Kevin Clarke was born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica where he has spent most of his adult life working in the communications field. A former student of Meadowbrook High School, he honed his skill for broadcast and journalism at the Northern Caribbean University in Mandeville, where he received a bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication. Since graduation, he has held positions in media, public relations, and more recently marketing and digital media. An avid reader, he enjoys swimming, cooking and travelling around Jamaica visiting new places. An active Toastmaster since 2012, Kevin has benefited tremendously from the communication and leadership thrust of the Toastmasters International Education programme.
1. Where in Jamaica are you from?
I was born and raised in Kingston.
2. Tell me more about your blog and the reason you choose to provide advice to Millennial men?
The blog has been an idea for many years. I finally made a decision to fulfill a new year’s resolution in February 2014 and went through the process of acquiring the domain name and server space. Then I just stopped because at the time I was working on my master’s degree. Once I completed studies in late 2015, I said it was time to get it done, but I didn’t get around to launching until my birthday, in August 2017.
When I was looking for a point of view, I realized that mine was unique. What mattered was adding my voice to the space and presenting life from my perspective. I believe we are all trying to be better versions of ourselves at all times and by sharing my perspectives, I provide people with options.
I don’t consider myself an ‘advice’ guy. I am not actually providing advice to Millennial men but providing perspective and insights from my own experience as a Millennial man. I would like to believe my experiences can help a bunch of different people, men and women.
3. How has the blog changed your life?
The blog has been a relief! It has allowed me to share who I am in such an open but vulnerable way, that I wasn’t willing or able to on my social media platforms alone. It also gives people, especially those close to me, another way to learn more about me. There have been perspectives that I’ve shared that have given people a completely different impression of me all because they now have a better appreciation of who I am and what motivates my actions.
4. You did some work on social media’s influence on politics and culture. What is the one take away from this work?
That work was the end result of my master’s degree research. The greatest insight I gained from the research was that young people now, more than ever before in history, have so much power at their fingertips when it comes to democracy and how they choose to participate.
Persons are choosing how and where they have their political discourse and are doing so with nuance and perspective. This is important because it shows just how important social media is to this political process, that many persons would want to believe is only based on traditional ideas of political engagement events in Jamaica.
5. What do you think makes Jamaican Twitter different from any other Twitter “subgroup?”
Ha, ha. The way we use language and our creativity! It’s the most fascinating thing when you see a thread on Twitter and all it takes for the whole thing to get lifted to a higher level is a Jamaican to quote a tweet, say something that is witty, funny and relatable all at once.
And it’s non-stop, always on. In fact, I don’t know if there’s any other Twitter subgroup that has a regular Sunday gathering where some argument or issue comes up that has the entire community engaged and talking about it.
6. Tell us a comment by a fan/reader that really made you feel great about what you are doing?
It’s a category of comments. Whenever someone says, “Your article helped me to look at something differently or read something they can relate to,” those are the comments that give me the greatest satisfaction.
7. Do you have any other new projects in the works?
My main aim with the blog is to continue to consistently produce new and innovative content and then create different verticals. So, for example, a podcast is in the works and the goal is to launch that before year’s end.
8. My friend would say the strangest thing I do is…
Keep the inside of my car spotless. It’s a source of annoyance for some of my friends but I’m not obsessive about it. I just like my car clean.
9. A movie I never get tired of watching…
Easy – Forrest Gump
10. My favorite expressions is…
Can’t think of one right now.
11. Thanks for the interview. Do you have any closing thoughts?
Congrats on the great work you are doing to bring Jamaica to the world, one story and post at a time. Jamaicans.com is an invaluable resource that helps even those of us who still live at home to learn new things, every day.
Be sure to check out Kevin Clarke’s website, Twitter, and Instagram.
