🌴 Sweet, Deep, and Flying High

June is Caribbean Heritage Month — but if you’re from the Caribbean, you already know: our culture isn’t bound by a calendar. It’s in our voices, our food, our flags, our rhythms — and for me, it’s also in every classroom I’ve ever taught in.

We come from different islands. We use different words. We season things our own way.
But somehow, it’s all still ours.

Just like the names we give to bakes — Johnny cakes, fry bake, festival — the stories we tell across the Caribbean are flavored with pride, humor, and heritage. Culture runs deep. And it runs sweet.

This month, I’m celebrating the rhythm of the Caribbean through the stories I’ve written:

• 🌺 Where the Guava Tree Stands

• 🌊 Neither Out Far Nor In Deep

• 🍬 Sweet Like Sugar Cane

These books aren’t just novels — they’re memories, voices, and love letters to the places and people who shaped me.

Teaching is one of the ways I get to keep this culture alive.
It’s in the laughter during read-alouds.
The serious debates about characters.
The journal entries filled with honesty and heart.
The sweet notes passed to me at the end of the year — notes that remind me that story and culture aren’t limited to the page. They live in the connection.

So here’s to all the aunties frying dough over open flames.
To all the kids eating mango straight from the skin.
To all the writers telling stories in our own rhythm.
To the flags we fly and the roots that run deep.

✨ What’s something from your island that no one else can do better — even though we’re all doing the same thing with different names?
Drop it in the comments. I promise not to tell your auntie you said it’s the same.

With gratitude,
Leah T. Williams
@kittiwriter1
🌴 Caribbean stories. Young voices. Real life.