While the Caribbean community comprises about 25%) of the Brooklyn population and has for generations made a positive impact on the social, political, economic and cultural economies of New York, there is a severe shortfall in the access to lucrative opportunities for its creatives, that unfortunately do not accurately represent distribution across the entire creative sector.
The BCLF works to promote Caribbean-American talent, polish their craft, create opportunities and negotiate, through network and partnerships, high visibility opportunities in ways that are both authentic to the Caribbean cosmology and of the highest possible industry standards.
The diaspora arm of the BCLF’s Short Fiction Story Contest helps launch important new voices in North America while the regional prize platforms established writers in front of global audiences.
Our Cocoa Pod podcast plays to the lyricality and meter of the Caribbean accent for its listeners all the while harnessing the power of technology and the digital age to create lasting archives of Caribbean orality and bridge the divide between worlds, generations, memory, the past, present and future.
The BCLF is a literary nonprofit 501(c)(3) that blazes a trail for Caribbean stories and its writers across the Diaspora. We highlight Caribbean literature and the region’s history of storytelling to the United States first, then extend that celebration to wider global audiences. It is a showcase of culture as expressed through the pen of the storyteller and the voice of the poet.
Founded in 2019, the organisation is optimally based in the gateway to the Caribbean Diaspora, Brooklyn --New York, more specifically-- within the epicenter of the Caribbean community in the locale dubbed, ‘Little Caribbean’. Annually, hundreds of people pour into Brooklyn for the BCLF to attend our public events, while our year-long approach to programming ensures that we meet the needs of writers of Caribbean heritage in tangible and impactful ways.
Caribbean people and their descendants have long contributed to the development of New York and the BCLF honours the legacies of their stories and knowledge that have survived time, loss, erasure, migration and the ones that find expression in the fresh soil of the Caribbean Diaspora where its people have settled. By dint of its origin story, the Caribbean is an inclusive, multi-ethnic, plural community, and a positive emblem for diversity, easily decoded and deeply relevant to a highly diverse society like New York.
The Caribbean collective is a case study for belonging and offers a safe space for all people regardless of identity. BCLF proudly ascribes to a geographic definition of Caribbean that includes all countries whose borders are washed by the Caribbean sea, making our creative catchment area one that mirrors the movement and exchange of indigenous people prior to the Colombian encounter, in an act of historical and political rejection.
Our Mission
To showcase, promote, encourage and build a bridge to facilitate opportunities for Caribbean writers and the Caribbean storytelling tradition within the North American diaspora with a view of elevating the Caribbean literary canon’s prestige to the highest possible industry standards.
Our Vision
To see Caribbean literature seated at the table of the creative writing industry as an equal player, sharing equitably from its resources and being credited as the creative source and owner of the stories and culture of its people.
Our Goals
To increase the visibility of the classic and contemporary works of the Caribbean writer within the Brooklyn community and the Caribbean diaspora
To build a platform for community ownership of the oral and written stories of Caribbean people where they are encouraged and empowered to weave their stories
To take Caribbean stories into the future by utilising the latest technology-driven platforms to ensure reach, engagement and posterity
To kindle children's interests in the folktales of the Caribbean, foster pride in those of its ancestry, and develop curiosity and a sense of ancestral kinship with its stories and culture
To positively shape the global understanding of Caribbean culture and intellectualism as a beacon of diversity through the promotion of its literary works
To lessen the divide between the literature of the 4 major language groups in the Caribbean (English, French, Spanish, Dutch) and create a homogeneous appreciation for its works among all people
Support the BCLF HERE
Help us write a new chapter in Caribbean history with The Brooklyn Caribbean Literary Festival! All funds collected as part of this campaign will be used to bring writers to Brooklyn, NY and promote the Caribbean literary community.
Your contribution is greatly appreciated!
