Jamaica In My Own Words
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My JAMAICA
Fashion shoots have often treated Jamaica as a backdrop to the story. But Jamaica is a place with an outsize influence on global culture. The country’s musical genres have continually reset the pace of popular music. Its cuisine is imitated but rarely captured. And Jamaican patois remakes language, sounding new chords in the chorus of dialects we call English.
Jamaica is a crucible for all the questions that animate our modern world. Jamaica is a space where questions of freedom, art, and humanity are posed by a people who have made an art form out of everyday life. Countless poets, writers, and philosophers—Claude McKay, Sylvia Wynter, Erna Brodber, Michelle Cliff, Nicole Dennis-Benn, Marlon James, and Safiya Sinclair to name a few—have written and rewritten the story of the island.
For this month’s shoot with Kingston native Kai Newman, we worked with a local production crew, and the results are electric. The excitement surrounding the shoot is palpable. As Newman tells it, “Jamaica is such a small country. So when it do happen for Jamaica, in Jamaica, it’s a big deal.”
—Kaitlyn Greenidge
Kai Newman details the experience in her own words:
I’m from Kingston, Jamaica. I’ve lived there my whole 25 years. Shooting in my own country, with my own culture—it felt great. I felt more relaxed because I was home.
Sometimes fashion shoots do happen in Jamaica, but the majority of the time, it’s not Jamaican models. So when people actually see a Jamaican model, they’re super excited, they’re ready, they will do anything to make it happen.
We were shooting inside of a house, and one person actually changed their whole bed just for me to get a shot. On the water, there was a big party boat that was docked, and people were coming out, recording me. They were like, “Yes! Yes! Go, Jamdown girl!” It’s nice to work where people are rooting for you.
Stepping away from modeling to have my daughter—whew. I was just there wondering, “What should I do? What am I going to do?” And then after I had my baby, Covid came, so I was locked out of the world. I couldn’t do anything. But my manager, my modeling agent Deiwght Peters, was like, “Let’s get back in the game.” And I was like, “Yes, I’m going to make it happen, because now I have a baby to take care of. She’s my motivation.” I look at her and I’m like, “I have to do it for you.” So now I’m doing modeling, and I’m actually studying nursing as well. And being a mom.
This was my first time shooting with my daughter. She was so ready. They showed her options, and she was like, “I want to wear this one.” And they were like, “Okay, let’s get that.” So she’s her own stylist. I told her to just look in the camera. It’s from her mom, so maybe she’s ready for it.
Hair: Melleisa Dawkins; Makeup: Ernest Robinson III for Pat McGrath Labs; Manicure: Shannon March; Casting: Anita Bitton at The Establishment; Production: Maxine Walters at Walters Productions Jamaica.
This article originally appeared in the March 2023 Issue of Harper's Bazaar.
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