Carry On Friends: The Caribbean American Experience
Carry On Friends has an unmistakable Caribbean-American essence. Hosted by the dynamic and engaging Kerry-Ann Reid-Brown, the podcast takes listeners on a global journey, deeply rooted in Caribbean culture. It serves as a melting pot of inspiring stories, light-hearted anecdotes, and stimulating perspectives that provoke thought and initiate conversations.
The podcast invites guests who enrich the narrative with their unique experiences and insights into Caribbean culture and identity. With an array of topics covered - from lifestyle and wellness to travel, entertainment, career, and entrepreneurship - it encapsulates the diverse facets of the Caribbean American experience. Catering to an international audience, Carry On Friends effectively bridges cultural gaps, uniting listeners under a shared love and appreciation for Caribbean culture.
Carry On Friends: The Caribbean American Experience
Preservation, Culture, Identity & the Evolution of Caribbean Self
In this episode, I’m taking a moment to reflect on the powerful conversations had on the podcast so far this year—with the team behind Sugar Dumplin’, Natalie Bennett, Diana McCaulay, and Malene Barnett. What started as individual interviews became something more—more clear and focused themes around cultural preservation, identity navigation, and evolving expressions of Caribbean-ness.
I explore how these episodes other others from the podcast's catalog, show how storytelling, art, legacy, and even everyday conversations with our elders become vital acts of preservation. I also reflect on how my own relationship with Jamaican culture has evolved over the years, especially as a parent, and how we make room for both tradition and change.
This episode is a love letter to 10 years of Carry On Friends, but more importantly, it’s an invitation to explore where we’re headed next—together
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A Breadfruit Media Production
Hello everyone, welcome to another episode of Carry On Friends. I'm your host, carrie-anne, and I'm excited about doing this solo episode with you. Today I'm reflecting on the episodes that have come out so far this year with some of our guests. I've had the privilege of speaking with the team behind the short film Sugar Dumpling, starring the legendary Jamaican actor Oliver Samuels, and that team includes Tristan Barracks, danisha Prendegast, and then, after that, I had a conversation with Natalie Bennett. Natalie Bennett, then Diana McCauley and, most recently, Malaney Barnett. As I reflected on these conversations, I noticed powerful patterns connecting their experiences threads about identity preservation, representation and how we navigate our Caribbean-ness, jamaican-ness, whatever other Caribbean country you represent across different places, spaces and life stages. I mean, when I think about it, it was a life stage that got me to start Carry On Friends. Today I want to weave these threads together. Think of this episode as a celebration of the last 10 years, with a focus on these recent conversations, and I'm inviting you to a deeper understanding of our shared journey. So the first observation is the pattern of cultural preservation. So, sugar Dumpling Tristan, danisha, michaela and I we were having a discussion about the film, which addresses memory loss, because that is also occurring as part of the diagnosis. So someone diagnosed with dementia is not only losing their memory, they're losing their culture, and it's a slow step towards you know what eventually happens at the end of this diagnosis, right, and so we also talked about how storytelling is essential in the practice of preserving cultural memory and fostering a community. And I enjoy that episode so much because we really were being very nostalgic, talking about a lot of things that we remembered, and a lot of that was around storytelling the different stories that Oliver told in his Oliver at Large series or any other thing that we connected to, because we didn't only talk about Oliver, we talked about other creative products or outputs from our Jamaican culture. That helps us in the way that we think of culture and cultural memory, and all of us in that episode emphasize our responsibility as creatives to create impactful stories with lasting legacies. Right Over the last few years, I've been talking on the podcast about focusing on films. That's why you know Reels and Rhythms got started. It's important not only to see a reflection of ourselves in media, but also using the medium of the various forms of media to preserve our culture.
Speaker 1:Also in that episode, danisha touches on archiving family history and the impact of generational storytelling in preserving identity and legacy. And all of us, we all remember a grandmother, a auntie or somebody telling stories and we take for granted that these stories are going to always be told. But these stories they kind of end or they're silenced if no one is really documenting or we're carrying on that story and sometimes we think that, oh, somebody can always tell the story and that's not always the case, right. And so Danisha discovered, you know, in her personal connection to honoring her grandmother through storytelling, danisha had I'm not sure the exhibit is still active, but she had an exhibition called the Garden Rita Grew to honor her grandmother, rita Marley, and I went to that exhibition and it was truly inspiring and hearing how she interviewed her grand uncle and had a drawing of her great, great grandmother and it just made me realize that we all have similarities in our stories. We have these rich histories but we are not actively preserving this history and Danisha doing this exhibit. We are not all going to do exhibits, but we can really do this in our own way.
Speaker 1:Which brings me to the conversation I had with Malaney, who continued this theme of preservation in storytelling and she extended it even more through art. And in that episode she said we have to talk to our elders in our families. You know, she says everyday conversations. She said grandparents, if there's no grandparents around, elder aunts, a big cousin, you know a family friend and start recording these conversations. Right, because this is the aspect of preservation. We use WhatsApp, we voice note, we do all of these things. That's part of the act of preservation. And, most importantly, she was saying it's asking questions of the elders before their knowledge is lost, whether it is through a diagnosis of dementia, alzheimer's or through death, and I've had those experience for the last few years and it's been very difficult. One of my regret is that I didn't have these conversations with my grandmother, or record them, rather, because I did have the conversations but not having them recorded. I regret that.
Speaker 1:And so Malaney says we should look at these stories and not just stories the objects in our home, and in that episode she talked about how her mother gave her a piece of lace and she created a ceramic sculpture around it and she emphasized that the everyday objects in the house the doilies, you know, the crochet, all of these other things that I know my grandmother did are artifacts worth preserving. I don't have access to these because my grandmother did them so much in Jamaica but I don't have access to these. But these pieces would have been really great heirloom and sometimes we kind of get rid of them for more modern things but in the process we're losing really key aspects of our culture. Also, in the episode with Malaney she was on the episode talking about her book Crafted Kinship inside the creative practice of Black Caribbean makers and I was really moved by one of the quotes in the book by Amina Major that said cultural memory is our survival. It really really spoke to me and it continues to speak to me because when I first started the podcast, I knew that there was an aspect of the new oral storytelling tradition right, but I'm recording my podcast and I have all these episodes that I've recorded, right, but I knew that in my mind. But even though I said it, I didn't actually know how I was implementing it or how I was going to continue to implement it. It was just a thing. I said it. I didn't actually know how I was implementing it or how I was going to continue to implement it. It was just a thing I said. I didn't really make meaning or fully grasp the meaning of that. And 10 years in, it's nothing but divine order that all of these conversations are making sense in the 10th year, they said. You know, biblically 10 is the number of. Is it completion? But in the episode I also said that you know we can't take for granted that we'll always have the culture and it will always be around. You know, in the Caribbean we're prone to natural disasters, right, and in the episode with Tristan and Danisha we talked about how a lot of the recordings or programmings that used to happen on the JBC station TV station in Jamaica were all destroyed by fire. So some of the Ring Ding series that Andrew Clark and I spoke about in 2024, they're all lost. Those are tapes with the Honorable Louise Bennett Coverley and so many other cultural programming always be around and anything can happen, right, and cultures die out. It's a fact and we have to be clear about how we're doing our cultural preservation and the work that we have to do Now.
Speaker 1:Coming down to that, my conversation with Diana McCauley was a completely different spin on preservation. It was also following the thread of talking to the elders Miss Pauline, right. So Diana has a new novel out called A House for Miss Pauline and it was really Miss Pauline recounting her life in rural St Mary and, through her eyes, kind of seeing the changes of Jamaica over the years in terms of technology. You know the old and the new coexisting, and you know Miss Pauline used stones from an old plantation house to build her house right. And we got into the conversation around plantation houses and how, preservation and the complexities of preservation, when the aspects of our history aren't really things that people are proud of but recognizing, there's still historical significance in that process, in that process. And what really struck me powerfully in all of these conversations was the urgency around preservation, whether it was Diana talking about her role in preserving Jamaica's natural environment, or how, again, how do we treat great houses while acknowledging what happened there but not condoning what happened on the plantation Great Houses right. Or Tristan and Danisha preserving cultural stories on film. There's this recognition that what isn't consciously preserved can be lost forever. But preservation isn't just about documenting what was. It is about understanding how we live with our culture in the present. And that brings me to my conversation with Natalie Bennett and more of my conversation with Malaney Barnett.
Speaker 1:And so the second theme is identity navigation. I want to kick it off with something that Danisha has said, and I've heard this before Jamaica resides wherever Jamaicans are. Caribbean is wherever Caribbean people are anywhere in the world, right. So Natalie shared her journey from, you know, being successful in Jamaica, coming to the US being a successful Google executive to finding her authentic purpose. But that was a journey and she shared her experience of feeling successful by external standards and not being fulfilled internally. External standards and not being fulfilled internally. Right, and a lot of us you know, especially those of us growing up in the Caribbean we know what the external standards and pressures are when it comes to success, or what success should look like. And you know, in that episode Natalie talked about the process of peeling away layers to finding her true self. And that could be difficult when we feel like, you know, we're navigating between Caribbean slash Jamaican. And, you know, corporate America context code switches and chooses when to express her cultural identity.
Speaker 1:And I know, in the past people say it's not good to code switch. But I find that I'm like Michaela says, I can speak multiple language, I'm going into another language and it's a choice, right, because when I code switch at work, it reflects I don't want to say intimacy, but it reflects connection, right, I don't just speak Potswana to any and anybody. Right, it is with someone who I know that I feel I can connect and relate to. Right, so it's not just oh, I'm switching up because you know I can't speak Jamaican. I can but I choose not to because I don't have a connection with you to speak that. Right, and I just wanted to share that. Code switching might get a bad name but for me, code switching is me being ambidextrous, being able to move and be fluid in who I want to communicate with, and it's a choice. It's a language that I have and I want to exercise my right to use my language however way I want to.
Speaker 1:But what also came out that episode with Natalie was the impact of our heritage, our Caribbean heritage and values on our work, ethic, our ambition and our ambition is very high and mindset and all of that balancing cultural expectations, like the fragmentation of identity, like you show up to work one way and again I just said it, you code switch, but I code switch and talk to my non-Jamaican coworkers because they know when the accent comes out. It's one of two things mostly, right, you're either very upset or you're really excited and I mean I'll share an example. I was on a call the other day with my coworker and I said I feel like a donut and when the coworker didn't respond I realized that oh, they have no idea what I'm talking about. So I corrected myself and said I feel like having a donut and they were like, oh, I wasn't sure which way to take that. If you felt like a donut physically or what you said, right, but that's a example of comfort in the way that your culture comes out and the person not quite understanding, but pausing because they're like wait, how should I take this? And me catching it really quickly to say hey, this is how I feel, and just have a chuckle over it. So while that coworker was like I'm not sure what she's talking about, my coworker next to me was like, yeah, I got it, you wanted a donut. And that coworker went outside with some other coworkers and got me donuts, right.
Speaker 1:So again, it's learning to navigate corporate spaces in a way that feels authentic to us individually and there's really no standard approach to this, because every industry and every work culture is very different approach to this, because every industry and every work culture is very different. But we can leverage our cultural strengths in terms of adaptability, work ethic, resourcefulness to thrive in our professional settings and, you know, meet our career aspirations right career aspirations right. Also, natalie spoke about, you know, differentiating between external success, titles, accolades and internal fulfillment, and I thought that was very important. We talked about this inside the community and it really resonated with everyone who watched that episode. But also recognizing and celebrating the small successes along the journey and I know, culturally that can feel very hard sometimes that because we haven't fully made it, so this little step is nothing big. We want to celebrate when it gets to the big big thing. But what really is that big big thing? Right?
Speaker 1:And so what Natalie understood and what she came away with in finding her true self was, you know, navigating between her Jamaican-ness, broadly Caribbean-ness, and American context. She can do that successfully without sacrificing too much of her identity. You know, she had her Jamaican flag in her cup at work. She made her coworker rum cake for Christmas. Had her Jamaican flag in her cup at work. She made her coworker a rum cake for Christmas. All of these little things. She can still do both and feel like she's not sacrificing who she is.
Speaker 1:At work, we constantly recalibrate our cultural expressions as we move through life. This isn't about becoming less Caribbean. It's about finding authentic ways to express our Caribbean identity, that honor, both where we come from and where we are now. Sometimes that means turning up certain aspects of our culture and other times it means expressing it in more subtle ways. But the core, that foundation of who we are, remains intact throughout.
Speaker 1:When I had my second child and I was navigating through corporate in a way that was unfamiliar, that triggered me wanting to start Carry On Friends as a platform and I wouldn't say that I was confident. I knew I was Jamaican but I didn't show up to work being confident that, oh yeah, I can show my Jamaican-ness. No, but I knew I wanted to connect because of what I was experiencing at work at the time and where I was after having my second child and just feeling like I was at a different place in my life. I can share so many stories because a lot of this came out of my personal experience, my own immigration experience, what I saw in my family around me and, of course, you know, what I've experienced or learned through the years of the podcast has kind of filled a lot of the holes or meanings that I had Right. So my relationship with Patois has changed compared to 1993, when I left Jamaica, to today, in 2025.
Speaker 1:Because when I left Jamaica it was just like oh, you know, it's a thing. 25. Because when I left Jamaica it was just like oh, you know, it's a thing. You can't really speak it in school, or you can, but you know you can't really speak to the teacher like that in class.
Speaker 1:And I remember when I came to this country and my uncle, who's been living in the country at the time since the early seventies, he was talking like he just got off the American Airlines flight with me and I was like, oh my God, like it's like Louise Bennett, no, le cotwang, you know, it just sounds so racha. And here I am, in my adult years, understanding why he sounds like that. And so, as I've lived here long enough, I understood why he still had this very strong Jamaican accent. And it's because I realized I was holding on to my accent, because it's really became important part of my identity now that I didn't live in Jamaica. And I remember the first time I went back to Jamaica, my cousin and boy, carrie, you talk worse than when you were living here and I probably did, and I still do compare to my friends who live down there, right Like the way I speak, because here I didn't have to filter myself, the way that I felt like culturally back in Jamaica, what was allowed and how you are able to speak, and you know, we all know, that that's changing right now in Jamaica what was allowed and how you were able to speak, and you know, we all know, that that's changing right now in Jamaica.
Speaker 1:In terms of getting Jamaican language, patois or however way you want to call it Although Dr Carrie Lee said Patois is not such a nice word but the Jamaican language itself to be recognized as an official language, the Jamaican language itself to be recognized as an official language. You know you'll hear about me talking about how do I get my kids more involved in culture, and those things are important to me because they don't live in Jamaica, they won't have the same experiences. My grandmother is not alive anymore, so they won't get to experience certain things anymore, and so this preservation and handover is really important to me and my kids. And as I get older, the thing that I've been talking about the most is like the way I party or enjoy myself or the way I connect with music is changing and it took me a very long time to put that in words, like I would share this for many years with Michaela. She knows that I will tell her things and she'd be like I don't know what you're talking about. But I go through this process to recognize that as I'm getting older, my identity to music and dance changes. But it took a very long time for me to recognize that it was me recalibrating because of where I was as a parent. So as a parent, I don't have time to go to parties. The same way I can't listen to music the same way because of the content and, besides, the kids that listen to their things. So by the time they listen to their thing, I don't have time to listen to my thing.
Speaker 1:I remember when the kids were younger there was a show on TV called Wonder Pets and I remember, you know, somebody walked in and said where are the kids? And we're like I don't know. So why is Wonder Pets still on? Because you know we just leave it on. You know, because it's always going on, because by now we know the character. My brother-in-law always said Ming Ming Fiesty, but anyway, I digress.
Speaker 1:But, like, as we navigate work, life, all of these things, you know, we shift in our relationship with the different things that matter to us culturally. So music and dance may not have played a huge role to other people, it did to me. So as my relationship with that changed, I was trying to figure out what does that make me? Now, right, I don't know the latest dance, you know. So what I mean? I can't go out party and dance. I enjoy myself a certain way and I've now become okay with, yeah, if new music come out and I like it, I will listen to it, but I'm not going to really really work hard to keep up with what's the newest song that come out. So I could know it and it's been okay with that. And so the framework helps in understanding why you feel the changes.
Speaker 1:Like I've explained, when it pertains to culture, at certain times times it's also most importantly, as I just shared it's that recognizing that evolving cultural expression. For me, dance, for me, music, doesn't mean a cultural loss. I can still do Borgl, I can still do Butterfly, I still know the old songs. It just means that I'm choosing not to focus and keep up with them in the same way and it switched that I'm now focusing on different things as it pertains to culture. So it's not a cultural loss, it's just how I express and choose to keep up with it. Right, and for me it was finding compassion for myself. So the framework helps you find compassion for yourself and others who are at different stages in the framework and, you know, it helps identify specific actions to strengthen your cultural connection, right?
Speaker 1:So when I fully realized that, yeah, I can't keep up with the music and that's okay, I realized that I still can read books. I can read more books. Now I could keep up with books because now that I'm not using time to spend to listen to music, that time can be redistributed to read books or to watch films, which is what I do with Reels and Rhythms, right. So I've shifted and kind of taught more about Caribbean expression identity in film, right, and I've always read books, read and carry on. So now I can read books in a different way as opposed to really focusing on music.
Speaker 1:So, as I wrap up, it is not about assimilation or losing culture, it's not a one size fits all approach to cultural identity and it's really definitely absolutely not about judging others for being at different cultural stages than you are right, and it's also definitely, definitely, absolutely not not about progressing towards being some perfect version of cultural identity. It's evolving. It evolves as we evolve. Instead, it's about awareness, it's about intention, making conscious choices about how we engage with our culture and, perhaps most importantly, it really really is about compassion for others and for ourselves as we navigate this very complex journey that, up until this point, I really didn't have someone to explain to me. What was happening in 2012, you know, when I was at work, 2013, at work and just feeling really at odds about how my career was going, how I was being supported as a professional, how I was being asked to show up professionally, and all these things that I really couldn't understand, and so I'm grateful again for your 10 years of listening and for your support.
Speaker 1:I've only scratched the surface of this cultural firm work today. It's not the entire thing. More to come, and so, if you'd like to learn more before I share them on the podcast, I invite you to subscribe to the newsletter. You can click the link in the show notes. We're also going to be having a lot more of these conversations in our paid community. Please sign up and connect with us inside that community. Inside that community, I'm really grateful again for the last 10 years of the podcast and I'm really grateful that I've been able to mature into this framework and understanding and this work. And I want to thank you to all the guests who've come on the podcast and sharing their stories and thank you, listeners, for just being part of this 10-year journey of cultural exploration, which is what we've been on for the last 10 years. And, as always, until next time, walk good.
