It's the Brian Lairn Show on WNYC.

I'm Bridget Bergen in for Brian today.

Now we continue our WNYC Centennial Series 100 Years of 100 Things with thing number 16, 100 years of West Indian

Immigration and Caribbean American Life in New York City. We're heading into Labor Day weekend,

which marks the return of New York City's annual West Indian Day Parade. And with that,

as our news hook, we'll talk about the Caribbean diaspora in

New York City and take some of your oral history calls. Our guest for this is Taisha Maddox,

Associate Professor of African and African American Studies at Fordham University, and the author

of A Home Away from Home, Mutual Aid, Political Activism, and Caribbean American Identity.

Professor Maddox will help us explore how the concept of a shared West Indian identity came to be,

as well as the importance of mutual aid societies and other associations that incubated political activism in New York City.

We'll also talk about some of the people who left their lasting political,

personal, or artistic legacies on the city.

Professor Maddox, welcome to WNYC. It's great to have you here.

Thank you so much for having me.

And listeners, we can take your oral histories of the Caribbean diaspora in New York City.

We invite you to call in and share stories of some of the West Indian New Yorkers who are significant to you.

The number is 212-433 W-N-YC.

That's 212-433-9692.

You can call or text us.

Professor Maddox, how far back can New York's Caribbean diaspora be traced?

Yeah, I think that's a really important question because when we tend to think of Caribbean

...