Negril Stories

Jamaica, at Home and Abroad

Longform stories of Jamaica. exile, belonging, and diaspora.

by Shellie-Ann Kerns

Essays • Reporting • Narrative Journalism

the stories we tell are about…

For the people who work the land and the sea.

Ground tells the stories of farmers, fishermen, and the laborers whose hands shape the Caribbean landscape. It follows the rhythms of planting and harvest, the economics of small-scale agriculture, and the quiet inheritance of knowledge passed between generations. These are the stories that rarely make the news but hold the country together.

For the displaced, the deported, and the diaspora in between.

Exile examines what it means to belong to more than one place, or to be claimed by none. It covers deportation, migration, dual citizenship, and the tangled loyalties of living between Jamaica and America. It asks what home becomes when borders, policy, and distance have had their say.

For culture as it moves through the world.

Reverb follows music, art, and language as they cross water. It tracks the way a riddim becomes a sample becomes a movement, how a mural in Treasure Beach speaks to a gallery in Brooklyn, and why the Caribbean imagination keeps reshaping global culture. These pieces are equal parts criticism and celebration.

For the aftermath, and what we build from it.

Tender covers disaster, recovery, grief, and the community infrastructure that holds people when systems fail. It reports on hurricane response and mental health, on mutual aid and the limits of charity, on what it costs to care for a place you love. This is where journalism meets service.