and researcher in Latin America and Europe, she currently conducts research on intergenerational Indo-Caribbean identity formations and racialization processes in New York City. She was born and raised in New York City to Guyanese parents, which has shaped her trajectory as a researcher and educator.

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Class is in session! For this very brief episode, we recap major themes and takeaways from our first six episodes as part of our regular Review Sessions. With each Review Session, we ask you, our listeners, to fill out a brief survey on your thoughts and what you'd like to see from Strictly Facts moving forward. 

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Traditional or folk style and dress in the Caribbean has a long, intricate history that differs across the region. Speaking with textile researcher Lauren Baccus, we discuss folk style's early origins and its complicated evolution as a staple of cultural celebrations today. Let us know your thoughts via the Voicemail feature on our website!

Lauren Baccus is a textile artist and researcher whose work centers around the construct and deconstruction of Caribbean identity through costume, textile and dress. She is strongly influenced by masquerade, the region’s legacy of resistance through clothing, and the universality of play through dress. Her most recent project, Salt and Aloes, is an archive of Caribbean material culture over the past century. 

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Dialects, creoles, patwa/patois, there are so many names for languages spoken in the Caribbean. Caribbean languages have been historically degraded in favor of the colonial position that has long advocated for "standard" English over our own native tongues. Speaking with linguistics expert Dr. Joseph T. Farquharson, we discuss how these languages have historically evolved and what we can do to better advocate for their celebration moving forward.

Dr. Joseph T. Farquharson earned his Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) focused on Linguistics from The University of the West Indies, Mona. He now serves as a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics in the Department of Language, Linguistics and Philosophy, and Deputy Dean for Graduate Studies and Research in the Faculty of Humanities and Education at the University of the West Indies, Mona, and coordinator of the Jamaican Language Unit. You can find more of his work here  and on social media @jtfarquharson, and the work of the Jamaica Language Unit @braadkyaasjamiekan. 

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Religion is an integral part of Caribbean history and culture, some of which were introduced as a result of colonization and enslavement and others that are syncretic religions, or made up of a combination of religions. In this episode, Dr. Aliyah Khan and I discuss a handful of Caribbean religions, the influence of music and culture, and her recent book, Far from Mecca: Globalizing the Muslim Caribbean, that charts the growth of Islam in the Caribbean from both the Afro- and Indo-Caribbean experience.

Dr. Aliyah Khan, a native of Guyana, is Associate Professor of English Language and Literature, and Afroamerican and African Studies, at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.  Dr. Khan holds a Ph.D. in Literature and Feminist Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and an M.F.A. in Creative Writing--Fiction from Hunter College of the City University of New York. Her research areas are Caribbean literature and Islamic literature, with emphases on race, gender, and sexuality. Dr. Khan is the author of Far from Mecca: Globalizing the Muslim Caribbean (Rutgers University Press 2020), the first academic book on the history, literature, and music of Black and South Asian Muslims in the Caribbean. Her writing also appears in scholarly and popular venues including GLQ, Caribbean Review of Gender Studies, The Rumpus, Agents of Ishq, and Pree: Caribbean Writing. Dr. Khan is currently conducting research for a book on Caribbean hurricanes, the ship routes of the transatlantic slave trade, and their implications for contemporary migration within the Americas.

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This episode of Strictly Facts charts just some of the connections between the Caribbean and its diaspora as a result of slavery and migration. This episode charts both direct and indirect connections to places London, New York, Louisiana, and the southeast US coast to discuss how West Indian culture and ideas has impacted different parts of the world.  

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