Black Girl, Grad School

an amalgamation of personal politics, and my life as a Ph.D. candidate

Posts from the “Caribbean” Category

Women & LGBTQ Struggles in the Caribbean, for Left Forum 2019

Posted on 2019-07-01

This Sunday, on June 30th 2019 I had the honor of facilitating a panel for Left Forum 2019 on the struggles happening in the Caribbean against repressive political, judiciary, and religious groups in those societies– which harm women and LGBTQ populations.  This blog post will include my opening speech at the panel and I hope to update this blog post with video clips that are posted online at a later date. Before sharing my speech, I would like to thank the Socialist Workers Alliance of Guyana and Life in Leggings for sponsoring and hosting this panel, as well as Robert Cuffy for organizing this panel and many other panels at Left Forum.  Good Afternoon everyone, my name is Tamanisha John and I will be…

Categories: Blogger, Blogging, Caribbean, grad school, graduate student

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Curaçao: Exploring a City Full of Art & Culture Infused with History

Posted on 2019-04-13

This year during “Spring Break,” I took my first ever realsolo trip. By real, I mean that I went to a county where I knew absolutely no one on the ground. This experience was exhilarating— not only because I made the decision to go less than a week before and at 2am— but also because I had always wanted to travel by myself and visit the island of Curaçao. The trip itself seemed like to two goals of mine coming together. I went to Curaçao for 5 days and 4 nights during the week of April 11-15. While there I mostly visited many natural sites that were accessible to, me as I was on the most Western point of Curaçao (Westpunt). I hiked a 1,230 feet…

Categories: Blogger, Blogging, Caribbean

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Venezuela: The Continuation of U.S. foreign policy in “America’s backyard”

Posted on 2019-03-22

On January 23rd2019, President Trump and his administration decided to “officially recognize” the President of the Venezuelan National Assembly, Juan Guaido, as the interim President of Venezuela. Four months prior to this official recognition of Guaido as the interim President in Venezuela by the Trump administration; right-wing Christian fundamentalist, Jair Bolsanaro, had won the elections in Brazil. Bolsanaro’s win was celebrated as a victory for the people of Brazil by the Trump administration, and Bolsanaro’s rise to the presidency was celebrated as a partner to the U.S. in the region. Two months after Bolsanaro’s win, and one month prior to Trump’s declaration of Guaido as the interim President of Venezuela, the government in Guyana (located to the east of Venezuela) fell, due to a…

Categories: Blogging, Caribbean, politics

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Late Post 2: Montego Bay, Jamaica

Posted on 2018-06-11

Since this is a late post, I should say that I went to Montego Bay Jamaica on April 24th and returned back to Miami on the 29th. So, I was in Jamaica for 5 days and 4 nights and my visit to the country was limited to Montego Bay. Unlike Barbados, you cannot drive the entire island of Jamaica in a Day– and because my stay was not as long as it was in Trinidad and Tobago, I did not do much sight seeing outside of Montego Bay. That being said, I really enjoyed Montego Bay, although I would not necessarily travel there without company. The streets are not that well lit at night, we did not stay at a resort (I would not…

Categories: Blogger, Blogging, Caribbean, Lifestyle

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