Shannon Meade 10/30/20 Shannon Meade 10/30/20

I, Atlas

I am Atlas and the burden of the world is my own. Suffocating under the weight of continents, the whisper of dreams, hopes and prayers that fill the air.

Yorie Taylor 10/30/20 Yorie Taylor 10/30/20

I lied to my therapist

Shit! Back at it again. You see, one thing those mental health gurus fail to tell you on instagram lives is how much relapse is a bitch.

Arita Phillip 10/30/20 Arita Phillip 10/30/20

This is Not Love

Control is not love. Obsession is not love. Harassing a person to respond in a certain time frame is not love. That’s entitlement.

Carl Augustus 10/30/20 Carl Augustus 10/30/20

Take Flight

Once a year you give me permission the fly above your judgement so you may enjoy me

…. You think.

Kimberley Cambridge 10/30/20 Kimberley Cambridge 10/30/20

Music for 1

The soca song “Lucille” by Jestura was the anthem for Shilva especially around Carnival season.

Dani 10/30/20 Dani 10/30/20

Red looks like Ruby – The abuse we don’t see

Being in love is a sensation like no other. The feeling of being validated...I got the guy! He told me that the way our feelings developed for each other were so unique and effortless. He never wants to lose it

Stephanie R. 10/30/20 Stephanie R. 10/30/20

Big Brains > Big Ass

My body is also a topic of conversation when I walk into a room. Family members and friends all feel the need to tell jokes about my body.

Nneka Nicholas 10/30/20 Nneka Nicholas 10/30/20

Naima

She would not allow the creeping doubts from the previous months to dampen her spirit. Not while she had the rum in her system. She bobbed and weaved to make her feathers dance some more and so the stage lights could pick up the glitter on her skin

Majella Mark 10/30/20 Majella Mark 10/30/20

West Indian parenting style…

One of the participants was an American woman of Haitian descent who expressed her trouble dealing with depression due to the struggle of sharing mental and emotional concerns with her mother.

Majella Mark 10/30/20 Majella Mark 10/30/20

How a Small Island Gave Birth to Giants. Malcom X, Audre Lorde, and Amanda Seales.

#ADOS is a hashtag you will find on Twitter and Instagram that means “American Descendants of Slaves”. You will find many comments from cyber participants addressing their concerns for the wellbeing of their community…

Majella Mark 10/30/20 Majella Mark 10/30/20

The Objectification of Young Girls

One of the most heinous crimes that constantly gets dismissed in the Caribbean and has gone on for generations is the exploitation of young girls by adult men.

Majella Mark 10/30/20 Majella Mark 10/30/20

The hostility between Afro and Indo Caribbean Women may be about Featurism not Colourism

The Caribbean has a long history of multiculturalism due to the migration that occurred voluntarily and by force. This history includes the division of Afro Caribbean and Indo Caribbean people, predominantly in Guyana, Jamaica, Grenada and Trinidad & Tobago. The same system that was held in the United States, separating house slaves from field slaves based on their shade of brown was also implemented in the Caribbean between the Indians and the Africans.

Maëlla Kancel 10/30/20 Maëlla Kancel 10/30/20

Ti Fanm An Mas-la (Young girl playing Mas)

Soca takes over my body. Dressed in black and white, teenagers and young adults from all around the island are there to celebrate the death of King Vaval. Doing the helicopter with a small towel, singing and dancing behind the music truck, my cousin and I enjoy these last free-spirited moments.

Janielle Browne 10/30/20 Janielle Browne 10/30/20

Hookin’ Me

Imagine being 13 still just a little sprat

But the men you grow up ‘round

Can’t seem to see that

Your uniform ready for school

kevanté a.c. cash 10/30/20 kevanté a.c. cash 10/30/20

Today I am six years from 30

da bishop daughta in foreign

marrit to woman wit no babies?

Janielle Browne 10/30/20 Janielle Browne 10/30/20

Calypso Tingz

Imagine being 13 still just a little sprat

But the men you grow up ‘round

Can’t seem to see that

Your uniform ready for school

Nastassia Rambarran 10/30/20 Nastassia Rambarran 10/30/20

GET IN YUH SECTION

I never really took part in Mash again, either as a participant or bystander, until University. You see, despite what the Wikipedia article on Mash says, the celebration was a very racially divided one. Sure, many ethnicities lined the parade route, although conservative families didn’t do even this, but the persons in the parade were largely Guyanese of African heritage