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Connek JA is a resource center that provides networking and socialization that connects queer Jamaicans within and outside of Jamaica, fosters a sense of belonging and inclusion through programming, offers financial and educational information, and advocates for changes in policy for the queer community in Jamaica and beyond. Support our non-profit to help the ever growing liberation movement in Jamaica for queer people!
Our Story: Once upon a time, two Jamaican queers met…
In 2014 Neon Christina, founder of RAGGA NYC, booked a trip to Jamaica. Close friends and family alike discouraged him from going. He had heard rumors about Jamaica and its homophobic attitude in his online research were there was an overwhelming amount of negative news about the country's queer folk which was alarming. He dreadfully cancelled the trip.
Fast forward to 2017, he finally gained the courage to re-plan his trip to Jamaica. A mutual friend named Tsige who had recently visited connected him a queer friend of hers living in Kingston named Chaday who would guide him once he arrived. On the trip he not only met Chaday, but went hiking, attended street parties, heard local Reggae bands, had amazing food and overall found himself on a soul level. It was life changing to be in a black country as a queer adult defying all the scary stories he’d heard.
When he came back to NY he had time to reflect about how afraid to go to Jamaica. He did a lot of thinking about the way fear of black countries vibrates outward from the media and affects all people. How this daunting media hits people of color and more so the queer community of color the hardest. The fear of violence keeps a lot of people away from black countries throughout the world and in this case, Jamaica. So how could we change that?
What better way to change someone’s mind about a community and place than to go there and talk with people? The power of travel is real. Unfortunately, there have always been roadblocks for the traveler of color. We have seen this even here in the U.S. with the need for publications like the “Green Book”. The “Green Book” was a travel guide that listed businesses and private homes that would reliably serve black people during the era of Jim Crow law keeping motorists safe from dangers like sundown towns. On the flip side the gay & queer travel industry has often stayed clear of black countries at large and often only targets to gay men. This specific cross section of queerness and race in relation to travel is unseen. This is where Connek JA fills the void.
In turn Chaday expressed just how important it was for Jamaican queers and liberals to meet people from all over the world. To not just meet but to really connect and break bread with them. Chaday and Chris realized the need to see and hear the voices of queer Jamaicans living outside the dark narrative painted by most Western media. We wanted to not just bring folk to Jamaica to celebrate kinship but also shine a light on who these brilliant queer Jamaicans living in Kingston who were leading the change. This is the specific blend of programming that makes Connek JA different from any other travel project.
The time for bridge building not wall building is now.
Uplifting And Centering Black Queer Joy
Queer people of color are not taught to think about their future. We spend so much of our lives digging up our history and focusing on survival. In this time of plague, climate and economic crisis, when making plans feels futile and overwhelming, we work as a coalition to remember this: Imagining queer futures, queer joy, and queer togetherness is a righteous act. During the Connek JA annual trips/ events, we employ, celebrate, center and commission Jamaica-based queer talent, artists, small businesses and queer activists to participate and showcase their work, celebrate and be in communion with us. There is a need to supply the queer people of Jamaica with resources as we see/saw during the Covid19 pandemic, but we don’t want just to help the community survive. We want to assist the community in thriving! We want to encourage growth, celebration and dream-building. This is why Connek is working with its Connek ambassadors and artists throughout the queer community in Jamaica to commission them for art projects and skill building. This work is a way to encourage the queer community to thrive indeed and imagine the future of possibilities as the queer liberation movement in Jamaica grows.
Partnership with Jamaican organizations already doing the work on the ground for resource sharing
We see Connek Ja as an avenue to enter the already vibrant queer liberation movement happening in Jamaica to funnel support from the diaspora through our ties to NYC and to centers joy, celebration and the arts in this movement. One collaboration that showcased this was our fundraiser with Yardy NYC, Ragga NYC, and We Change Jamaica during the height of the Covid pandemic. Here is a look at what that effort was:
Connek JA in partnership with We Change Jamaica , Yardy World , and RAGGA NYC , is raising funds to aid lesbian, bisexual, and trans (LBT) women, queer artists during Covid and bring the Connek 2022 trip to life. For this campaign we are marrying two missions to support and celebrate queer artists and LBT women living in Jamaica. The We Change Jamaica mission is to combat economic injustice and marginalization by gaining economic independence for LBT Jamaican women especially during this time of economic struggle that has only worsened due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The Connek JA mission is to make space where queer Jamaican artist and creatives along with our allies—can feel safe and aid queer Jamaicans with resources through our yearly Connek trip, year-round events and commissioned projects.
Alongside the fundraising effort in September 2021 Yardy World, Connek Ja and RAGGA NYC hosted a dinner in honor of Connek JA, a non-profit initiative to generate resources and travel opportunities for Jamaica's queer community, bringing artists, allies, colleagues together at one table as friends and family. The dinner was a space of familiarity, community and inclusion while giving room for honest and open discussion to raise awareness about the Connek project to a community of activists, artists and community leaders in NYC.
Through crowdsourcing our extended communities we aim to raise $20,000 for:
- We Change’s training workshops and direct relief for LBT Jamaican women affected by the Covid.
- Connek JA’s 2022 mission of building local events/ queer safe spaces in Jamaica, commissioning local artists (Connek ambassadors) to make work through the year and putting on our Connek trip where foreigners and locals can celebrate together
The Mission
$20,000 is our main goal but even with $5,000 we can do so much to help queer Jamaicans and keep Connek Ja alive and thriving. We want to give resources to queer Jamaicans but also to encourage them to dream. We at Connek Ja believe in not just surviving but thriving! With resources we can commission queer people in Jamaica to build their artist practice, start businesses, write more, travel, have steady employment with Connek JA etc.
The Connek mission includes all these goals and more including sending We Change Jamaica 25% of what we raise for Covid relief, building local events/ queer safe spaces, commissioning local artists (Connek ambassadors) to make work through the year and putting on our Connek trip where foreigners and locals can celebrate together!
Financial Transparency
Connek JA is a not for profit project aiming to bring resources and opportunity to the queer community in Jamaica. For this campaign we will send $5000 (25%) to our partners at We Change Jamaica. $15000 (the other 75%) will bring our Connek 2022 mission to life. From commissioning local queer artists to securing a space to have the 2022 Connek trip the $15000 will help us secure Connek trip lodging, pay local talent and pay local businesses a fair wage. With all the issues of Covid, local curfew laws and Jamaica’s Prime Minister shutting down the country due to the pandemic we aim to secure safe lodging outside of the city so we can celebrate outside the constraints of Kingston and bring along members of the queer community from Kington into the villa.
The last $5000 will pay for Connek JA Kingston staff helping us bring the events to life like the Connek trip and year round events in Jamaica for the queer community. The year round local events will be Connek ambassador art showcases, Mental Health Seminars and our Transcend Party Series. Our priorities for the year round events in Jamaica include:
Direct employment of local artists and commissioning art projects from queer Jamaican artists
Supporting CONNEK Jamaican staff & small businesses for the 2022 trip
Skills training workshops, mental health support and economic sustainability
Social welfare to provide economic relief for members of the community struggling due to the pandemic
The Team
CONNEK JA is dedicated to spotlighting the amazing queer talent in Jamaica who are rewriting the story of Jamaica’s relationship to queerness. With the power of travel and in-person gatherings, CONNEK works to build community by hosting inclusive events in Jamaica throughout the year.
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Established in 2015, WE-Change is a feminist, organization focused on advocating for and with lesbian, bisexual and trans women. Though explicitly queer-centred, the organisation’s advocacy caters to and impacts women and girls in all their diversities. WE-Change is focused on equipping women with the tools to advocate and become activists for the creation of a world that recognizes and protects the rights of all people, regardless of nationality, socio-economic status, abilities, race, gender or sexuality.
WE will achieve its objective of a more equitable and just world through employing an intersectional approach to matters of importance to LBT women. WE will utilize organizational and engagement strategies that have served the advancement of the global women’s movement over time and bring the voices, strategies and perspectives of a new generation of feminists and women’s rights activists to the table.
WE will promote feminist ideals, lead societal change, eliminate discrimination, and achieve and protect the equal rights of all women and girls in all aspects of social, political, emotional, spiritual and economic life.
Strategic Objectives:
Increase the participation of LBT Women in national and regional leadership.
Create safe and alternative spaces that facilitate LBT women's healing and wellbeing
Enhance the sustainability of the organization through outreach, partnerships and institutional capacity development.
Promote women’s equity in health, security, wealth-creation and the workplace
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RAGGA NYC is a growing collective of Queer Caribbean artists and allies. Founded by Christopher Udemezue (Neon Christina), the group was created to make space for and nurture ties amongst a group of artists who feel a deep commitment to their ancestral and diasporic histories.
Working across various disciplines, ranging from visual art and poetry to performance and fashion, RAGGA NYC interweaves art-making, cultural practice and community building. The collective has at its base a longing for an authentic and extended network that could support one another through ideas and activity centered around solidarity, visibility and expression. As a growing contingent of many artists – each quite distinct in the form, style and concerns of their practice – RAGGA materializes the impact of collective assembly in practices of social emancipation and celebration.
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DeVonn Francis is a queer, first-generation jamaican-american artist with a background in design and performance studies. He founded Yardy World in fall 2017 as a way to investigate his own role in Caribbean culture and to encourage others to seek joy and celebration in their own identities. Since then, Yardy World has gone on to create brand campaigns, develop activations, and redefine and reaffirm the importance of food and culture.