Strictly Facts: A Guide to Caribbean History and Culture

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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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Caribbean geography is often defined by the Caribbean Sea, but our historical and cultural borders go well beyond these physical boundaries. In this episode, we talk about how to define the boundaries, inter-regional travel, and migration around the Caribbean with our very first guest, scholar Melanie White.

Melanie White is an interdisciplinary scholar, writer, and researcher from Miami, Florida. She is currently a Ford Foundation Predoctoral Fellow and PhD candidate in Africana Studies at Brown University. In 2015, she earned her B.A. in Cultural Anthropology with a minor in Africana Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, where she was a Posse Scholar and Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow. In 2017, she received her M.A. in African and African Diaspora Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Melanie's dissertation research dwells at the intersection of Black visual culture studies, Afro-Latin American studies, Caribbean studies,  and Black feminist thought. More broadly, her research interests include Black diasporic art, Black feminisms, Black cultural politics, and Black critical thought.

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Kicking off Black History month, this episode discusses the importance of oral storytelling in the Caribbean. From familial stories passed down through generations to historically significant folktales, oral histories are not only one of the earliest forms of historical narratives, but this form of storytelling features details often left out of history books. Think of Strictly Facts as bridging the two! 

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• Rate & Leave a Review on your favorite platform
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Strictly Facts: A Guide to Caribbean History and Culture is a podcast and educational platform that aims to educate and celebrate Caribbean history through our art and music, hosted by Alexandria Miller.

Subscribe now to get our very first episode when it launches on February 3rd to kick off Black History Month.

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Connect with Strictly Facts -  Instagram | Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | YouTube | Website

Looking to read more about the topics covered in this episode? Subscribe to the newsletter at www.strictlyfactspod.com to get the Strictly Facts Syllabus to your email!

Want to Support Strictly Facts?

• Rate & Leave a Review on your favorite platform
• Share this episode with someone or online and tag us
• Send us a DM or voice note to have your thoughts featured on an upcoming episode 
• Donate to help us continue empowering listeners with Caribbean history and education

Produced by Breadfruit Media