14/12/2025
About last night…
In New York, I’m reminded why this work is so deeply personal.
My heartfelt thanks to for curating such a powerful evening at the Maysles Documentary Center, bringing together film, community, culture, and much-needed dialogue around Jamaica’s next chapter after Hurricane Melissa.
Sitting alongside Professor Leo Douglas and Professor Denise Thompson — each of us carrying our own strand of Jamaica’s story — was an honor.
When the National Anthem opened the event, something ancient stirred in my bones. Jamaica has a way of getting under your skin and into your heart — a passionate, complex, sometimes overwhelming love. Last night, I felt it in full.
As Life & Debt played — twenty-five years after its release — the message rang sharp as ever:
food security, community resilience, economic sovereignty, and the undeniable truth that short-term aid cannot solve long-term systemic challenges.
These words are not ideas for me. They are what I witness on the ground daily in Westmoreland, St. James, and St. Elizabeth. And yet, in every community I step into, I am met with the same thing:
dignity, gratitude, courage, and a profound will to rebuild.
Melissa has cracked something open.
We have an opportunity — not simply to recover — but to reimagine.
As Jamaica steps into this next chapter, may we remember:
Smart strategies matter. But it is love — collaboration, compassion, and community — that ultimately rebuilds a nation.
More to come. Stay close.
