From Storms to Stories with Grace Cameron I

Ever wondered what it feels like to face a hurricane head-on? Join me as I recount an eerie experience during a hurricane in Kingston where my apartment's glass doors vanished without a trace. Alongside Grace, we reflect on heart-wrenching stories from Haiti, including a father's unimaginable loss during a tropical storm. These tales shed light on the emotional challenges and resilience of Caribbean communities in the face of natural disasters.

Get ready to feast on the vibrant flavors and rich narratives of Caribbean culture. Grace and I discuss the fascinating creation of "Jamaican Eid" and the importance of authentically representing one's heritage through food and personal stories. We highlight how storytelling and cultural festivals strengthen community connections and offer a deeper understanding of Caribbean traditions and experiences.

Discover the journey behind launching a magazine dedicated to Jamaican and Caribbean culture. From initial funding struggles to transitioning to digital media, and the revitalizing power of social media, we explore it all. Learn about the unique value of printed magazines and how community events like Jamaican Eats and the Caribbean Board Games and Brunch bring Caribbean culture to life in Toronto. Listen in as we celebrate the power of storytelling, community support, and cultural celebration.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Hurricane Tales and Magazine Creation
• 13:36 Caribbean Storytelling Through Food and Culture
• 23:22 Reviving Jamaican Food Culture Through Storytelling
• 33:02 Caribbean Cultural Events

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Nutmeg Nation with Carlene Humphrey.

Speaker 2: 0:04

Hi, I'm Carlene. This is Nutmeg Nation. I am here on Zoom with Grace and she is the creator of Jamaica Magazine. We're talking about this hurricane.

Speaker 1: 0:17

So I was saying that with the recent hurricane barrel going through the Caribbean, you know, a couple of things came back to me while that was going on. One is a personal story where I remember I was living in Kingston on the waterfront, so overlooking the harbor, and I had an apartment that had sliding glass doors, a balcony etc. And being sort of new to the whole hurricane thing because I'd left Jamaica so long, I didn't put a barrier or board up the sliding glass doors or anything. So while the hurricane, when the hurricane was coming, my son and I we decided to go down to a lower floor we were on the ninth floor and sort of hunkered down in the hallway with some friends. So we were there for a while and then when the eye of the hurricane came, you know, so it was kind of calm.

Speaker 1: 1:04

We went back up to my apartment and at first I thought, oh, there's nothing, this is fine. And then I realized, very strangely enough, the sliding glass doors, the glass of the two sides of the sliding glass doors, had completely been removed. There were no shattered glass, there was absolutely zero in the apartment, on the balcony or in the pool. Below the two panes of glass from the glass doors were just gone To this day. I wonder about the science behind that.

Speaker 2: 1:34

Like the hurricane hit so, so fast and so quickly that it shattered the glass. Like the amount of-. It didn't shatter it because there were no splinters.

Speaker 1: 1:44

Oh, so when you say no splinters, can you? There are no pieces of glass, there were no shards of glass, there was nothing. I know it's so.

Speaker 2: 1:52

It takes a while to get you to think about it like in terms of gravitational pull when there's a hurricane and the, the pressure is so strong clearly, I don't even know what the science is, the only thing someone could mention to me.

Speaker 1: 2:06

I had only recently moved into that apartment. I bought it and somebody said maybe the glass panes, at least one or both of them, maybe they had at the very top some kind of separation from the frame, and maybe if the wind came in and got behind it. But I am telling you, and maybe if the wind came in and got behind it, but I am telling you, to this day no shards of glass, no splinters, no, nothing.

Speaker 2: 2:30

Yeah, that's like a miracle.

Speaker 1: 2:32

It was a miracle, and then, obviously, I waited on. The second half of the hurricane came, and so we left, came back up and the only damage, or the only thing, was the wind had blown some of the rain to about a third of the way into the, into the apartment. So the carpet, the flooring was wet and that was it.

Speaker 2: 2:50

And what year? When was this? When did this happen? Oh my gosh, this would have been 2008. Yeah, because it's been a long time since Jamaica's had a herd right.

Speaker 1: 3:01

Yeah, I think it might have been Hurricane Ivan. I don't remember a herd right. Yeah, I think it might have been Hurricane Ivan, I don't remember, but worse than that was. I remember working at the gleaner and being on the news desk and again hurricane season and a story came over the wires about Haiti, which is always a tragedy when tropical storms or a hurricane goes through Haiti. So I remember on the wire coming across a story about a father.

Speaker 1: 3:25

It was tropical storm had passed through Haiti and he was looking for the bodies of his children because a lot of people had been swept away, had died in the, in the tropical storm. It wasn't even a hurricane. And his story is when the. When the reporters spoke to him, the story over the wire said that the waters came and he had one child in each arm and the. The surge was so strong he knew he would not have been able to save both of them and he couldn't figure out which one to let go, so he let go both of them I'm like flabbergasted I don't even know what to say for that.

Speaker 1: 4:00

It's like it was the saddest thing I ever read my gosh, and so when the reporter saw him, he was then looking for the bodies of his children.

Speaker 2: 4:09

So you said you saw the story in the gleaner.

Speaker 1: 4:11

No I was working at the gleaner and as one of the editors, we have access to stories that come over the newswire Right, and so, being on the desk, I was watching and reading stories coming over the newswire about this tropical storm that had passed through Haiti and hence came across that particular story that talked doesn't take much for devastation in terms of the water and the wind that's caused, and in this case, it wasn't even a hurricane, it was a tropical storm. Those are the two things that came to mind in terms of this hurricane that just went through the Caribbean.

Speaker 2: 4:58

That just hit me Like having to decide in a tropical storm, like who which child you're going to hang on to. That's probably like the hardest decision any parent has to make.

Speaker 1: 5:07

Well, that's why he said he couldn't decide. He said he knew he couldn't save both of them, but he couldn't decide which one he would save, so he let go of both of them, and it's like why both, but it's hard either way.

Speaker 2: 5:22

I think if any parent has to choose one child over the other, it's still hard, like when you, when you choose one and you let, if you held on to one and let the other one go. You know.

Speaker 1: 5:31

Yeah, I didn't even bother questioning it, I just thought to myself how devastating that must've been. He said he knew he just would not have been able to hold on to the two of them. It was not possible. The surge of the water and where they were, he didn't have the strength and the wherewithal to save who of them.

Speaker 2: 5:51

yeah, yeah, anyway yeah, it's very sad, you know that, and I mean that's a tragic story to read over the wire that way, but you know, but that's part of the story of the Caribbean, isn't it?

Speaker 2: 6:05

Well, even now, I just followed up. I mean talking about the Caribbean, and you know this show is about Grenada firsthand, but I think it's important to talk about the Caribbean as a whole because we all have a story to tell and we all feel the impact. The hurricane, hurricane Beryl, that happened in Grenada, it also hit grenada and jamaica and and I don't know what's happening now. I haven't been following things because there's so much happening in the world and and life, and you know things are always happening, right, so do what we can. But yeah, we're, you're here to tell your story. I mean, obviously you're talking about your experience with living back home and experiencing a hurricane itself. You know what I mean, and so it's obviously bringing back those, those memories, right?

Speaker 1: 6:51

Right, Absolutely, Absolutely. It's only in going back that I realized and I went back 1998 until 2009, really that I realized just the depth, the whole devastation of hurricanes, because I left when I was sufficiently young enough that, yes, I had experienced, must have, but it didn't. You know that, having the responsibility to cope as an adult, I didn't have that when I was young and living there. But going back and then also working in the media, you get to see and read stories like the one I just told you about the hurricane and the impact that it can have.

Speaker 2: 7:28

But I think, as someone who went to school for English, I studied English Well, first I studied professional writing and then I went into English. But hearing you talk about being in the media and I think this is the reason why you created this magazine from what I remember in our previous conversation is that you had an idea when you were working at Gleaner Well right.

Speaker 1: 7:53

When I was at the Gleaner, I was one of the editors. I was a lifestyle editor and under my desk, the lifestyle desk, we had several sections, and the food section, which was weekly, was one of the sections that I had responsibility for, and when I took it over, the food section every Thursday was basically, you know, full of just grocery and food specials for the week, so to speak, and so we decided to take it and make it a real food section, talking about the food, the people, recipes, the whole thing. That made it a lifestyle section and people responded to that. It was amazing the response. I mean I would be driving into work from the country where I lived at one point and, on a Thursday morning, seeing these guys sitting on the bridge or the side of the road reading the food section. And, in addition to that, the diaspora, because the gleaner got online and got in terms of digital publication and digital outreach they were very early on that and so the diaspora responded very positively to the food section as well as many of the other sections, but the food section, and so it was a good thing. I knew that the circulation for the Thursday paper because the food section came out on a Thursday increased. So it was all good.

Speaker 1: 9:12

So that is what got me into thinking about a food magazine. And I actually proposed that to the senior people at the gleaner because I kind of had no intention or the thought had not occurred to me to do my own thing. So I approached the senior manager of advertising and talked it through, you know, and they went away, thought about it and came back and said something to that Well, what if it doesn't work? And I was so blown away because the response was so great that I thought how could it not work? And the gleaner had the infrastructure great that I thought how could it not work? And the gleaner had the infrastructure overseas, I thought to make it work. And so that's what gave me the idea that a Jamaican food magazine was not really existing and that there was a niche, there was a place for it.

Speaker 2: 9:57

Okay. So they said, what if it didn't work? And that was. Is that only reason that they gave you for not taking you up on the idea? Like they wouldn't invest in it, Like it was just too much of a risk at that time?

Speaker 1: 10:10

Like I have no clue. I just remember the comment was what if it didn't work? Which blew me away, because it had already been proven how popular that section was and how much people wanted to get in it. How popular that section was and how much people wanted to get in it and that the circulation had grown and that, specifically, the diaspora was responding to it in numbers, in positive ways. And when did this happen? This would have been the mid, like 2005. It would have happened around then, yeah.

Speaker 2: 10:40

I mean as someone who's been writing for a long time, like at that time in media, like how was it working for a newspaper at that point? Like, I think it's. It's not like 2008 when the stock market crashed, where they're like, oh, they're worried about losing money. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 10:55

Investments, like this was a very prominent newspaper that you were working for Well, I didn't really bother myself in thinking too much about that. I know that the gleaner was, and most likely still is, the largest media house in the Caribbean, with offices at the time and, I think, still now in London and Toronto and New York and so on. So that's what I meant when I proposed the idea. It wasn't just on a whim, it wasn't just that people overseas were responding, it's also that the gleaner had the infrastructure in my mind, or my understanding of things, to make it happen. Once I said that I didn't bother myself too much to ponder and think about their thing and their reasoning. That would be a waste of my time and energy. But the idea did occur to me that I could look at doing my own.

Speaker 2: 11:43

Yeah, and so what was the push? What motivated you to go and work on this on your own? It takes like passion, Like you know what drove you to do this.

Speaker 1: 11:54

Well, I mean it was such a pleasure working on the food section. The food section was part of my responsibility. We also had a Saturday lifestyle section. We had a Monday pullout section called forget what it was called, but mainly aimed towards women, although men read it as well and the youth section. So I had four sections that came under my responsibility plus special project. That came under my responsibility plus special project.

Speaker 1: 12:18

What I found out about the food section and I only knew this or learned this working on it was how much food was not just about eating or recipe. What people were responding to in the food section were the stories that we were telling around food, the people in food, the connections that you make through food, the connections that you make when you break bread together. And for me, the storyteller in me responded to that. That's where I saw the possibilities. So while recipes were a part of it, it wasn't so much or just about recipe. It was about the story of food, who grew it, who cooked it, what's the history, the culture, the coming together, all of that around food? Yeah, and Jamaican cuisine. You know that's what struck me. It also for me.

Speaker 1: 13:09

I realized quickly in the process that this was a way again, as a storyteller that's where I come at it from. Storyteller, that's where I come at it from. It was a way of telling our story in our own way, in our own voice, using food as the media. Our stories have been and are being told through music and sport, which is absolutely amazing. But this is just another way of telling our story and of who we are. And I will say quickly, at the very beginning, a few people said to me why call it Jamaican Eid? Why not call it Caribbean Eid? So I want to address that right away. I did think about that, but I felt that I didn't have the authority to call it Caribbean Eid because I did not have that intrinsic understanding of the Caribbean that I would want. It wouldn't have felt authentic to me because the Caribbean is not a monolith. You know, we're very similar.

Speaker 2: 14:04

So when you say monolith, can you elaborate on that for those that are not Very well versed in the English language? As you are, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 14:13

Like yeah, Monolith, meaning that we're not just one blob, we're not just one big old thing, no-transcript, intrinsic understanding that I could present whatever I was doing authentically where I didn't have that with the rest of the Caribbean. So my thought was to have it Jamaican eats and then invite whenever, wherever and as often as possible, the participation and contribution and content from other islands and countries in the Caribbean.

Speaker 2: 15:15

You know I understand that I mean because, in order to do something well, you have to be well versed in it, or you have to have an idea, like you know, start with the idea or have knowledge of it somewhat. Like, not that you know everything about Jamaican work, recipes or stories, but you are a storyteller and you're telling your story. The eyes of others will create Jamaican dishes. You know what I mean. Like a lot of people love Jamaican boozy and they're always looking for somewhere new to go Like. I mean right now we're it's summertime and so it's all about the food festival and you know, you know carnival, carnivals coming up, you have Jamaica day coming up. All the things that you know bring people together through food. Like, when you're, like, when you're what do you call it? When you're having a gathering, it's usually, they say, people. When you invite others, it's like there's food involved.

Speaker 1: 16:06

Yeah. So here's the thing Again. I didn't just start out just to give recipes. It was about telling the story of Jamaica, our culture, through food. So it was about food and culture and I had an intrinsic understanding of Jamaica. And let me point out, had I not gone back to Jamaica to live and work, if I had not gone back and had that experience, I don't think I could have done it authentically Because, having left in my early teens and coming to Toronto and growing up here, I didn't have that connection again until I went back and worked, and I think specifically worked in the gleaner. That's what brought me to that place of that intrinsic understanding, that where I felt that I could go ahead and tell our stories in that way.

Speaker 2: 16:56

It's very interesting that you say that because this show here Mount Magnesium. I had this idea because I've had a lot of girls say things about Grenada. You know, grenada is a small island. People don't know it exists. You know, you hear all the what do you call it? The negative ideas that people have.

Speaker 2: 17:17

I created this, I thought of this idea to educate the world on Grenada. Like you said, the Caribbean is, it might be too broad, it's hard, it's definitely you have to have who are well-versed in the Caribbean different parts of the Caribbean, different countries in order for it to work, as you call it, caribbean. But where I'm saying, where I relate to you what you're saying in my expertise, that I am not well versed in Grenada, and when someone said to me I had someone um on the show a few months back and she was like why, why did you create the show? You're, you don't even live in Grenada, like you're not here. You're like you're not part of the culture. And she has a point there. I have more of a background canadian culture than in grenadian culture, but for me this idea was important because I feel like to leave a mark on the world, however possible, even if I'm edging myself and others and learning as I go and I think, um, yeah what I would say to that.

Speaker 1: 18:17

I don't think you have to be in the country or the island to be able to. Whatever you tell your story in your own way, as it applies to your experience. You know the way you would tell the story, or stories may be different from somebody who tells a story who lives there and who's always lived there, and that's fine. There are many different voices. There is absolutely, as a matter of fact, I was going to say there's nothing wrong with that. Let me change that. There's everything right about that. We're not just one story people, we have many stories. So there's absolutely everything right about that.

Speaker 1: 18:51

Your story from your point of view and your understanding of it. I just think it's important that we tell our stories in our way that is positive, uplifting and elevating, because when others tell our stories for us, it tends not to be as positive or as uplifting. You know where others may see struggles and whatever, and so on. Yes, there may be that, but I also see it as Jamaicans and I would say Caribbean people in general, as being very resilient and offering a lot to the world. That's how I would tell our stories. Other people may choose to tell our stories for us from the point of view of victimhood.

Speaker 2: 19:40

Well, you know um, it's very tough. Like you said, you have to tell our story our way, or how we interpret it. And for me, I born in grenada. I left when I was very young but I've always been connected to my family there and they say, it's not where you're going, it's where you're from, and I mean Grenada is a part of who I am, like the culture, you know. There, grenada is a very beautiful place, and the same thing with Jamaica, like you know what I mean. Like, like you said when we talked about this before, it's our Caribbean story, and it's nice to talk to other people from the Caribbean who have a story to tell because I can tell with you there's so much passion, like it's just I could feel it even though we're on zoom. You are so strong, my race, I'm telling you, you know what I mean it's. It's. It's the passion, the desire, determination to create what you've created. And if they hadn't said no, then it might not have happened. Never know in life.

Speaker 2: 20:40

There's a reason why it happened and you have a story to tell, like, I mean going back. What I want to ask you, though, from the beginning, if we go back to the beginning, where you were born in Jamaica, like, what did you know? How did you start off? Like, growing up?

Speaker 1: 20:53

Okay, so I was born in Kingston and I left in my early teens, for those who it matters to. I went to Arden High School for a couple of years before I moved to Toronto. But I knew from the beginning that I was always into writing. I was always writing. I was that kid in the neighborhood who would also give other kids spelling tests when I ran out of books to read. I read the dictionary. I was always writing and thought I would be writing. I mean, it was that that was just me. So I knew who I was from the very beginning. So going into journalism here, having come to Toronto and attended high school here, then going to what was then Ryerson, into the journalism program, that was like a natural for me. So that is my formal background then in terms of writing and communications and so on, you know. And I stayed in Toronto and did some amount of writing and journalism work and whatever, but decided to go back to in Toronto, did that for a while. I actually went to Jamaica twice.

Speaker 2: 21:54

When you were in Toronto. Where did you, where did you start off your writing career?

Speaker 1: 21:58

I was in Toronto just after graduating from Ryerson Journalism Program. I actually moved to Jamaica in the mid to late 70s and worked for two years. This was before the last move. So I made two different moves. Back to Jamaica, I worked one year for what was the Daily News the Jamaica Daily News, I think it was called for one year and worked for a radio station for one year and then came back to Toronto, was in Toronto, took on running a neighborhood newspaper called the Ward 7 News that had been started and that had been running by the former mayor, John Sewell. I took that over and ran it. We changed the name over to the Cabbage Town Riverdale News. So it gives you an idea of where in Toronto it was. Did that for a while and then gave it up and then had various communications role for various companies in Toronto and then I decided to move to Vancouver. So there's a lot of moving.

Speaker 1: 23:01

Lived and worked in Vancouver for a while and then in the beginning of 1998, decided I would go back to Jamaica and live and work for a while. And it was in that second move back to Jamaica, where I was working at the Gleaner, that I then also started Jamaican Eats magazine.

Speaker 2: 23:22

And how did you fund the magazine? I remember, as we look back, it's always getting the ball rolling, getting everything started. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1: 23:30

Supporting you, no early on and so on. But I also had advertisers. I'm going to mention her name, zane Issa, as one example from, I think it's Super Clubs, who was very supportive, as well as a number of other investors who advertised in the magazine. So I had a number of that. I quickly had subscribers as well in various countries, because I'd done a survey friends and family about what did they think of such a magazine and the word spread in that way. So that was how I did it and just bootstrapped it wherever I could and hung in there and kept it going.

Speaker 2: 24:17

So now, with the way of the world, everything's going digital and so many of your subscribers can, you know, subscribe online, you know, read the magazine online or order it and get you know the paper copy Right.

Speaker 1: 24:30

So Right, Well, OK, so I came back to Canada, went to Vancouver, yeah, In 2009, and kept the magazine going, which was very tricky because, yes, at that time the world started to change in terms of digital in terms of 2008, 2009, the rough economy and I did try, I think in 2010 or so, to go fully digital and the readers just were not having it. And I remember that I kept going until 2012, when I started a bakery or I took over a bakery in Vancouver and decided that I couldn't do both that and the magazine, and so I suspended the magazine in 2012. And at the time, I kind of was thinking of not bringing it back. You know that, oh, I would give it up, but at that time Facebook was just becoming a thing and I had signed up the magazine. Facebook Didn't even really know what I was doing. I just remember somebody said, oh, you should have a Facebook page or group or something. So I did that and what that did in 2012 onward, readers who had joined and who kept joining the Facebook group or page, whichever it was, would not go away and they wouldn't leave me alone.

Speaker 1: 25:46

I would get messages like Miss Grace or Grace, we'll wait for you. We're still waiting for you. There were people who had subscribed and I kept saying you know, I'll send you back your subscription money we're not talking about a lot of money, but nevertheless and they go no, we don't want it back, Keep it, because we know you're coming back. And finally, when I closed the bakery in 2015. What was the name of the bakery? The bakery was called Joyce Bakery, you know. So in 2015, when I got sufficient enough messages saying Grace, you know when are you going to start again? We're waiting for you. I decided to take a look at the new world of publishing to see how it might be possible to come back, Because I knew that I couldn't go back to publishing the way that I used to pre-2009, and discovered that, given the rise of digital printing not online, non-paper, but digital printing, where printing was made more accessible and affordable that indeed it's something that I could do. So I investigated that and then decided to restart or continue the magazine from 20.

Speaker 2: 26:53

And I guess it seems like the resurgence, like starting Facebook, like social media, in a way brought the community together to get back to you know, jamaican, it did get people to harass me.

Speaker 1: 27:04

To get you back to you. Know, jamaican, it did get people to harass me.

Speaker 2: 27:06

They're like Grace, we're waiting. If we have to pour in the money, we'll get the whole community to endorse you to help get back on your feet again. You know, to get this started Because at the end of the day, you need some funds to get this, even if it's digital. You know. Well, I don't want to romanticize it no, of course not romanticizing it. But when you're an entrepreneur like, you need a little bit, even if it's like a hundred bucks, like some people start off with less.

Speaker 1: 27:34

But yeah, you need that. You need a lot of people who are willing to contribute, not just money, but in so many ways. You need a lot of people who are just rooting for you. You need so many. And if I say nothing else, let me stop here and say I am so eternally grateful to so many people who not only subscribe they got gift subscriptions for other people, they sent messages of support, they are rooting for me and so on and so forth. They contribute in so many ways in terms of recipes and stories and ideas and just moral support. It's been so. Thank you for saying that, because it's been absolutely amazing and I don't know that without that that I could have started and or would have continued. So that has been absolutely amazing.

Speaker 1: 28:25

Because the world of publishing is tough. But I find that, although there is a digital magazine that people can subscribe to and or buy, most people want the paper magazine. Because I think, when it comes to certain subject matter, you want the paper, you want to see the pictures, you want to go to it whenever and wherever you want. And also keep in mind, if the magazine was only about some jerk chicken recipe, then who cares, you can go online and find that, but because you can read the stories that resonate with people. That's why people come, not to simply get some rest, because these days you can search around and you can find that. So people come to get the stories they want to read about other people. They want to see what other people are doing. They want the tidbits, the history, the culture. They want to see the way that Jamaican and Caribbean food connect with the rest of the world. And that's what's coming.

Speaker 2: 29:21

You know what? It's a beautiful thing. It's like you said people can relate to a story. That's what keeps them coming back. It's the stories. It's that story of that chef, like how he came to be. You know what I mean Like for you as someone who created the team, the people that helped you. What story over the years stands out in your mind? I'm sure there's more than one, but if you could say, oh, my goodness.

Speaker 1: 29:45

I don't know. I don't even know. Well, this is the time period of time to talk about it. I remember we did on several occasions, but we did stuff around the Olympics, and those additions tended to be very popular and, in fact, in 2016, actually led to a cookbook that I produced called 10 Reasons why Jamaicans Run so Fast. And again, there we go.

Speaker 2: 30:09

Another, yes, another. You know what? Let me stop you for a second. You know the Olympics coming up. It's very exciting. I'm glad you brought that up. It's always been the back and forth between Jamaica and the US, especially when we're looking at 100 meter-meter dash same fold. You know I digress, I'm changing the subject here. But going back to food, I mean food is important for sustenance, for everything overall.

Speaker 1: 30:36

But you know what? What that did? Number one I was prompted to write that book, with contributions from many different chefs and cooks, I must say, that are clearly identified in the book. But number one it was prompted because people kept asking me why do Jamaicans run so fast? Because I hadn't really thought about it. But I thought about it, talked to a number of people and basically put something together that again, didn't just have recipes but spoke to the culture.

Speaker 1: 31:06

So for and some of it was funny or maybe not so funny, but even things like spoke to the culture where we could say well, you know the reason why St Bolt and people in that part of the island or in the countryside run so fast. They're used to outrunning the duppies or the goats, so they had to learn to run fast and what helped them was the yam that grew, you know. So we got to tell stories about again, about who we are. We got to tell a story about the Sarasote that you would have to drink at the end of the summer going back to school, and that was part of what fueled you, you know, cleaned out your system and all of that. Whether it's true or not, that was part of our culture and part of the way we grew up.

Speaker 1: 31:48

So again it allowed the whole thing of without being scientific, because there's absolutely no claim about this being scientific for us to tell anecdotal stories, for us to talk about the culture and how we grew up and who we are, and then add to that stories of people and recipes to it, so that if somebody should buy that book they may never ever cook anything, but they read the story. They may read the story of the 105-year-old woman who said she's lived that long because of X, y, z. There is that story in there, you know. So again it's about the storytelling and again it's about us presenting ourselves in a light that's positive and uplifting. Because you know that is a part of my mission is to elevate and celebrate Jamaican and Caribbean food and culture.

Speaker 2: 32:42

I think that the most important thing is leaving an impact and I think legacy, legacy and when you talked about the community forming on Facebook and saying that they're going to wait, that means that you left an impact when you left, when you stopped writing for a while, you took a break. You know we all need a break in life. Sometimes things happen. So, but when? When people ask about something like Jamaican Eats, the magazine that I started organizing Caribbean themed events?

Speaker 1: 33:28

in Toronto, which is almost like a living magazine, but through events as opposed to the pages of a magazine, and so, for example, I've done several times an event called Caribbean Board Games and Brunch.

Speaker 2: 33:43

I remember the last event they had a few months back in the winter yeah, in January and I was watching some of the footage of the event and I, you know, I wish I was there, because it did bring a lot to that event too, with music and contests and, like you said, it's like a live experience.

Speaker 1: 34:01

That particular event was called Jamaica in January Right, and I had done it during the pandemic once as a virtual event and for the first time this year, 2024 January, did it in person, live, and it crowd. So the diversity is something else. So it drew Jamaican and Caribbean people from all walks but it also draws just like the magazine readership people who just have an interest in things Jamaican or things Caribbean. So people are invited to come to the table, no matter who you are. It's just that we're in charge of telling the stories because it's our story, you know. So we get a diversity of people at these events, as well as the readership of the magazine. But again, we're telling our story and it's in a way that's celebratory, you know, and when we make fun we can poke fun at ourselves, but it's in our own way. Thank you for listening to Nutmeg Nation with Carlene Humphrey.