Un­der a canopy of blos­som­ing beau­ty and Caribbean rhythm, the third an­nu­al Caribbean Cul­tur­al Diplo­mats Ex­pe­ri­ence un­fold­ed like a liv­ing love let­ter to the re­gion’s cre­ative bril­liance.

Host­ed by In­dus­try 360, un­der the aus­pices of founder Te­nille Clarke, the Trin­bag­on­ian-based so­cial im­pact agency part­nered with Cul­ture­Con to stage an ex­clu­sive evening that brought to­geth­er Caribbean lu­mi­nar­ies, diplo­mats, artists, and al­lies for a cel­e­bra­tion that was as soul­ful as it was spec­tac­u­lar.

Set to the 2025 theme, “Mille Fleur: The Se­cret Gar­den,” the event’s am­biance mir­rored the Caribbean it­self—lush, di­verse, and end­less­ly vi­brant. From the in­tri­cate dé­cor con­cep­tu­alised by Trin­bag­on­ian event pro­duc­er Krista Clarke to the four-course culi­nary jour­ney cu­rat­ed by Chef Adam Wait­he of Wyn­d­ham Grand Bar­ba­dos, every el­e­ment of the evening paid trib­ute to the pow­er of Caribbean cre­ativ­i­ty and con­nec­tion.

The event’s high­est ho­n­ours—the Cul­tur­al Lega­cy Awards—were pre­sent­ed to two ti­tans of Caribbean ex­cel­lence: Neal Fari­nah, the Trinidad-born celebri­ty hair­styl­ist be­hind the icon­ic looks of glob­al su­per­star Be­y­on­cé and many oth­er Hol­ly­wood A-lis­ters; and Pe­tra Roach, the dis­tin­guished tourism ex­ec­u­tive and cur­rent di­rec­tor of Sales and Mar­ket­ing at Wyn­d­ham Grand Bar­ba­dos.

Re­ceiv­ing his first-ever award from a Caribbean or­gan­i­sa­tion, a vis­i­bly moved Fari­nah shared a heart­felt sto­ry of re­silience and grat­i­tude.

“I nev­er thought in my life that I would get an award or flow­ers for what I’ve done,” he told the packed au­di­ence. “I came to the Unit­ed States with $35 and a dream, and I’m still dream­ing.”

Born in Ari­ma, Fari­nah re­flect­ed on the chal­lenges he faced af­ter mi­grat­ing to the Unit­ed States, in­clud­ing bul­ly­ing be­cause of his clothes and ac­cent.

“But I’m so hap­py that those peo­ple made jokes about me,” he said.

“Be­cause to­day that’s made me stronger—to fight hard­er, to work hard­er. It made me the hu­man that I am to­day.”

Fari­nah’s emo­tion­al speech, de­liv­ered along­side his friend and in­ter­na­tion­al­ly ac­claimed mod­el Do­minique Ar­mor­er, drew a stand­ing ova­tion. His au­then­tic­i­ty un­der­scored a ca­reer that has in­spired gen­er­a­tions of Caribbean dream­ers in beau­ty, fash­ion, and en­ter­tain­ment.

Re­flect­ing on his deep con­nec­tion to T&T and his close re­la­tion­ship with Be­y­on­cé, he shared a poignant mem­o­ry: “I re­mem­ber when my moth­er was dy­ing, Be­y­on­cé told me, ‘She’s proud of you.’ And I know she’s proud of me now.”

If Fari­nah’s mo­ment was one of re­flec­tion, Pe­tra Roach’s ac­cep­tance speech was a ral­ly­ing cry. Recog­nised for her decades-long lead­er­ship in el­e­vat­ing the Caribbean’s glob­al im­age, Roach urged the au­di­ence to em­brace a shared mis­sion.

“We all have a role, a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty, and a du­ty to play in the way the world sees the Caribbean,” she said. “Our in­dige­nous trea­sures should be cel­e­brat­ed, pro­tect­ed, and re­spect­ed as we con­tin­ue to shine on the glob­al stage.”

Her mes­sage was met with thun­der­ous ap­plause from an au­di­ence that in­clud­ed Con­sul Gen­er­al of T&T An­dre Laveau, me­dia per­son­al­i­ty Jessie Woo, and Bar­ba­dos Tourism Mar­ket­ing Inc. US Di­rec­tor Pe­ter May­ers.

Through­out the evening, live per­for­mances by Hec­tor Roots Lewis of Ja­maica and Tionne Her­nan­dez of Bar­ba­dos added rhythm and res­o­nance to the cel­e­bra­tion, each note echo­ing the uni­ty and cre­ativ­i­ty that de­fine the Caribbean sto­ry.

For Te­nille Clarke, founder of In­dus­try 360, the night marked more than a mile­stone—it was the flow­er­ing of a move­ment.

“What we wit­nessed on Oc­to­ber 1 was the pow­er of com­mu­ni­ty,” Clarke said. “The Caribbean Cul­tur­al Diplo­mats Ex­pe­ri­ence was built to ho­n­our our ex­cel­lence, our re­silience, and our right to be cel­e­brat­ed.”

The award-win­ning pub­li­cist—named 2024 Fe­male En­tre­pre­neur of the Year by NED­CO—called on pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tor lead­ers to con­tin­ue cham­pi­oning Trin­bag­on­ian and Caribbean cre­ative ex­cel­lence.

“See­ing Neal so moved—see­ing Pe­tra’s smiles, the laugh­ter, the tears—that is the mag­ic of this Caribbean move­ment,” Clarke added. “Neal, along with so many oth­ers, is de­serv­ing of his flow­ers, and it was our priv­i­lege to make this a spe­cial evening for our at­ten­dees. We’re look­ing for­ward to re­turn­ing to New York for the 2026 edi­tion, with sup­port from part­ners both at home and across the di­as­po­ra.”

As the evening drew to a close, one thing was clear: the Caribbean Cul­tur­al Diplo­mats Ex­pe­ri­ence has blos­somed in­to one of New York’s most an­tic­i­pat­ed cel­e­bra­tions of Caribbean iden­ti­ty and artistry dur­ing Cul­ture­Con Week.

The un­for­get­table 2025 edi­tion con­tin­ued to am­pli­fy Caribbean voic­es and sto­ries—root­ed in her­itage yet flour­ish­ing on the world stage.

This year’s cel­e­bra­tion was made pos­si­ble through the gen­er­ous sup­port of Bar­ba­dos Tourism Mar­ket­ing Inc., Cham­bers Me­dia So­lu­tions, Wyn­d­ham Grand Bar­ba­dos, Jim Beam, Nou­velle Vie, Maya Win­ston, and PR Girl Man­i­festo—a coali­tion of part­ners unit­ed by one mis­sion: to let Caribbean cul­ture bloom, bold­ly and beau­ti­ful­ly.