You wouldn’t know it, but I really can be painfully shy. Like I feel like I’ll fall apart if I get noticed – weird for a blogger, right? But this interview, I loved. It made me think about a few things, and I was pleased with myself for being able to articulate my feelings. I’m not always great at that when I have a lot of em…

“…I feel that the way that I sound or the place I was born in no way invalidates my work.” – from my interview on CaribbeanGirlsUnite.com

That was a hard thing for me to say.  I brush it off when people say things like, “Oh, you were BORN here? Then you’re not a REAL Trini…” and things like that.  See, I never said I was. I was born and raised in America, by Trinidadian parents, and there are a lot of people here who are just like me -people who hear that one too many times and decide to just avoid having the conversation altogether for fear of being publicly shamed for being born in the States.

Click to play: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83gRkHEG7Eg

I went to Brooklyn, NY to cover the Caribbean Fever Irie Jamboree Music Festival’s Carnival Fever Concert, and I asked soca legend, Iwer George, what it means to be Caribbean American.  He told me that it doesn’t matter where you’re born, it’s in your blood.

I agree.

Click to read the entire interview on CaribbeanGirlsUnite.com. I feel honored to be able to share a part of who I am and what I do with their readers. Enjoy!