From Guadeloupe to Jamaica

Last month, I shared about traveling to Guadeloupe for the Porsche Art Experience. Shortly after that journey, the next stop was Jamaica.

In November 2025, I was selected to participate in Locale Jamaica’s MoDA Market, an annual event in Kingston known as “The Shopping Playground for the Stylish — where Fashion, Art, and Lifestyle Meet Commerce.”

MoDA Market was created with the goal of bringing meaningful retail attention to fashion designers and artisans from across the Caribbean. Each year, a curated group of artists and makers are invited to showcase contemporary work that reflects the unique and vibrant creativity of the region. The marketplace attracts wholesale buyers, collectors, and lovers of beautiful things who come to discover fresh talent and thoughtful design.

I was incredibly thankful to be selected to participate. Opportunities like this are meaningful because they allow my work to be experienced within the Caribbean diaspora itself — among the very communities whose histories, cultures, and traditions inspire so much of what I create.

However, the week unfolded in a way no one could have anticipated.

During the time of the event, Hurricane Melissa impacted Jamaica. What was originally intended to be a weeklong celebration of designers, artists, and makers sharing their work with the public shifted into something more profound. The event became an opportunity to showcase creative work in support of relief efforts for the island.

In that moment, art served a different purpose.

What began as a marketplace transformed into a gesture of solidarity — creatives from across the Caribbean using their work not only as a form of expression, but also as a way to support community recovery.

For me, the experience reinforced something I deeply believe: Caribbean creativity is inseparable from Caribbean community. Our art carries our stories, our resilience, and our responsibility to one another.

To have been invited to participate in MoDA Market — and to have my work included in a space that ultimately became part of a larger effort to support the island — was both humbling and meaningful.

I remain deeply grateful to have been chosen and to continue sharing my work within the Caribbean creative community.