New York’s local newspaper for the Caribbean community, including news from Jamaica, Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua, Guyana, Bermuda, Barbados, Puerto Rico, Bahamas, Belize and more!

Caribbean Impact Awards: Renee Hastick-Motes
Renee Hastick-Motes has carried the mantle of selfless service since she was born in Brooklyn to Grenadian parents.
Currently, Hastick-Motes leads a team of marketers and government liaisons as the Vice President of External Affairs at Episcopal Health — a Rockaways-based hospital serving 44,000 patients a year. Comment

Jamaica: Antigua
Prime Minister Gaston Browne said there appears to be a general consensus on the way forward regarding the issues Antigua and Barbuda has had with Barbados as it relates to the sale of its shares in the cash-strapped regional airline, LIAT. Comment

Books: It’s all yours.
You own it, got it, paid for it, you even have the receipt. That thing: you fought hard for it and nobody can take it away. But – as in the new book “White Negroes” by Lauren Michele Jackson, folks can surely borrow it. Comment

Sports: West Indies hard-hitting batsman Shimron Hetmyer and fast bowler Sheldon Cottrel has been awarded million-dollar deals for next year’s Indian Premier League (IPL). Comment

New York: With the holiday season here, many of us are last-minute shopping and making plans to spend quality time with family and friends. We’re celebrating the good fortune of the past year and looking forward to opportunities promised by the new one. Comment

National: DENVER, Colorado, Dec 20, 2019 (IPS) — When I decided to become a US citizen in 1990s, it was a deliberate decision to spend my life fighting for preserving and deepening democratic freedoms at a place where I have spent all my adult life. Having struggled against a brutal military dictatorship while I was a teenager, I knew that democracy is something you have to fight hard for. Comment

Puerto Rico: SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico will defy the U.S. government and approve a law to keep cockfighting alive in a bid to protect a 400-year-old tradition practiced across the island despite a federal ban that goes into effect this week, officials told The Associated Press on Tuesday night. Comment

People: Religion and culture annually merge in December however in 2019 in the same week simultaneous celebrations of Hannukah, Christmas, Boxing Day and Kwanzaa will close out the last year of the decade. Comment

Guyana: For years, The Brooklyn Hospital Center (TBHC) staff have done impactful charity work for their diverse communities here and abroad. TBHC is proud of all of them and to this year, we share the story of Keith Cummings, MD, and his medical contributions to his home country, Guyana. Comment

Though the run of victories might be too short to for a conclusive judgement, events in a Barbados schoolboys cricket competition are shaping to produce legendary status for a learning institution in the parish of St. Philip, Bayley’s Primary School. Comment

Barbados: Barbados this month received major upgrades from two credit rating agencies with the larger, Standard & Poor’s (S&P), promising further improved rankings in the new year should the country continue its new prudent fiscal management policies. Comment

St Vincent: Vincentian calypsonians in Brooklyn two Saturdays ago gave their ailing colleague an early Christmas gift by visiting him in the hospital.
Carlos “Rejector” Providence, the newly-elected president and co-founder of the Brooklyn-based Dynamite Calypso Tent, the lone Vincentian-owned calypso tent in New York, told Caribbean Life on Sunday that members of the tent paid a surprise visit to Vincent “Groovy D” Kennedy, who is hospitalized at Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in East Flatbush, Brooklyn. Comment

Brooklyn: A wide range of products from Caribbean business owners and manufacturers are on display in Downtown Brooklyn for most of December as part of an annual Christmas exposition, organizers say, is growing in stature. Comment

Music: On Friday, Dec. 20, the Caribbean will have yet another reason to celebrate. Grenada’s crowned King of Groovy Soca, V’ghn, is set to unleash a mega preview of a project he and his team have worked arduously, in the past year, to perfect and deliver to the world. Comment

Arts & Theater: The Classical Theatre of Harlem (CTH, Ty Jones, producing artistic director) presents the second year of its holiday production, “A Christmas Carol in Harlem,” based on the timeless work by Charles Dickens. Comment

Health: The holiday season can mean friends, family and joy, but it can also mean grave threats to your health, according to Dr. Darryl Anderson, is director for the medical program at Plaza College in New York City. Comment

Music: New York City and the borough of Brooklyn holds a special place for rising hip-hop star Zay Lewis who recently released his riveting uptempo video “Lightspeed,” a two-minute piece of pulsing, electric blue stainless steel energy featuring fellow Nocoast member Heymvn. Lewis who is responsible for producing the track with friend Heymvn, is one to watch out for as he seeks to make a name for himself on the local rap scene. Comment

Guyana: Guyana, the Caribbean Community’s largest and most resource-rich nation, could become the world’s newest oil producer as early as next week as an international consortium led by American oil giant ExxonMobil produces its first set of crude from below the seabed. Comment

New York: Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams on Monday concluded a citywide tour of buildings named on his 2019 Worst Landlords List by visiting a Brooklyn site owned by the newly-named number one worst individual landlord in New York City. Comment

Viewpoints: The public advocate’s office has created a new rite of winter in its publication of the “Worst Landlords List,” an annual rundown of property owners across the city who are notorious for neglecting their buildings and tenants. Comment

Guyana: In a passionate call to action, R. Dimple Willabus, Democratic candidate for the City New York Council District 46, called on women to step forward from the backseat, become leaders and join the movement to make the change that “our community really needs.” Comment

Cricket West Indies (CWI) has appointed Australian Chris Brabazon as it first-ever coach education manager, a move aimed at “producing world-class players” for the international teams. Comment

Sports: VISAKHAPATNAM, India (AP) — Kuldeep Yadav’s hat trick led India to a convincing 107-run win as the West Indies was bowled out for 280 in the second one-day international on Wednesday. Comment

Brooklyn: Brooklyn Sen. Zellnor Y. Myrie has submitted comments strongly condemning the Trump administration’s proposed fee increases for immigration services at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), stating that the increases represent the administration’s latest attack on immigrant communities. Comment

Sports: Cricket West Indies (CWI) President, Ricky Skerritt has vowed to invest more in West Indies young development after the West Indies Emerging Players recently won the Colonial Medical Insurance Super50 with a 205-run victory over the Leeward Islands Hurricanes. Comment

Sports: Four players and one team official have been found guilty of breaching the Cricket West Indies (CWI) Code of Conduct during the recent Colonial Medical Insurance regional Super50 Cup. Comment

West Indies off-spinner Rahkeem Cornwall has made some strides in the International Cricket Council (ICC) bowling rankings following his outstanding performance in the inaugural one-off Test against Afghanistan recently. Comment

Brooklyn: Santa Claus brought an early Christmas Sunday night to over 200 Caribbean children in Brooklyn at the 12th Annual Christmas Party organized by the Brooklyn-based Standard Shippers and Friends at the Friends of Crown Heights Educational Center, on Logan Street, in East New York, Brooklyn. Comment

Queens: The Friends of Hollis Library in Queens will be hosting a book sale on Thursday, Dec. 19 starting at 3 pm. The library is located at202-05 Hillside Ave., Queens. Comment

Guyana: Rudolph Michael Ten-Pow, permanent representative and ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Guyana to the United Nations, has announced that Guyana will be chairing the G77 in 2020, after the country led the conference 20 years ago under the leadership of then, Ambassador Rudolph Insanally. Comment

Brooklyn: Cumbe: Center for African and Diaspora Dance is excited to share for the second time this month, in this season of giving, the Cumbe Kwanzaa Marketplace. Cumbe is offering the community of Brooklyn a space to not only dance, but to also support the rich culture and creativity of the Diaspora in the form of a marketplace. Comment

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The promise of reparations to atone for historical ties to slavery has opened new territory in a reckoning at U.S. colleges, which until now have responded with monuments, building name changes and public apologies. Comment

Music: KwanzAa
When: Thurs., Dec. 19, 4 – 8 pm
Brooklyn UFT Building
335 Adams St., Brooklyn, NY
Join the UFT African Heritage Committee for a Kwanzaa celebration. We’ll enjoy dinner, raffles, vendors and steel pan performers. The cost to attend is $35. Contact Wendy Walker-Wilson at (212) 598-6889 to register for the event. Comment

Trinidad and Tobago: Antigua
Antigua and Barbuda recently hosted a two-day conference aimed at helping people with disabilities live independently, be included, and participate in their societies on an equal footing in the Eastern Caribbean. Comment

Power Women: On this edition of Power Women, Schneps Publisher and President, Vicki Schneps is joined by Dimple Willabus, the C.E.O. of Rhythm Nation Entertainment, a business and entertainment consulting firm. Comment

New York: Public Advocate Jumaane D. Williams on Wednesday toured York College in Jamaica, Queens, City University of New York (CUNY) to view how funding cuts at CUNY have directly impacted students and faculty. Comment

Fashion: The whole world is buzzing about the fact Jamaica recently added to its repute of being a game-changer when in a single week as contestants in two beauty pageants created worldwide controversy on social media first for its fashion statement that might have contributed to a universal loss and later copping the winning title in another contest to be crowned queen of the world. Comment

Barbados: Barbados’ junior female swimming champion, Danielle Titus, has broken six national records and now the 17-year-old said that her goggles are firmly set on medalling at the Olympics one day. Comment

St Vincent: Ambassador of Antigua and Barbuda to the Organisation of American States (OAS), Sir Ronald Sanders, disclosed on Friday that Antigua and Barbuda and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have nominated Ecuadorian diplomat Maria Fernanda Espinosa for the post of Secretary-General of the OAS and that he has submitted the formal nomination of former UN General Assembly president. Comment

Environment: Tareq Emtariah is director of the Department of Energy at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO)
VIENNA, Dec 13, 2019 (IPS) – At a time when the world is battling unprecedented drought, bushfires, rising sea levels and water shortages, reducing energy use across industry is one powerful way to fight climate change in the immediate term. Comment

Books: Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall.
And you know how that went for him. The Royal Soldiers and a bunch of ponies couldn’t help him and you can only imagine what happened next: as in the new book “Broke: Hardship and Resilience in a City of Broken Promises” by Jodie Adams Kirshner, everything got scrambled. Comment