Strictly Facts: A Guide to Caribbean History and Culture

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One of my favorite parts of Caribbean culture is how we rally our islands and show our regional pride for our sports teams. In honor of Jamaica celebrating 61 years of independence and Jamaica's Reggae Girls making women's football history, I'm sharing six of my favorite Jamaican women's sports moments of all time. 

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Are there any Caribbean places that give you the creeps? Join us as we continue our summer travel list, this time sharing some of the top spots for hair-raising Caribbean history for your summer adventures. Be sure to let us know on social media if you plan on visiting any of these sites this summer!

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Looking for somewhere new to travel to this summer while still learning something new about the region? Check out our recommendations for some of UNESCO's well-preserved World Heritage Sites in the Caribbean, where history, culture, nature, biodiversity, and legacy all come together. See the full list of UNESCO's World Heritage Sites here. Be sure to let us know on social media if you plan on visiting any of these sites this summer!

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There are few Caribbean-owned businesses that have withstood the test of time like GraceKennedy Ltd. has for over one century. In this episode Fred W. Kennedy, grandson of one of the original co-founders, joins Strictly  Facts to discuss his family's legacy with the company from the viewpoint of his father, Luis Fred Kennedy, who led the major conglomerate for over 50 years through pre- and post-independence Jamaica, the subject of our guest's new book Firstborn: The Life of Luis Fred Kennedy 1908-1982.  

Fred W. Kennedy was born and raised in Jamaica. He holds a Bachelor of Arts and Graduate Diploma in Education from the University of the West Indies (UWI) and a Master and Doctor of Education from the University of Toronto. After thirty years of serving as an educator and principal, Fred turned to writing Jamaican historical fiction. He is the author of Daddy Sharpe (2008) (the story of Jamaica’s National Hero, Samuel Sharpe) and Huareo (2015) (the story of a Jamaican Taino cacique). Firstborn is his first published work of nonfiction. He wrote his father’s biography “to celebrate the relationship of love and trust that we shared” and as “a tribute to him in praise of his contributions to the national development of Jamaica.” Fred remains connected to the company as Chairman of the GraceKennedy Foundation, which funds educational, environmental and health initiatives in Jamaica.  His interests and hobbies include Caribbean history and literature, cycling, tennis, travelling, boating and fishing. He and his wife Georgianne share their time between his native Jamaica and adopted Canada, where their three daughters and families reside.

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Celebrate Caribbean-American Heritage Month and Black Music Month with Strictly Facts this June as Dr. Danielle Brown joins the show for a discussion on Caribbean music and its capacity for influencing education and building social change that spans from the shores of Trinidad and Tobago, with a brief history of Parang, to the Caribbean diaspora.

Danielle Brown, Ph.D. is a multi-disciplinary artist-scholar and entrepreneur. She is the Founder and CEO of My People Tell Stories, LLC, a company based on the premise that people of color in particular, and marginalized people in general, need to tell and interpret their own stories. Brown is the author of the music-centered ethnographic memoir, East of Flatbush, North of Love: An Ethnography of Home, and the companion Teacher Guidebook. Brown advocates for social justice in music and uses the arts to educate people on the history and culture of the Caribbean and African diaspora at large. For more information, visit: www.mypeopletellstories.com.  Follow Danielle on Instagram and Facebook. 

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As a continuation of our last episode, Dr. Amarilys Estrella and Ana Maria Belique join for a discussion on anti-Haitian sentiment in the Dominican Republic. Together, we discuss how the Dominican government has legitimized some of the conflict through state documentation, leaving generations of Dominicans and Dominicans of Haitian descent stateless  due to the 2013 Ruling 168/13.
 
Amarilys Estrella is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and a faculty affiliate for the Center for African and African American Studies at Rice University. Her research interests broadly focus on the intersections of race and gender within transnational movements, Black Latin American and Latinx identity, as well as human rights and anti-racist activism. Her first book project investigates how Blackness and Black identity, is produced, employed and transformed through everyday encounters among stateless Black grassroots activists of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic. In her article, “Muertos Civiles: Mourning the Casualties of Racism in the Dominican Republic” she examines mourning as a practice of resistance within anti-racist movements.

Ana María Belique is a founding member and leader of Reconoci. do, a movement that mobilizes and empowers Dominicans of Haitian descent and campaigns for equality and citizenship rights. She studied Sociology and specializes in Afro-Latin American and Caribbean studies from CLACSO. Her activism focuses on the fight for the restitution of the right to nationality of Dominicans of Haitian descent affected by ruling 168-13 of the Dominican Constitutional Court, as well as promoting the empowerment of the Dominican population of Haitian descent residing in Dominican bateyes. In addition, she founded the initiative for women and girls, MUÑECAS NEGRAS RD initiative, which offers a learning space to break the patterns imposed on black Dominican women. She coordinated the publication of two books, Nos Cambió La Vida (Our Transformed Lives) and "Somos Quien Somos," which document the stories of members of the Reconoci. do. She recently coordinated the Critical Training Space for Dominicans of Haitian descent. Ana María Belique has visited various international academic spaces where she talks about the reality of Dominicans of Haitian descent in the DR, human rights, Afro-descendants, and the experience of working with women in the bateyes. She was a visiting student at Columbia University in the Human Rights Advocacy Program 2022-2023 cohort.

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Join Strictly Facts as we celebrate Haitian Heritage Month with new episodes on Haitian history. This week we're sharing a brief history of the longstanding racial conflict between Haiti and the Dominican Republic to followed up by an extensive conversation on present-day anti-Haitian sentiment in our next episode. Stay tuned!

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The Caribbean has been an epicenter of global trade since the birth of colonialism. In this episode, international trade specialist Alicia Nicholls joins us for a discussion about both how the region has shaped and is being shaped by trade across the world.

Alicia Nicholls is an international trade consultant with over a decade of experience providing bespoke trade research and advisory services to a variety of clients.   Miss Nicholls is the founder of the Caribbean’s leading trade policy and development blog, www.caribbeantradelaw.com, since 2011. She also presents regularly at both regional and international academic and industry-related conferences and webinars. Her primary research interests are foreign investment law/policy, global financial regulation and international business.  She is currently a research fellow and part-time lecturer with the University of the West Indies and also lectures part-time in the political economy of international trade and finance in The UWI Cave Hill’s Department of Government, Sociology, Social Work and Psychology.

Miss Nicholls’ multidisciplinary background includes a Bachelor of Science in Political Science with First Class Honours, a Master of Science in International Trade Policy with Distinction and a Bachelor of Laws with Upper Second Class Honours from The University of the West Indies. She also holds the prestigious FITT Diploma in International Trade from the Ontario, Canada-based Forum for International Trade Training (FITT). She attained the Post-Graduate Certificate in University Teaching and Learning (PGCUTL) from The UWI in July 2022. Follow Alicia Nicholls on Twitter and LinkedIn.

CBERA - Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act
CSME - CARICOM Single Market and Economy
WHO - World Trade Organization

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No island's carnival is exactly the same - take for instance, Grenada's Spicemas. Christell Simeon joins Strictly Facts to discuss the history and unique culture that Spicemas and Grenada offer the world each August. 
 
Christell Simeon is a Grenadian from the parish of St. David. Christell is a former educator of Caribbean history at the Presentation Brothers College (2005-2013). Christell is an SGU Alumni with a BSC in Business management with highest honors (Summa Cum Laude) from 2007 to 2011. Christell holds a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Regina, Canada (2013-2016). Christell is the owner of Spice Island DigiContent, a registered business in Grenada in the Creative and Cultural industry that also operates  Island Learning Grenada. Follow Island Learning Grenada on Instagram and Facebook. 

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More than sixty years ago, on September 1, 1957, over 1600 lives were lost and generations of families were impacted when a train derailed on its way to Kingston after leaving Montego Bay. Writer and leading handwriting expert Beverley East joins Strictly Facts to share the story of the Kendal Railway Tragedy, its impact on her own family, and how and what inspired her to write Reaper of Souls, a historical novel about what was then the second worst rail disaster in history at the time. 

Ms. Beverley East CAM, MGA, CFDE, has been a guest at several major literary festivals. Mainly the international Calabash Literary Festival in St Elizabeth Jamaica she read twice in 2008 and in 2014. Other literary festivals include Guadeloupe, Dominica, Nigeria, London and USA. She has sat on literary panels at the Library of Congress, World Bank and the House of Commons. She was a fellow for the Virginia Centre for the Creative Arts (VCCA ) and Calabash literary festival. She created the Writer’s Lounge in 2007 where she has guided many authors on their journey to writing and publishing. Ms. East has participated in several anthologies and currently sits on the Board of the Hurston Wright Foundation.

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Produced by Breadfruit Media