On the preservation of Black and Caribbean life.

Over the past few days I've heard of at least two people stabbed to death. One of them by a man of unsound mind who was known to be a problem to the community (another post to be made about this) and one by a passenger who refused to pay bus fare. In both instances …

“Maybe you were big for 7” (and 10 other things not to say to survivors of assault)

The last few weeks have been challenging for me. One night, while at a training at a hotel, I slept with a chair pushed up against my door as a form of protection. I knew I was over-reacting to the conversations I’d had earlier that day but I couldn’t convince myself that I was actually …

Dear women, go after partners who share housework and offer you emotional stability.

dear women, go for partners who share housework and who offer you an emotionally stable environment. please note I said share not 'help with'. keeping a shared space clean is not your job alone so whatever they do is actually their part not some assistance to you. go after these kinds of partners because you …

#NewVlog On (Black) shame and (in)dignity

Some time over the last week a video surfaced of a mostly naked woman beating her daughter with a machete. These images are not foreign to Jamaica or, I would hazard, most black and Caribbean communities. It's re-ignited a national debate about the boundaries of corporal punishment and child abuse and, of course, the mainstay …

post vacation mood

do you know Khalid? if not then you should not just because he's still a teenager and more soulful than most but in this moment you should know him because he brought back some of the 90's kids staples for this video including Mr. Belding and following my super mini-vacation and all its epiphanies this …

One compliment I’ve stopped accepting

It's official. I don't accept 'you're not like most girls' as a compliment anymore. Took a while. And I admit...I used to feel really good when people would set me apart from other women. But then I have to admit that like most people I was latently misogynistic. And the more I think about it …

Dear disgruntled employee: Quit your job… PLEASE.

To all the people who hate their jobs: QUIT. no seriously, please quit. And to be specific this is for people who hate their job and use every moment of every day to make that fact clear. We get it, you're probably not being paid what you deserve AND they are probably over working you. …

Hustle (less) hard

I know it's basically the opposite of what we preach these days. We are firm believers in the gospel of 'while they sleep i grind' to the point that we almost shame people who dare to rest (unless that rest involves a yacht and cha mpagne and can fit into the rubric of 'work hard …

on renting in Jamaica (and Babylon)

Often we think about how Jamaica makes it difficult for people to achieve things we often look at the outer extreme of poverty. Centring those who live in extreme poverty is important since they are most often ignored in many aspects. Only using that experience as a lens to understand Jamaica, however, leaves some other …

oh Jamaica 1/who knows

I find more and more my relationship with Jamaica is a conflicted thing full up of resentment and growing short on hope. I hate the feeling. The latest thing I am trying to make sense of is the vendors who beat a Rasta man and left him for dead because he started (him alone mind …