Noel Cymone Walker is a writer and host who started her career at Russel Simonds’ Globalgrind.com. She has written for Billboard and other music magazines like Fader and Ebony. She has now decided to expand her wings as a video director producer and her lates flick is a 25 minute documentary for theGrio on the link and evolution of Reggae and Black History Month.
“Once you are in magazines everything kinda expands,” the New Yorker tells WMV for a virtual talk back. She expresses a passion for reggae music and wants to put the genre and the artist on major platforms.
- What inspired you to create this Black History & Reggae Month special?
I knew for a fact that not many people outside of Jamaica and reggae communities were aware that Reggae month is February, the same time as Black History Month, and had so many direct connections to American Black History and global history. A Lot of my work is acting as a bridge between American and Caribbean audiences because I understand and spend a lot of time in both. People just need to be taught the connection then they can put the links together and be more open.
For me, knowing how reggae is a direct product of not only the Rastafari movement but of the Marcus Garvey movement and UNIA which was central to the USA was enough for me to do a doc. The fact that reggae is a global black protest music and it is literally celebrated the same month as black history month was enough for me. The fact that Bob Marley, reggae’s biggest international star, and Frederick Douglas and Abraham Lincoln birthdays are all in February was enough for me to do doc and explore this topic more. There’s too much synergy here to be ignored or not expanded on.
- How did you choose the locations featured in the special?
The idea was to go to reggae stomping grounds, not necessarily having to do with where reggae music is played but where prominent events or figures stood that made a mark in history. I knew I wanted to visit National Heroes Park because that’s where Garvey is, as the first National hero. I knew I wanted to visit York Street where DJ Kool Herc grew up because that was a moment I shared with him and his team back in 2020, visiting his old home. I always felt that it would have been great if that moment was filmed because it was an organic, just so happen thing we did, and it came with lots of stories from him and his sister about what they learned while growing up there before migrating to NYC. I wrote a piece for Billboard magazine in 2020 that explored that only a little bit but I always felt and still do feel like that’s a bigger story I want to tell because that’s a huge part of Hip Hop history. At the time that was his first time Jamaica, I think it was 40 years, I’m not exactly sure of the number but yes a very long time. 1520 Sedgwick Ave in the Bronx where he and his sister Cindy threw their famous party is sort of immortalized in history as the place where Hip-Hop began and I felt that moment I shared with them visiting their home on York street is immortalized as the precursor to Hip Hop. And it is Hip Hop’s 50th birthday this year. It was just honored and celebrated at The Grammys so I had to stop by York Street. Dub Club is pretty much the most central place to hear roots reggae and dub tunes in Jamaica and run into artists so I had to include that spot. I interviewed Protoje for The Grammys in September 2022 and he invited me to Habitat studio whenever I was back in Jamaica to check it out, so I thought that was a great place to film and talk to a modern-day reggae artist.
- What was your process for interviewing the guests featured in the special?
I mean I just talked to them and asked them questions in ways that connected reggae as a cultural and music genre and black protest music to American history and global history. My aim was to take the idea out of just only Jamaica but to expand on how this genre has really been carrying the world.
- What do you hope viewers will take away from watching this special?
I hope they start really connecting the pieces of how we are way more related than not. You don’t have to be Jamaican to understand how this country has played a huge role in black history and world history and just how it relates to you.
- What do you think is the most important message you convey in this special?
I just wanted to bring more attention to reggae month like black history month. It’s no coincidence they are in the same month. They are that connected.
- How does Reggae music tie into the history of the black diaspora?
It is black protest music and oftentimes reggae has told stories of what was happening to black people in spaces where listeners didn’t live or couldn’t reach. Reggae is specific to uplifting oppressed groups and the black diaspora has been the most heavily oppressed.
- What role does Reggae music play in promoting unity within the black diaspora?
Reggae is all about love and unity. A song like Peter Tosh’s “African” is a great example and I think what he was trying to display in that song was a form of unity between the black diaspora. Like it doesn’t matter what parish, what country, what color on the black spectrum you are, you are African, you come from the motherland, you are what we refer to today as the black race. We have to be there for each other and unite rather than separating due to our parish, country, nationality. It’s nonsense for the black diaspora because we are the most oppressed group. Better we come together and stand for each other rather than separate and reggae as a whole stands for that.
- Why do you believe it’s important to highlight the contributions of women in the Dancehall & Reggae Genre category?
Because they play a major role. Marcia Griffiths is one of the most central figures in reggae who has been around in the 70s and still making prominent moves today.
- How did you first become interested in Reggae music and its history?
Once I started visiting the country and staying local I mean I was in the midst of real life in Kingston. It wasn’t something I could ignore at that point. That was around the year 2015 and it only continued and progressed.
- What impact do you think Reggae music has had on other genres, such as Hip Hop?
Reggae/Dancehall is known as the mother to Hip Hop and that’s how I know it. Reggae and dance halls, the sound system and toasting is a part of the fundamentals that created Hip Hop. So without this genre how could we have Hip Hop?
- How do you see the future of Reggae music?
I don’t know what’s going to happen but I would hope that it goes more mainstream and people support it financially more, and have exposure more than it has gotten in the past.
- What message do you have for aspiring journalists and filmmakers who want to explore cultural topics like Reggae music and black history?
Just do it. Don’t be scared. Figure out.
Watch the WMV interview with Noel below:
