RSJ student launches Black Island Girl for capstone project

RSJ student Jael Joseph is finding success with her new online magazine, Black Island Girl.

The magazine, which was created as her fourth-year capstone project, highlights the lives of Caribbean women of African descent. The launch has been picked up by several news outlets, including Trinidad and Tobago Newsday (external link)  and South Florida Caribbean News (external link) .

We did a Q&A with Joseph, to find out more about her project.

What gave you the idea to do Black Island Girl for your capstone project?

If I was going to do a capstone, it had to be on something I am passionate about. I have grown to love being a Black woman but getting to this point has come with many insecurities. I knew there were others who felt like me or shared similar experiences. I felt compelled to focus on my community; the Black community and the women who harness most of the struggles within my community while dealing with so many obstacles on a daily basis. The Black women I know are entrepreneurs, innovators, engineers, educators, hustlers and homemakers and more yet still find time for our communities. I wanted to tell those stories.

What has the process of creating it been like?

Once I have something in my head, I’ve already seen it to fruition. For me, B.I.G was just that. I conceptualized it, drew down my plan and the rest is history. I knew I wanted a profile that would include an academic source. I fell in love with feature writing, thanks to a professor who believed in me. Dan Berlin encouraged and coached me through JRN 272. I never thought of myself as a writer, he literally unearthed my ability. 

I knew I wanted a podcast since this is my first love. I fell in love with radio and podcasting and I had to include that element. I wanted the podcast to be an extension of the feature and in the end, any Black girl would feel connected to the stories of these women regardless of where she grew up.

When I spoke to my sources, they did not hesitate to go on record with their story.

I had the honour of working with two really amazing professors; Karyn Pugliese and Janice Neil for this project; Janice really guided me through this process. She directed me to sources I could speak to, made suggestions on the direction for the site. I was happy when she smiled at the final product. She saw beyond my editorial madness. 

What do you think makes this project important/unique?

Firstly when I googled www.blackislandgirl.com (external link)  and saw that the domain name was available I was convinced of a few things. There is a scarcity of island women identifying as Black women because we are mixed with so many different ethnicities and there is a lack of self-recognition amongst each other. I believe Black women want their stories to be heard. We have also been excluded in many conversations when we talk about Afro-Canadians or African-Americans. Our identities become lost. We don’t have the same experiences coming from the Caribbean and our stories are missing.

You’ve already released an article and two podcast episodes — what has the response been like so far?

The article which came out first received close to 3K views within days of the March 5, 2021 launch and the podcasts collectively have had over 500 downloads. It’s been picked up by over 16 publications between Canada, the U.S and the Caribbean.

Is this something you intend to continue working on after you graduate?

Right now I am wrapping up the semester so I have been spreading out the episodes of the podcast. I have also started research for the next article.

I hope to have this continue and eventually get other contributors. There is so much to talk about from the perspective of a Black island girl. I hope to explore education, sexuality, feminism, I want to speak about our bodies, art, music, culture and why the islands are so dear to our heart.

So many layers of our stories remain undiscovered, like why we work so hard when we leave our homeland and migrate to “first world countries,” why we find it hard to assimilate in another man’s land, why the islands is always called “home” even when we were not born there, why we jump on an airplane every shot we get to attend a “fete” (carnival) and to “lime” (party). I want to talk about the things that truly matter to us, like family, food, fun and friendships.

Is there anything else you’d like to share about Black Island Girl?

I pay homage to the instructors who taught me to be the best version of myself. To Eternity Martis, who told me to never be scared to write myself into history, JRN 319 was the first time I was being taught by someone who looked like me and she came with a fire that would eventually ignite something within me to write Black stories. To Janice Neil, who was always so understanding and caring, willing to go the extra mile for me as a mature student. In JRN 318 she offered to do my podcast checkpoints after I had put my kids to bed and never rushed or dismissed me. If it wasn’t for the instructors at RSJ who took the time to give a damn about a Black island girl who has BIG dreams... 

I spent part of my reward from the 2019/2020 Faulhaber Communications Award to set up the domain name and to register and copyright everything. Money from this award funded this project. I may have had the will to put this together but the financial support really assisted. I hope Christine Faulhaber is proud.

I leave with this anecdote. A few days ago, I had a job interview with a news organization out West and one of the interviewers said “Jael, you resumé moved to the top of the pile quickly when we saw Ryerson.” I smiled. I am ecstatic I made the right choice to attend Ryerson School of Journalism.