Models Needed

Hello fellow bloggers! I am in the midst of creating accessory pieces for an upcoming Miami runway show called Gold Carpet on August 6th. I need 15 models. Any takers? Hit me up at tracy.simmonds@gmail.com for more info.

Expansion

My mind just expanded! I'm in the midst of preparing for Innovative Arts' first runway appearance. The accessory line is called "IABTA" pronounced e-ab-ta. Just created my first purse design! Super excited. More to come...

African-Jamaican-American???

As I wrote my bio, I began to question myself about my issues with identity. I consider myself an African-Jamaican-American woman! Is that too many titles and sub-titles or not enough??

Born and raised in the predominantly Caribbean community of Cambria Heights in Jamaica, Queens, I witnessed many people around me who obviously had the same type of identity questions as I did. It can be confusing figuring out what group of people you fit with and why. Because I was born here in the U.S., my family tends to call me a "Yankee" but what do they mean? I'm NOT white. I eat the same food as you, I wear the same style of fashion, our hair is the same grade, our skin is the same color, we listen to the same music, we know the same dances, we have the same bloodline, we even live together, but I was raised here "a foreign" and we TALK differently?!!? So we're not the same??!! These statements always presented a problem in my mind.

Being the born creator and innovative thinker that I am, I decided at the young age of 6 to learn and practice my Jamaican accent. You KNOW they were laughing at me!! But I didn't care. "How can a person be born from 2 people and those 2 people choose not to identify with that seed? It's simply not sensible" I said to myself.

As I grew up, I watched more and more family come to the states from Jamaica, and learned more and more about the culture of my parents most recent motherland. I lived in the house with my Aunt and 2 cousins who were, shall we say "fresh off the boat" (comedic reference lol) and became even more in tuned with the regular happenings of the island. They were completely tickled in moments of my confidence when I would yell at the dollar van driver in fluent patois "Driva, nex stop!". My aunty would say "Tracy you sound like a Jamaican" and laugh. I thought to myself, "Am I not a Jamaican?? Don't Puerto Rican's children speak Spanish??"

As time went by and we made family trips back to the island, my recently immigrated family would complain about the native lifestyle (that they just recently left), as if they couldn't imagine living in such conditions. Funnily enough, I'm the most comfortable, the most friendly, get the most free stuff from people I don't know, and make the most true lifelong connections. "Seems like she's home to me" I once heard my country cousin say. I smiled.

That validation was proof enough for me. You're not Jamaican because you're born in Jamaica. You're Jamaican because Jamaica is born in you! Likewise for all those people who don't know how to identify themselves because of social ignorance. Stand up and be proud of who you are and whatever you identify with. I know I am proud to call myself an African-Jamaican-American woman.