About Us
Welcome to Writes and Kulcha Weekly— The rhythm of Jamaican life and thought. This is a digital space where we celebrate and interrogate Jamaican culture as it lives and breathes. This publication was created to honour our heritage as living intelligence because it is not archived, distant, or reserved only for holidays and special moments. We see culture as present tense. An ecosystem composed of music, language, food, land, medicine, memory, and the everyday choices people make to define who they are.
On this site and across these pages, you will move through conversation and contradiction. You will find a country debating itself in the arts, the public space, language, parenting, indigeneity and sovereignty, creativity, identity and more. You will see how culture is not only expressed in moments of celebration, but also in outrage, disagreement and reinvention.
You can also expect to keep abreast of what’s happening with the Yamaye Guani (Jamaica Hummingbird) Taino Peoples, for whom we are the official media partner. The Yamaye community has been doing important work for nearly a decade to correct and re-educate erroneous history around the false narratives of extinction.
This publication includes voices from across the diaspora, spanning varying industries and disciplines. At its heart, we’re asking Jamaicans everywhere one simple question:
Who are we as a people, now, and what are we becoming together as a nation?
Thank you for reading and for staying with the work as it grows.
Yours in service,
–
Tameka A Coley
Creative Director / Founding Editor
Writes and Kulcha Weekly
What we do and how
Writes and Kulcha is a weekly online publication that blends traditional journalism with the stylishness of magazines and the community aspect of social media.
In addition to journalism, event reporting, and research, we accept aligned writer and multimedia (e.g. photographs/videos/graphic design) submissions and offer internships to youth from our communities, providing hands-on experience in journalism, research, design, and digital media to help preserve our culture, languages and heritage.
We also have a mental health and holistic wellness arm, Mind-Being Wellness, through which we work within and provide much-needed resources and on-the-ground support to our communities.
Our Founder
Writes and Kulcha was started by Tameka A. Coley, also known as Tami Tsansai or by her Taino name, Ke’tani. A cultural equity storyteller and creative— journalist, author/activist, wellness facilitator and researcher, she is a member of the Yamaye Guani (Jamaica Hummingbird) Taino Peoples and considers herself a culture bearer, which she takes very seriously. (Read more about her here). Ke’tani (pronounced Keh-Ta-Nee) created this publication to amplify Jamaican and Indigenous Jamaican voices, protect our collective rights, celebrate our culture (even as we interrogate it), and make our realities visible.
Our Mission
By sharing and preserving our stories, we seek to dispel incorrect narratives about us and tell our stories authentically. We pride ourselves on disseminating meaningful historical knowledge, doing research to uncover truths and highlight the marginalised, underappreciated, and lesser-known aspects of our heritage, languages, cultures, and customs. Our objective is to share the living, intelligent cultural ecosystems and realities of Jamaica and the Diaspora from a conscious, thought-provoking and celebratory perspective as we continue to evolve as a nation.
Our Vision
The Writes and Kulcha Vision is to live in a world where the rich histories and vibrant cultures of Jamaica, the Caribbean region, the marginalised and Indigenous communities within these territories and their Diasporas are celebrated, respected, and accurately represented, fostering unity, understanding, and positive change.
Our Indigenous Connection
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) reports that 80% of the planet’s biodiversity is found in Indigenous lands, which accounts for 22% of the planet’s land area. According to some estimates, Indigenous communities globally maintain or claim around 80% of critically important habitats, often known as “critical ecosystems,” as their ancestral homeland. While the Caribbean has many Indigenous Peoples, there is still much work to be done to legitimise their status. This is a huge setback for these communities and the benefits they can provide in their role as custodians of the environment if they are restricted in their rights to claim their lands and practice their cultures.
Why We Did This
Writes and Kulcha was born from the desire to shape and share our own narratives with a Jamaican/Caribbean perspective and a candid, vibrant voice. We incorporate native and Indigenous languages and dialects to strengthen and preserve their use, de-centre Eurocentric hegemony and highlight our own cultural heritage. Our long-term goal is to inspire thought and action that leads to unbridled patriotism rooted in knowledge of self, in the hopes of creating measurable, lasting social change where most needed.
Writes and Kulcha is media for us, by us, and all about us.