Speaker 1: 0:02

Everybody, welcome back to this special edition of Carry On Friends, the Caribbean American podcast. Yes, I've taken a break for the last couple months, but this is break breaking worthy. And I have my good friend, red Fruit Media partner collaborator Alexandria of the Strictly Facts podcast, on to discuss the series Black Cake, the series that's on Hulu. I've listened to the book and I've watched the series. Alexandria has only watched the series, so we're going to get her feedback. So, alexandria, welcome back to Carry On Friends.

Speaker 2: 0:44

Thank you. It feels like I never less. We're always listening and podcasting together, so I'm glad to be over on this side of things again.

Speaker 1: 0:52

And I am talking to Georgie, you can't tell. So we are Caribbean and we are Jamaican, because Carry On Georgie, on and all the other ads right, but Georgie's no stranger to the podcast, so welcome back Georgie.

Speaker 3: 1:05

How you doing. I'm doing good. I'm excited to be back to share my opinions and all the good things that have been going on at this show.

Speaker 1: 1:14

Awesome. All right, so let's kick it off, because this is not going to be a long episode, because we're not extending the break from the break too long. So tell me how you heard about the series. Why were you interested in watching the series?

Speaker 3: 1:28

Yeah, so I first heard about the series actually as a book, so I heard about the book. I love reading. I always want to read something new and I'm literally getting into and wanting to read more Black fiction books. So I read a lot of business, entrepreneurship kind of books and I was like I want to read more Black fiction. So Black Cake was definitely on that list and I was actually looking at the book on Libby, which is a library app, so the New York Public Library app and there was a waitlist and by the time I got my book, the series also came out. So I was like you know what, I do love a good book, but I also love a good series, especially a good Black-centered series. And I was just like, all right, I can see my stories. They're from the Caribbean, they're Jamaican. I was like, all right, I'm going to watch this. So that's how I heard about it and what inspired me to watch it.

Speaker 1: 2:17

Wonderful Thanks for that. So, now that you've watched the series, what are your initial thoughts on the series? What did you love about the series?

Speaker 3: 2:27

I love the casting. So I'll definitely say that the casting. It really looked like the transition of a person's age and unfortunately we've seen through like Black cinema throughout the years where they don't get the casting right, like there is no way that this was the person as a baby and then this is them now as a teenager or as an adult. So I've seen castings that have gone really, really bad. So that's the first thing that I love the casting. The second thing I really appreciated the accent. So I know a lot of TV shows when they have a Caribbean or a Jamaican accent, it just sounds butchered, killed, like on the road, and I'm just like, yeah, I couldn't have hired a real Jamaican to do this. We have actors and actresses too. So I really appreciated the accents.

Speaker 3: 3:10

I felt like it was really close, if not exact, really close. It was believable. For me it was believable and just the story overall it kept me enticed the way they put it together. As you know, every time I watched an episode I was like I couldn't wait till the next episode was ready. So I didn't actually watch the full series until the whole thing was done, because I'm just like I'm going to binge this, we're going to watch all of this because I need to see what's happening next. I watched the first one. I was like, oh, I can't wait. I can't wait to watch the whole thing. So really well put together.

Speaker 2: 3:44

So, yeah, I think, first and foremost, it's always wonderful for me to see our stories come to life and be on the big screen or small screen in any shape and form. Right, it's oftentimes where we've played the smaller characters, not the major characters. And I think one of the beauties of Black Cake although I haven't read the novel yet, it is on my to-do list for Christmas break it was wonderful to know that in creating this series, it was obviously inspired by the book and being able to really showcase our stories in a way that felt natural to us. There are things that I thought I really enjoyed about it the fact that a lot of times when you see our stories, it's supposed to be based in Kingston right, and it was nice for me to watch a series or something about Jamaica and it not be centered in Kingston, although obviously there are travels abroad, so it's UK and the US, but I thought it was a nice part of the story for it to be showcased partially in Portland as well.

Speaker 2: 4:49

There are some smaller things that I wasn't necessarily a super fan of. I think every time we talk about Caribbean media, we are always concerned with the accents right and trying to ensure whether the twang was twanging or whether it was not is sometimes an issue and can be, I think, difficult and challenging and something that I don't think we've fully figured out how to do in terms of Caribbean media. But I thought the story was beautiful. I thought being able to showcase ourselves, especially on a platform as big as Hulu, was something that I really enjoyed being able to take part in watching.

Speaker 2: 5:29

Another thing that it did well is that, while somebody might not be of Caribbean background or ancestry, they are able to not only grasp the storyline but in a way that's not ostracizing right. So for us as Jamaican people, we're like yes, it feels like the shop, it feels like the church, it feels like glue lagoon, but I think for those who are not of the same background, lineage, heritage, it's a I think I really thought a beautiful eye into our culture in a sense that allowed those who are not from that background to really get a good representation of who we are, of parts that are not the bad man and necessarily the different stereotypical ways that we've been presented in media. I had several friends of mine who are not of Jamaican ancestry or background, or actually not even of Caribbean ancestry, and we had several conversations about their perceptions of the show.

Speaker 1: 6:31

You liked the casting, you liked that the accents were livable, right? On a previous podcast I talked to Michaela, who you know, that accents are a spectrum. Right, they don't have to be, like me and you, a bond in a Jamaica, because there's a different accent for those who born in Jamaica versus those who you know born and left as a baby, versus. You know, there's just so many spectrums and then if you live in the South or you live in other parts of the US, that accent just feels differently and I think, especially if you're like in the UK and other parts, the accent will be, different, right yeah, so you like those things.

Speaker 1: 7:13

What were some things that you're like? I'm not sure I need to rewind and come again on this or they could have done better on it.

Speaker 2: 7:22

I have to sit with that one a little bit. I think, um there, well, I do think I would have potentially liked to. I think it started to get there in terms of talking about cover these challenges when she got to the UK in particular, and I think it did a great job of sort of Illuminating, you know, living experiences, obviously, racial dynamics and things to of that nature, I think, to me, the historian me for anybody who Followed strictly facts podcast knows I'm always trying to line up history and you know chronological lines etc. I maybe would have wanted to see it delve a little bit more into that time period and maybe make certain notes to what was going on in the greater sense. There is that scene you know, where Covey sees Byron and now you know they're like he was during a protest.

Speaker 1: 8:22

Covey sees Bert, or birds, now bird, and that protest could have been anything that was happening in the UK at the time.

Speaker 3: 8:32

It didn't at the time. Yeah, and you know the one thing that really set out to me that it could have been like ignorance, because I didn't read the book, so I don't know how it was supposed to go, but I didn't appreciate that they threw Steven there. So, uh, you know it's what, sorry for the spoilers who hasn't watched? So, um, the daughter, who was queer right and and Her story, I felt was watered down by kind of like this white guy. That was like toxic behavior and they could have still told the story while acknowledging these parts of her, because I felt like they were saying like her Family history dimmed it down, but then the context of the show then dimmed it down even more. So, yeah, again, maybe again it's ignorance, because I didn't read the book and that was just a part of her journey, but I felt like they could have leaned in on that instead of kind of giving us this whole other like Due to feel like weird about.

Speaker 3: 9:26

I didn't love what happened with Byron and his partner I think Lynette was her name. I felt like she was For them to have been, because the kind the idea was they've been together for a really, really long time and like for him, you know, when she first came back after everything happened with the mom and they listened to the audio, he was just like get out. And I was like what do you like? Can you leave? I remember what do you mean? Can I leave? I've been here for a long, why don't we live together? Like that was a little confusing for me and just kind of how she came at him. You know it was well intended, so their relationship didn't seem believable to me. Um, that casting I'm not gonna lie, it was. It didn't feel like they had the chemistry that I would have liked to see or I think they could have put together. So that was a little off for me. But otherwise I feel like it was well written.

Speaker 3: 10:14

I wanted more. When you know, when I finished, I wanted more. I definitely wanted to hear more of bunny story. I definitely wanted to hear more of Mabel's story and it looks like there's gonna be a part two. So I'm excited for that. But I think they could have told more of Benny story and you know, you know leaned into her quareness, especially since it's such a Stigmatized topic in the Caribbean, right. And so you know, it's like either you're telling it or you're not telling it and I felt like they weren't sure. And again, it could have just been how the book was written. And then you know, just kind of throwing this like abusive white guy. I'm like, uh, that's old, give us something new to deal with. And I'll say this last one, definitely when Byron and Steve got into it.

Speaker 3: 10:57

I'm just like another scene. I'm happy the police just kind of did a regular it seemed like a regular type of arresting for a black guy, right, and that's sad to say like, oh, they arrested him a regular way. They would arrest a person beating up another person. So but I got scared. I'm like, oh my god, byron's gonna die. Oh, my god, I got. I started panicking and so I was pleased. I'm like, oh, the police just talk with him. How lovely. And I felt disappointed to have that feeling, but also grateful because I was like I couldn't take it if they killed him. I had to turn it off. I'm like, oh All right.

Speaker 1: 11:28

So what if I told you that entire scene with Steve and Byron did not happen in the book?

Speaker 3: 11:36

Now we got a problem because it did not happen, because it didn't drive the trauma. Why the anxiety? Because, like I said, these things bring up feelings for you.

Speaker 1: 11:44

This is exactly what I've been telling my friends. I'm like can I just watch a black series without having an encounter with the police? Because it creates this anxiety and it's like, okay, it's a reality, but if I'm being entertained, let me escape a little bit, right.

Speaker 3: 12:02

So we had a film already like was rape, not enough was murder, not enough Was running away from you know so.

Speaker 1: 12:08

So you brought up something, which is part of why I wanted to have this conversation, because I'm like that entire scene with Byron and Steve did not happen at all in the book.

Speaker 1: 12:19

I get they want to do these things for dramatic effect, but the Byron's character was this upstanding black man, educated, and he's gonna be reduced to this level. And the one encounter Byron had in the book that the author touched on and it's interesting that you use the exact words that you use, because the the author I felt delicately touched on certain things. He was a a fluent black man driving a nice car and he got pulled over right, but it wasn't given like too much space. He was just like this is what happens and he's talking about being a black man. So I'm glad that you said that, because I feel like I need to watch something with without feeling like, okay, there's a police trauma in there. I also liked that you brought up Steve and you thought that Steve was given too much airtime. Yeah, and what if I told you in the book, steve never gets so much airtime.

Speaker 3: 13:16

Yeah, steve, steve was doing too much. Um, I could have done without Steve. And like all the scenes, like when he came back after the Restoring, I was like why this man here?

Speaker 1: 13:26

Yeah, I again. I get the whole dramatic effect, but Steve didn't get so much airtime. It alluded that there was this abusive relationship, blah, blah, blah. But Steve got enough. You see, the same amount of airplay that the girlfriend Johnny gets. That's the same amount of airplay Steve got in the book. In the book.

Speaker 3: 13:45

Breathe and Johnny could have gotten more. I feel like again that her character and even her personality, like she, that I feel like we I wanted to see more of that because once she was acknowledging like who Betty was and you know supporting her through getting to her, you know living her truth, and she's like, listen, like I love you, I care about you, but like I'm not going to hide with you, Like you got to unpack that trauma. You have to unpack that, those things. And I feel like we need more voices that are pushing people to be more than the limiting, the belief that people around them has set for them as well as what they've set for themselves. And so, having that voice, even when she came back for like a second, it's like, oh, you know, I'm happy for you, Like. And then Steve got on my house, like Steve shut up, Like can we just like mellow in the fact that Joni's happy for her, Like can we just hold that.

Speaker 1: 14:38

I agree, Steve got too much ear time he shouldn't have.

Speaker 3: 14:42

Even the scene when they talk to Benny. Like the younger I'm not Benny a buyer in the younger version of him is saying like you know, you can be vulnerable, but you have to do that at home, unfortunately. So you know, I resonated with that. It's like these are protective measures and as time changed, you have to change with the world in the sense of like realizing, okay, I can present more stuff and that's what he was fighting for within his workspace. Like listen, I can't just be the only black person here or I can't just be your poster child every time. But you know, I wish they could have really leaned in on these stories and give more details so that we I think there are Caribbean parents that still feel some of these feelings. Or you know, whether it's having one, their son or daughter to succeed, about you know, being queer, like they have these feelings and so having the hearing, the conversation, even not even having it themselves, hearing the conversation and maybe some of the nuances that they can resonate with, I think helps the next generation that's coming up and even helps the parents process and see and understand why they feel what they feel. Like do they really feel this or is it just because culturally accepted or culturally unaccepted? And then really get to the core of their feelings Because, you know, most times they're not going to go to nobody's therapy. They're not going to go. Do you know the hard work and it's scary. And so you have to acknowledge like this is literally a complete 180 from what you told was right or wrong, or even the scene at the end around.

Speaker 3: 16:05

You know, duffy is just like there's a lot of controversy around that too, and so it's just like who? What controversy? Not on social media, but I feel like there's people that are that more modern. People is like oh, that's not a thing, like you're just being dramatic around, like you know spiritual things. I know people that are just like what do you mean? Duffy and Ghost? All of that is like foolishness, stop it. Like you don't need nobody night and night, like they don't believe in none of that. I'm just like well, I'm going to just hold on to it, just in case.

Speaker 1: 16:35

I feel like we are looking at the series through the lens of being Jamaican and Caribbean and everyone else is just looking at it very differently. So we are picking apart like that really wouldn't happen in a you know like with that and I get the idea of making it a mass, mass appeal. But for me I felt like this was an opportunity and I mean, yes, it is pressure, but because I know that the book centered Caribbean characters, a Caribbean American, a Caribbean diasporic lifestyle. I I was expecting to see myself or people who come on the show, people who I interact with. I expected to see some hint of that in there and there were elements of like maybe the black cake and stuff, but I didn't feel like the characters. Really I can't explain.

Speaker 2: 17:31

It's like, yeah, we know that they're Jamaican.

Speaker 3: 17:33

Yes they they, they weren't you know it was just like a sprinkle versus like this is the food.

Speaker 1: 17:39

Food, exactly Right. The entire story is built on the cultural heritage of these characters, the main characters being Covey right the black cake, and I felt like that was an undercurrent as opposed to, like this, this major part, a nod to CCH Pounder coming at the end and talking about the nine nights I think she brought in like the most like Caribbean vibe to the thing, and I'm not saying everybody should have been walking around with an accent, but I just felt like the heritage of the characters were just kind of around the periphery as opposed to being a central part of like who they are.

Speaker 1: 18:26

Black cake, the series, the story doesn't exist without their Jamaicaness or Caribbeaness. It doesn't. And my favorite episodes, or episodes one and two, because of course it's centered around the culture Once the characters go far in they literally became just foreigners. They were American or British, they were. It's almost as if their Caribbean culture was secondary whereas it was essentially who they were in the thing. And I just didn't feel like the series captured that that much. But, like I said to Michaela, like I will still support it and give it space because these aren't opportunity to support the work but critique the work so people after them know how to do better in terms of really making authentic Caribbean American characters, because we are a large demographic and we are underserved. So we feel a sense of disappointment when we feel like it could have been more so.

Speaker 1: 19:26

A couple of days ago I was doing friends mess with my friends, so there were four of us and so one friend and I, who we grew up in Jamaica was like, say you like black cake? And she's like, yeah, I've been meaning to watch black cake. And I was like, yeah, you know. And she's like, so what is it about? Like you know, it's based on. It's based on Jamaica. They're like what they had no idea.

Speaker 4: 19:51

They finally said the word Jamaica, but they never said it was Jamaica. I literally never got that. I've read so much about it that everybody's talking about it. No, we're in any conversation.

Speaker 1: 20:04

Thank you, that is what I'm trying to say no, not the articles, I really thought I heard a sudden I don't know.

Speaker 4: 20:11

I thought it was sudden, like you run away or something, and it was like in the south.

Speaker 1: 20:21

No, it was never in the south.

Speaker 4: 20:23

What Jamaica?

Speaker 1: 20:25

It was never in the south Now one comment said Caribbean.

Speaker 4: 20:28

Everything, I swear, was a sudden thing. Me too, and I was like I'm going to watch it one day. But I never was like. That's probably why I never watched it, because I'm not hearing anybody From the previews. That's what I thought too, until I pick up myself and say you know what I'm going to watch? This I'm going to watch. Finally watched one episode Like five minutes in. I'm like this is Jamaica. No, I'm not. I believe in Jamaica. I believe in Jamaica. I'm definitely imagining it.

Speaker 2: 20:53

I believe in.

Speaker 4: 20:54

Jamaica Never, never. No one said it, no one talked about it. Yeah it's Jamaica and I always read like comments about it. You know because I don't watch it, but I read like what people say. I wonder why they did not emphasize it later Because that will make it such a powerhouse to me. But even in the audience that I'm reading and the comments. People talk about Jamaica with different little things, but nobody said it Like nobody said yeah, I mean maybe because in the book, like you said, she never mentioned the word Jamaica.

Speaker 4: 21:21

until later, yeah, but they never mentioned, they never mentioned Tarbian, they never mentioned nothing.

Speaker 1: 21:26

They're not in the book. She refers to a Caribbean country. So even if you don't say Jamaica, you still reference.

Speaker 4: 21:33

Caribbean.

Speaker 1: 21:34

And in none of the write ups do they emphasize Caribbean or Jamaican Very little do they do that and your reaction to what I said like your reaction, totally not knowing that there's a Caribbean slash Jamaican story tells me that what my feeling about it is correct. Okay.

Speaker 4: 21:53

I get that now because I was never going to watch the show, because when I saw Black Cake I'm like, oh, I wonder if they mean. I was even saying I wonder if they mean.

Speaker 2: 22:02

Jamaican.

Speaker 4: 22:03

Black Cake? I know, I saw. Oprah, but I saw like the trailer and I did, oh, and I watched, and I watched you and I read the reviews and I was like I have to watch the show because I want to know what it's about. Five minutes in, you realize that, oh, it's about Jamaica. But in the previews you'll never get that, you won't get that.

Speaker 4: 22:22

You know so funny that then it just said that and I was like the way, because I'm reading about it, I didn't even talk about Jamaica Black Cake with the movie from whatever I've read so far, I never because.

Speaker 2: 22:32

I'm thinking about.

Speaker 4: 22:34

I'm thinking about, like some Southern Black Cake.

Speaker 2: 22:36

That's what.

Speaker 4: 22:37

I thought, I never thought it would become Black Cake. This is fascinating to me. I never like just knowing. You said that I was like, oh my God, Black Cake, but the way I'd be writing it, I thought it was like some Southern.

Speaker 1: 22:49

Cake, you know like you should have Black Cake too. No, but that's the whole point of the book, the Black Cake because my mother-in-law said it like you know, because you know she's like the Black Cake is from the English pudding.

Speaker 4: 23:00

Right, that's what I was about to say.

Speaker 1: 23:02

But Black Cake yeah, the British pudding, but that's a blood cake. That's a blood cake as it's referenced in the title, and Black Cake as we know it, when upon the counter, is a very Caribbean thing.

Speaker 4: 23:11

And I never put the two and two together from just what. I've read online. If I knew this is fascinating that it was a Black Cake for that click, it was a Black Cake for that click. It was a Black.

Speaker 1: 23:22

Cake for that click.

Speaker 4: 23:22

Click to me right away, right away, because If somebody had said something, you would have clicked to me like oh, jamaica Black Cake, but no one ever said anything.

Speaker 4: 23:29

I wonder why I would love to know why no one. I would have been in a different blog site about it and nobody ever said anything. Because I even told my friend, my friend Nicole, my American friend, I'm like, oh, you're gonna work. Because I'm like that's your show Me, my last year show. That's your show, right, me, my last year show. You're gonna watch your show Black.

Speaker 1: 23:48

Cake.

Speaker 4: 23:48

This is so fascinating to me it proves my point. You're probably like my year show.

Speaker 1: 23:55

It proves my point. So you think I am so surprised, I'm shocked. You're shocked Like you wouldn't. But if I didn't tell you this in this moment Black Cake was a Jamaican I would never tell you.

Speaker 4: 24:07

I would never tell you Wow Never, never Wow yeah.

Speaker 1: 24:13

And so that tells me that there wasn't a connection to a wider Caribbean American audience and I think in the marketing and the publicity of the series more could have been done.

Speaker 1: 24:26

When you market to different audiences, I think more of an effort to market to this group of people would have been helpful, because they thought Black Cake was something else.

Speaker 1: 24:37

They were not thinking it was the Black Cake in front of us that we were eating at Friendsmas at all, and I think one of the reasons why they didn't put it together they were like oh, it's on Hulu and Oprah's producing it, and this is why it's important to me that it's represented so like the Caribbean-ness and the culture, like one of my favorite characters on TV right now is Shirley Ralph's character in Abbot Elementary, because she goes in and out.

Speaker 1: 25:05

You know she's Caribbean and Jamaican, but you know when it comes out, but she's authentically herself and most Caribbean people. That's how they are. They'll be fine, but the minute you draw them out the accent comes out, which is most of us right. And so there's very subtle ways to represent Caribbean American characters on TV that's authentic and Shirley Ralph is able to do that because she is Caribbean American, she is Jamaican American and she knows how to do that. So going back, my friends didn't equate that because they were like, oh my God, it's on Hulu and Oprah's producing it. They weren't making that connection that this could be about us, because Oprah's producing it and it's on Hulu.

Speaker 2: 25:46

And I guess, to add to that point, the inaccessibility of Hulu in the region. So if you're in Jamaica wanting to watch Black Cake, you have to go stream it some other way, not directly on Hulu. That's a good point. I mean, I will say it was interesting for me to watch the children's stories and try to figure out how they identified with their Caribbean American-ness, right With their Jamaican American-ness, being first generation born. So there were certain things that I definitely, you know, could recognize in my own upbringing, right, the fact that, you know, our parents want us to steer towards certain career tracks and things to that nature, definitely. But there were other ways that I was like I wish they could have played on that a little bit more as well.

Speaker 1: 26:32

I watched the Washington Post interview and it appears that there might be a season two.

Speaker 2: 26:38

What would you look for? I didn't hear that.

Speaker 1: 26:41

I think as well. What would they do with a season two? I'm curious because I'm just like I don't know where they're going to go with what they're going to pull out of a season two. But what do you think they could do with a season two?

Speaker 2: 26:50

Obviously, we don't get the Byron and Benny's half-sister story till towards the end of the series, right? I was really engaged and wanting to know what her final voice recording was. I think like, in the grand scheme of things, the voice notes. If that was my own mom, I would feel rightfully so right, there's a way that I think secrets and generational traumas carry over without us wanting to that's a very Caribbean thing.

Speaker 2: 27:22

No, it was true. Not that I would necessarily be happy about it, so I get that, but I think for me I was really invested in we got what? Was it eight voice notes or something, or eight episodes. How many of her voice notes? I was really also wanting to know what her separate voice note was saying in terms of that storyline, Because obviously it's inferred who her father is right. We don't get the same eagle-eye version of that story that we got from the previous episode, so I think that might be the concentration of season two.

Speaker 3: 27:56

I definitely want to see Benny or Byron or all of the I need them to go back to Jamaica, like I need them to go to Jamaica, whether it's Benny creating some type of art, byron studying the oceans down there, figuring out the map of the lands, or Mabel exploring her Caribbean, or even Asian, being part Chinese exploring that background. Because in the end, the spin that it seemed like it was going to give and I'm not going to be too happy if this is what it gives is going to be focused on Mabel and she's going to Scotland. So I'm just like did the white man steal this whole story from us just now? Like that's how I was, just like I don't want to lean into that, but that's what the sprinkle gave me, and then it was her story around Geo. So it looks like we're going to Scotland, we're going to go to Rome. Potentially you know the background of her adopted parents that she thought was her biological parents. Where did they? You know, maybe some of her upbringing being biracial and not knowing it passing. So I think it's going to go in that direction, which I would be really disappointed. If that's like the Again, if that's the food and Benny maybe be a sprinkle.

Speaker 3: 29:11

I'm going to be really disappointed because, while it is important to acknowledge cultures coming together, that melting pot because that's what Mabel represents, the melting pot you know the diversity, you know biracial, like, there's a lot of material centered around biracial and culture blending, which I think there is space for absolutely. But I feel like there hasn't been enough done to recognize the diaspora of the black community before we go there. Yet. You know what I mean, because a lot of the content I've seen when it comes to like biracial content does center around the white side. It's like, oh, you know, it's like the black side is all the stereotypes. And then here's like the white side is, like you know, trying to fit in. They don't fit in with the white side and it's like how do we get them to fit in? And the challenges, and da, da, da, da, da da. Like, okay, I hear you, but we need more stories exploring the black diaspora before we shift, especially this specific series. We can't just, you know, let's go over there now.

Speaker 3: 30:15

I think there's definitely way more to explore with Benny and Byron and their experiences and even within, like you know, byron kind of going to talk about the racial discrimination. I have room for that. But I want to see him like open up his own center, because, again so, for me, him spending too much time around the racial discrimination suit is just again a more defensive position. Like oh, I got my guard up and like I'm fighting, fighting, fighting still. Versus like I'm existing and we're, we're thriving Right, like it's not so much. I want a little less survival and a little less more like living. There is part survival in living, but just more living like existing, if that makes sense.

Speaker 1: 30:54

That makes total sense. I would recommend that you go listen to the audiobook because all the things that you say that you want to see in the book or in the season to kind of happen in the book. So you told me, let me go. Let me go claim it on Libby. Yes, go claim it on Libby. You know overall my position on this. Like I feel very strongly about the audiobook, I recommend people read it. I love books period.

Speaker 1: 31:22

I especially love books that represent the Caribbean, the Caribbean American experience, the Caribbean global immigrant experience, and my role or or as part of carry on friends, is there is a space to support Black cake and the book and the series, but also a space to critique it, because in the process of critiquing it, I think we signal to creators like, oh, maybe we need to consider other things. Right, here are certain things that could have been better. You know, I just felt like there was a missed opportunity to incorporate the Caribbean audience, as evident by the number of people that I spoke to who had no clue. It was about that. So I'm looking forward to more representation of Caribbean, diverse representation, outside of being the gunman, the gunja smoking rasta and the the nanny. I'm looking forward to more representation, more conversations about how we show up in media and the different ways that we show up in media.

Speaker 1: 32:31

I'm curious to see what they're going to pull out to do a season two, because they've veered so far from the book. That I'm curious about. How are you going to create a new storyline, because you've gone so far in one direction? How are you going to bring it back into, bring it back or make it engaging? So I'm not. I'm not sold on a season two that I'll commit to it. I'm not, but we'll see. I might be persuaded. Like I said, I'm not. I'm not saying I'm never going to watch it, I'm just not sold on it. So any final words on black.

Speaker 2: 33:09

I mean, I definitely recommended to anybody. Just, you know, I think it's that time of year where we're all looking for Something nice to watch, especially with family. I'm not with my mom yet. I will be for the Christmas holiday and she said she'll wait up and watch it with me. I tried to get her to watch it now and she was like a can't figure out how this whole routine work. So that's what we'll be watching for the holidays. But I recommended to all people you know, whether you're of Caribbean background or not, but it definitely was a nice representation and it's a varied representation from what we usually see in terms of Jamaican people on the screen.

Speaker 1: 33:47

Yeah. So my friend here bakes Amazing black cakes. So my mom ordered her black cake as she got one for her birthday and then she's like I want my Christmas cake. Got her black cake. Show me a picture of the cake. I said, oh, I'm gonna take a little piece. The minute she told me she's gonna take a little piece, I knew what was going to happen. Right mid recording. She calls me. I'm like I always gonna take it, because whenever my mom calls, I feel like, okay, you, you are right.

Speaker 1: 34:15

Okay, all right, then I'll call you back. My mom was like, yeah, I couldn't stop eating, but that's like black cake, especially for us Jamaicans.

Speaker 2: 34:28

Right, christmas in, there's nothing like Christmas that is a time it's Christmas and it's weddings, yes, but it's definitely Christmas right, and so Her eating the black cake is memories of my uncle baking the black cake, me licking the bowl.

Speaker 1: 34:45

You know like the fruits been soaking from the last year. You know the, the Christmas breeze, all these other things. So black cake is not just a piece of food, it really encapsulates memories and traditions and I am hopeful that we get to continue or start a tradition of diverse representation of Caribbean Americans and people largely of the Caribbean diaspora, on TV, streaming film, wherever. So that's it for me. So until next time, walk good.