Caribbean Beat — May/June 2018 (#151)

esearch process, and the presentation.
She felt empowered that she could be on
that stage presenting a project one day.”
The result? “She now does much of our
animation work at Create Caribbean.”
Esprit’s family and friends are over the
shock, and fully supportive of her mission
now. “Once I knew what Create Caribbean
was, what it would look like and how it
would work, they were right on board.
Create Caribbean’s comprehensive
web site will include a “Support
Us” page by the time this article
is in print. Following Hurricane
Maria, they need to replace all their
furniture and equipment. The
organisation welcomes donations
of cash and in kind. To give or to
find out more about its work, visit
createcaribbean.org.
All of Create Caribbean’s work is done with interns,
who are active, highly visible team members
the storm for our basic operations, and we
continue to use their space for our programming
and showcasing of our projects.”
Students feel the love, Esprit explains.
“The relationship between Create Caribbean
and that school is so strong that one
of my current research interns began her
journey to the programme by meeting
me in the hallway during her very first
week of school at Dominica State College,
and asking to become part of what
we do. I asked her what she knew about
us. Although she was not sure exactly
what digital humanities was or how we
tackle research, she was excited by her
experience of seeing the work presented
when she was a student in our audience
at high school. She was especially
fascinated by the way the student interns
had full control of their content, design,
Both my parents were actively involved.
My father built furniture and volunteered
as tour guide on our history/nature hikes,
my mother cooked for our Create and Code
camps, my aunts with whom I was raised
spent a lot of money ensuring that I had
many of the material resources I needed to
make this work, including hosting a group
of seven at their home in New York City for
our college tour and culture exchange trip
in 2016. My siblings are moral support of
the best kind, and my sisters have provided
material and emotional support as I go
through the growing pains.”
She adds, “At no time has anyone in
my family questioned my desire to study
literature, my desire to work for a cause
like cultural preservation, that is so
important and passionate to me, or my
choice to live and work in the Caribbean,
even when they were worried and afraid.
And I am immensely grateful for a family
that has proven it’s possible to break the
Caribbean stereotype by which parents
measure their children’s success — doctor,
lawyer, businessman.” n
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