Downstate recently hosted a powerful Caribbean Heritage Month celebration where culture met community action.
From the sound of the dominoes slamming on the tabletop to the lightning-round questions about curry chicken versus chicken curry or sorrel versus ginger beer, Downstate’s Caribbean Heritage Month celebration was a vibrant tapestry of taste, laughter, and purpose.
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In a fun conversation, we welcomed Gregg Bishop, a Grenadian son of Flatbush and Executive Director of the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation Social Justice Fund, who grounded the moment in shared roots and a powerful call to community action.
The event was a living expression of Brooklyn’s Caribbean diaspora, Downstate’s ties to the diaspora, its space in the conversation, and its enduring role in honoring cultural identity, advancing health equity, and leading with inclusion.
More than curry chicken, sorrel, ginger beer, and island claims to cocoa tea supremacy, the conversation also focused on meaningful reflections of cultural identity, health equity, public trust, colonial legacies, mentorship, and the responsibility of institutions like Downstate to lead with inclusion.
Bishop took the audience on a deeply personal journey, tracing his path from his mother’s decades of service as a Downstate nurse to his leadership in philanthropy and policy, and served as a wonderful homecoming to a place where he grew up, knowing so many individuals, some of whom came out to welcome him.
We celebrated the richness of Caribbean heritage, reaffirmed a cultural identity grounded in action and tradition, and reminded ourselves why we #KeepCareClose in a diverse community.
Whether from Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad, or another Caribbean nation, this gathering honored the power of showing up fully and reminded us that “when one of us eats, we all eat.”
Catch the discussion here.
