Hey On The Towners, it's me, Frank Licari.

And today we are on island time.

As we celebrate the Caribbean-American heritage here in the Palm Beaches.

Join me as we experience the vibrant mix of music, art and of course the food that makes our region so unique.

We'll meet a woman expanding minds and dance moves one beat at a time.

A floral designer gaining international fame.

Like a tower of flower.

And a popular blogger shares go-to spots for authentic Caribbean cuisine.

We'll put the world's most sought after coffee beans to the taste test.

And we'll meet a mixologist putting his Jamaican heritage to work, spicing up some signature cocktails.

Let's shake things up as we go on the town in the Palm Beaches with me, Frank Licari.

Hey.

Cheers.

[announcer] This program is brought to you by Discover The Palm Beaches.

Visit thepalmbeaches.tv for more information.

[frank] Our Caribbean connection is very strong on the Palm Beaches.

And today, we're experiencing the food, artistry, music, and history firsthand.

Let's meet the owner of a dance troupe committed to preserving African, Haitian and Caribbean movement and culture every step of the way.

[khinuu] I have the only West African children's program in all of the county.

We're actually based out of Lake Worth.

That's where I've been for the past eight years.

[frank] Amazing, have you seen it grow?

Have you seen the interest grow?

[khinuu] So I have over 200 community partners.

[frank] Whoa!

I have the community support of organizations that really love the arts like I do.

I'm here and there and everywhere, from Belle Glade all the way to La Boca.

But I have a really good rhythm now and I'm really grateful.

I see what you did there.

Yeah.

I have really good rhythm now, I see that.

That was good.

That was good.

[stacy] This is Afro Beats.

Yes.

Afro Beat.

Okay?

Yeah, you got it.

We have a couple of moves here.

First move is called the shaku.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

I know I'm surprising you right now.

I Know, I know.

You thought, you thought you were gonna... You thought you had a novice on your hands.

He has the groove, right?

Come on!

[khinuu] Traditional West African dance is the foundation of my program.

Yep.

[khinuu] I've layered it with other dance genres of the diaspora.

So including Haitian folklore dance, afro beats, dance hall from Jamaica.

[khinuu] Soca dancing from Trinidad.

So I've layered my program so that they come and they get the full African dance experience.

This is amazing, but what's the difference between the West African and then what are you layering on?

[khinuu] Traditional West African dance, I would say is the original.

[frank] Yeah.

[khinuu] Right?

So traditional dance, these aren't movements that I'm making up.

These are ancient movements from thousands and thousands of years ago.

As things migrate and change and evolve, just like people, dance changes.

I teach my dancers, even in all of the genres that they learned, you can still see and feel the traditional...

The core.

Yeah.

[wilnau] Well, I'm originally from Haiti.

I was born and raised there.

I came here when I was nine.

Folklore, it means a lot to me because that's my home country's dance.

Of course.

It's very important, especially with slavery.

So that was a way of them expressing themselves.

Yeah.

It's almost like a history lesson, right?

[khinuu] Right, right.

Somebody has to keep this tradition going.

The children are the preservers of our culture.

And so I believe that once you teach a child, you teach the next generation and the generation after that.

[frank] For over 20 years, the Caribbean-American For Community Involvement, nonprofit, has provided resources and sponsored events that bring together different ethnic groups in the community.

Through a partnership with The Village of Royal Palm Beach.

The goal, celebrating our diverse heritages and building stronger community connections together.

[dennis] We have people from different islands.

Trinidad and Tobago.

Yeah.

From Barbados, from Guyana.

Of course, majority of our members are from Jamaica, which is where I'm from also.

But we do have a wide support.

And if you notice our name, it stands for Caribbean-American for Community Involvement, okay?

Which is hyphenated, which means that you don't have to be from the Caribbean to be part of this organization.

We encompass the entire United States.

It is an organization that's been running for all these years on pure volunteerism.

Because they care about the community.

It's one of the strengths of the organization.

That's amazing.

And what kind of organizational things are you doing with the community?

We have a boy scout troop, troop 111.

We have a club scout pack 120.

And we also have, called Vivian Ferrin Memorial Scholarship Fund, which is actually set up by one of the founders.

So you're helping a lot of kids.

Yeah, definitely.

What about events?

Are there outreach events?

Yeah, we have several events.

The chief one, really is what we call our annual friendship ball.

We're lucky to have the mayor here with us.

So tell us a little bit about how the partnership with the organization works and... One is the MLK day celebration, Martin Luther King Day.

We thought it was important for the community, not only in the village of Royal Palm Beach but all of the Western communities to have that day of recognition.

CAPSI said, look, "We'll do all the hard work if you guys would just give us the venue."

This event has just been incredible.

The other thing that CAPSI suggested to the city they said, "We'd like to do something to acknowledge and embrace the diversity in our community."

Out of that was born Culture and Diversity Day.

How many years now?

Is that almost 20 years?

20 years.

It's been around a while.

You've been doing this a long time.

They actually get different segments of the population.

The whole point is to share their heritage with everyone else.

Share their talents and skills with everyone else.

And this are the things we do, these are the kind of dances we do, the kind of music we do.

And more importantly, this is the kind of food we make.

That's what I was gonna say.

Food's number one.

Food is very important.

That diversity is our strength.

Yeah.

That's part of what really makes this community the community it is.

It's strength, and we like to acknowledge it.

And we like to make everyone included in that.

Yep.

And being able to share that.

In the mood for Doubles or some fresh Roti?

There's an Instagrammer that's got you covered.

Trinitiffy is constantly on the go in the Palm beaches.

Updating her more than 13,000 fans about the best spots for Caribbean food, fitness, and fun.

I'm about to meet up with Trinitiffy here at the Jamaica House Grill.

She's gonna show us some of her favorite local restaurants that are serving up authentic Caribbean cuisine.

Let's check it out.

[tiffany] I moved here in 2001.

I didn't explore Palm Beach County the way that I do now.

What's the restaurant that said, "Oh, Palm Beach County has arrived."

Mr. Mack Mr. Mack?

I love, love, love his food.

What's Mr. Mack's specialty?

Jerk chicken.

That's it.

Hands down.

His jerk chicken is probably one of the best jerk chickens.

It's the jerkiest jerk chicken you can get.

He smokes it right there.

He has a smoker outside.

Where are we going now?

The Jamaican house grill.

The staff is amazing.

Right.

It's a husband and wife duo that owns it.

When I come here, I get the oxtail.

Oh?

You know, sometimes you'll go to a Caribbean restaurant and you could just eat their rice?

To me, that tells me that they can really cook.

Oh is that right?

It's the rice that...

Sometimes to me when you can just...

The barometer?

When you can just eat someone's rice, you have me sold.

My friend found out I never had Haitian food.

So he said we are going to get you some Haitian food.

Where does he take you?

We go to Albert's.

That's it.

Wow.

Not even words.

Just like a... You couldn't even catch your breath.

I couldn't but whenever I go there now, I eat their shrimp creole.

Oh.

So good.

Their filet fish.

Mmm.

Beyond good.

It was just really good.

Oh, you sold me.

What else you got?

Caribbean choice.

You go to a Caribbean restaurant, you have all the main dishes.

You have the jerk, you have the stew chicken, you have all this stuff.

I go to Caribbean Choice for their fried chicken.

Oh, well now you're talking my language.

Their fried chicken is crispy but it's well seasoned and flavorful.

It comes with their own personalized sauce.

This sweet and spicy sauce that you... Yeah.

You're nailing it so far.

Yeah I like this.

There is a place called Yolle.

I like to go there because it's a nice little hangout spot.

But it's a Haitian restaurant and you have to try their fried goat.

Oh.

Their fried goat.

Wow.

It's really good.

FIWE.

Yes.

It's another Jamaican restaurant.

Miss Sandra is... She will open her heart to anyone.

And while she is the owner, she's the one that's back there in the kitchen cooking.

Food is love.

Yeah.

It tells me a lot about a location.

Well, it's an extension of the culture, of the community, isn't it?

Yes, yes, it is.

I know we talked about a few locations but there's so many different locations.

That's amazing, right?

It's so much diversity in the county.

It's beautiful, you gotta come and explore Palm Beach.

Trinitiffy says you gotta come and explore Palm Beach.

After all that good food, it's time for a pick me up.

Let's head over to a popular coffee house in downtown West Palm Beach, where the owner discovered a passion for coffee beans while growing up in Jamaica.

I love coffee.

And I come through the doors of this place and I see 'World's best.'

How do you get that title?

Not me.

It's really the Jamaican Blue Mountain Coffee is known as the world's best coffee.

It's also synonymous to the champagne of all coffees.

Known for its super smoothness, zero bitterness, and very low in its acidity.

Is it the climate?

Is that what it is?

Climate, the height on the mountain, just the soil, everything, that volcanic soil that makes it so special.

You can take the beans anywhere else in the world, you will never get the same effect as grown in Jamaica.

That's crazy.

This coffee comes from my grandparent's private estate.

Is that right?

Yeah.

Since I was a little girl going on... Our estate is actually called The Buckingham.

So it's very unique.

Look at you, all right.

Yes, look at that.

Like the queen, right?

Queen of all coffees.

Queen of coffees, I like that.

So you have it in your blood.

Indeed.

And being Jamaican, it's all over.

Oh, Wow.

I started it from ground up.

I'm a single female doing this business.

Operational, front end, back end, all on my own.

I have the best customers in the world.

It's like, they come in, they're like family, everyone is talking.

If you look around, it's like a nice living room setting.

It is, yeah, I like that, the connection.

I'm very grateful, yeah.

Wow, and you're also already sort of doing community outreach, right?

Yes, I do that.

It was my first year, 2020 and Christmas was around the corner.

I decided to have a small toy drive.

It was unbelievable.

So many gifts, you could hardly walk in here with the level amount of gifts that I got.

On top of everything else that you do, you baked these pastries?

Yes.

I did.

How many of these are yours?

I would say half.

That's crazy.

So we're not only getting authentic Jamaican Blue Coffee, we're getting authentic pastries made from your hands.

With love.

I love it.

All right, what am I trying here?

What is this?

So this is my coffee pecan.

It is made with blue mountain coffee.

Is it really?

Yes.

Wow, is that good.

Oh my goodness gracious, stop it.

Come on.

Oh my goodness gracious.

What?

These are mine.

Jamaican-American Soul musician, Matt Brown's interest in music started very young, watching his father play the piano.

In fact, Matt's dad gave him his first instrument, a guitar.

These days, there are not many instruments this talented artist can't play.

What's the influence for your music?

My dad.

Yeah.

My dad was a jazz pianist and growing up just listening to him playing all the classics.

All the GOATs.

Yeah.

Of course, I have to soak that in.

So you grew up in music?

Yes.

I started on piano just trying to copy what he did.

Sure.

And then he got me a guitar and I realized I wasn't a guitar player because I only stayed on the low E string.

So, and then he got me a bass and then that was... That was the key.

Yeah, exactly.

That was the clue like, "Oh, I like it down here."

Did you ever have a B plan?

I was gonna be a music teacher.

You realize, this needs to be on a stage, right?

You found, you developed your style and you're like, "I'm a performer."

Something like that, yeah.

Yeah.

You melded his influences with yours and you created a style that's your own.

Mmhm, yes, precisely.

Right?

It's smooth, it's like a...

Thank you.

It's like melted butter.

I appreciate it.

Yeah, that's what it sounds like.

Are you gonna do this solo?

Sunfest, tell me about the excitement of that.

I'm super excited.

Yeah.

I have an eight piece band with me.

Oh whoa!

And it's gonna be amazing.

It's gonna be me on bass and keys and vocals.

And then I have a whole vocal group with me as well, Three Piece Harmonies.

Now this is a big milestone.

Where do we see you going from here?

Keep the ball rolling and keep it going.

Hopefully this is just the beginning, the first big festival that I'm playing.

Not a bad start at all.

Never ask for less in the dreams of your mind I started an artist collective called Soulfam.

Oh.

And it's a lot of musicians, artists, creatives of all sorts, yoga instructors that you can think of.

And just a really supportive group of individuals that are heading in the same direction and just growing.

Right.

Every move Are you writing your original music?

Oh yes.

Yeah.

All the time, everything.

What's the style?

Is it smooth like what I was listening to?

Very smooth, very soulful, lo-fi type.

If you compare yourself to an artist today, who is your closest?

When I'm playing live, I get Masego and FKJ a lot because I do a lot of looping and stuff like that.

When I'm playing with the band, I get different things from all the old school GOATS.

Which is amazing when people compare me to them.

Yeah, it's not a bad thing to get compared to Marvin Gay or...

Exactly.

Yeah.

Designer, Varito Vasquez was born in Costa Rica where his career began working in hotels and travel agency management.

From there, he moved on to designing flower arrangements for large weddings and corporate events.

These days Varito is getting attention from all over the globe for his unique floral designs.

This guy is awesome.

My profession, actually is a floral designer.

That's what you are, you're a master.

It is what I am, a floral master designer.

All right, what's the first step?

You're creating this amazing masterpiece.

This is a regular leaf.

And I'm gonna have to deconstruct the leaf.

Okay.

So to create something different.

So where do you get your inspiration from?

The containers inspire me sometimes.

Sometimes is the occasion.

Yep.

Most of the time, it's emotional.

For me, every material is a piece of gold.

And I'm gonna start placing my leaves.

Maybe here.

You take boutonniere making and you create jewelry from it.

Like the inspiration that's sort of, it's incredible.

And actually, in the industry, my industry, a lot of people know me as the king of wire.

Oh, so you're the master of the florals and you're the king of the wires?

Kind of.

That's nice to have two titles.

This is cool.

So now I'm gonna use a different color of this.

Yeah, this one is better.

I was gonna say the same thing, yeah.

Normally I help in just to open a little more and I help mother nature.

Give a little help.

Yes, I normally help mother nature, yes I do.

It's very nice of you.

These lavish parties you're creating, that's a whole other level.

My responsibility is to create something massive.

The creative directors come to me and with the ideas, all the ideas and I need to develop everything.

Create the recipes, figure out how many stems I need for each centerpiece.

And probably will be 20 centerpieces, could be 50 centerpieces.

It's a teamwork.

Yeah.

Because there is a lot of heads working together just to have the ideas.

And have the final product.

Sometimes it's the most special day that person or that group is ever gonna have.

Exactly.

Right?

Yeah.

It's like a tower of flowers.

Like a tower of flowers.

You can use that if you want.

These kind of leaves give me the option, through the hole.

Through the holes, yeah.

This is the magic.

That's the magic when we are doing flowers.

I create the balance and keep my hide.

Man!

Yeah, you're pretty good.

I think you might be a master.

I think you might be a master.

King or something, I don't know.

Tracy Guiteau has been drawing since she can remember.

Starting at about three years old, her parents pushed for a career in medicine.

But art was Tracy's destiny.

With her Haitian roots as an inspiration.

We're here in Northwood where Tracy's opened up her very own art gallery serving as an inspirational light for others.

I'm gonna go inside and see if I can find my own light.

[karsten] This type of space like this has been an idea in the works for over a couple decades.

Because we've always been talking about having a space where we can all work together.

A lot of the reasons starting this was to kind of get that feeling back from art school.

Right.

Yeah.

Just being around different artists, different talents.

We already know about this type of art.

We want to share with other people, the type of art we can create, the type of art we can create together.

Yeah.

A lot of it is dealing with a lot of social issues, a lot of racial issues, a lot of things like that.

So you're building a home for yourself that then can inspire other people.

Exactly, yeah.

They associate artists as struggling artists.

We wanna show them that this is not the case.

Right.

Yeah, we're thriving.

Right.

Yeah.

The inspiration for your art.

Tell me where yours comes from.

Each piece is a diary.

Yeah.

They have hidden words within them.

Oh!

And they're all therapeutic and I want...

It's therapeutic for me so I want it to be therapeutic for the viewer also.

I didn't see the word thing there.

That's a whole... That looks like a puzzle, I like it.

This is great stuff.

Can you teach anybody, by the way?

Yes.

You can?

You Can.

If you can draw a circle, square, a triangle, I can teach you to draw.

Yeah.

I've tried, I don't know.

So part of the fun of your painting, besides them being beautiful is that you find the words.

Right now, I'm gonna have you start with... Me?

Yes.

No, you show me first, I don't wanna ruin this.

Ah!

You're not gonna ruin It.

All right, all right, all right.

Okay, you're gonna start with the deeper colors, right?

You just go with the flow.

And so what am I, what am I just doing?

Yeah?

Yeah.

Look at that.

Can I put it like that?

Uh huh.

Yes.

Oh my God.

I'm a Natural.

Oh, you know what this means though?

See, down here with your name, There's not a lot of room for my name down there.

Up upward.

Yes.

Oh yeah.

There it is.

Oh, look at that.

It's in an inspirational.

That's nice.

This was actually a self portrait.

This was more of a reflection period.

My grandma and my mom passed from cancer.

These are plants that were a reminder of them.

Mmhm.

This is what they called Asosi in Haiti.

All these plants are tied to the root of the stem that's attached to the heart.

Oh.

So everything that happens in your life, regardless good or bad, it always strengthens you and never scares you off.

That's fantastic.

Thank you.

In the spirit of celebrating milestones, if you haven't already heard, the Jamaican-American Heritage Festival is getting so big, it's now held in West Palm Beach.

The carnival calls on friends from all the Caribbean islands to come together and have some fun.

A lot of people are proud of their heritage but not a lot of people start their own festival.

What made you do that?

I started the Our Culture Festival because we were... We didn't have a huge festival platform here in West Palm Beach.

And we have a large contingent of Caribbean, Jamaicans, Haitians, Bahamians and so forth.

So with June being Caribbean-American heritage month, I decided that we need to bring something for our culture.

And that's how we started out.

That's incredible I don't know the Jamaican culture, what's a signature thing?

The music.

It's the music?

The music, in addition to our food.

We have great, great cuisines.

Our rice and peas, our curry chicken, our oxtails and so forth.

That's unique for our culture.

Now, this festival's grown a ton since you started, when did you found it?

2018.

Our first one was at the marina in Riviera beach.

And now you moved it to West Palm.

Correct.

What are we expecting this year?

We're expecting a huge turn out, anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 people.

People are looking to get out, people looking to have some fun.

Now, where are people coming from?

In the past, we've gotten people as far South as Miami.

Yep.

As far North as Orlando.

So we're hoping to make this a very, very big venue.

Your plan is to expand.

Now, one of your slogans I saw, is show your flag or what?

Rep your flag.

Repping your flag.

Represent your country.

One of the things we're doing this year, we want to have people enter our costume contests.

So we are trying to get people involved with the heritage and come to represent where they're from.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's Great Yep.

Are you're bringing musical acts from all over?

Yes.

This year we're bringing three international artists.

One is the Soca artist, Nailah Blackman.

She's from Trinidad.

Reggae artist, Version from Jamaica.

And a Haitian artist, Sashi from Haiti.

We're looking to build as we go along.

Do you have art there as well?

Jamaican art?

Yes, we have art, Jamaican art, Caribbean art.

Of course, great food, great music.

Can I dance when I go into this thing?

Yes.

Is there some dancing?

A lot of dancing, a lot of interacting with people.

And again, everybody learns each other's heritage and culture and just having a good get together time and a good feeling time.

That's fantastic, man.

I admire that, where you can, yeah, give back to the community in that way and give everybody a place to be and celebrate the heritage and music and all that.

That's fantastic.

You may have seen him at the 2021 Palm Beach Food and Wine Festival.

A mixology expert who grew up in the hills of Jamaica, learning about the benefits of using plants and herbs in food and drink.

Lucky us, On The Town has an exclusive one on one mixology lesson with Bootleg Greg.

Floridians don't drink enough rum.

Is that right?

No.

That's the problem with Florida, we don't drink enough rum?

I have some local Florida brands here.

We keep it local in everything that we do.

Now first, you've got to know what each ingredient tastes like separately.

And not only the taste, but the smell as well.

Swirl it around, smell it.

Let it open up.

Yeah.

And then that is kind of gonna lead you into the direction of what your cocktail would want to be.

So that's a 40% vodka, 43%.

It's nice and smooth, but it hits you when you get that basil.

It hit me, all right.

This to me says sunshine and pool party... Is that what it says to you?

Yeah, that's what it says to me.

Wow, okay.

Okay.

Now this is What is this?

This is raw cucumber extract.

It's just straight cucumber.

All right, got me there, that's good.

So we have the basil, we have the cucumber, right?

So far it's a salad.

So far.

It's a salad, right.

So it's in your veins, it's in your blood.

It is.

It is.

And I attribute everything that I do now to how I was raised, how I grew up.

From the age of six, I learned how to heal myself using roots and herbs.

And it was just a thing where I'm from, you know?

And this is how I grew up and I'm able to apply it now to what I do in a very natural form.

And you're using everything fresh.

Everything is fresh.

I'm gonna use a neutral sweetener.

This is syrup and water.

Sugar water.

I love that.

There you go.

Okay, pour it in?

Got it.

So we're gonna get some fresh lime juice then we want do our cucumber.

So do the same amount.

Same amount?

Okay, okay.

Then your spirit.

The rule of thumb is you add the amount of sweetener and the amount of citrus and that's how you come up with the total of how much booze you use.

So you wanna do about two ounces of booze.

I see what you're doing, yeah.

At least two ounces.

At least, of course.

And we're gonna bring all the ingredients together by shaking.

Yeah, yeah.

You like that?

So now we want to get all that goodness out.

Okay.

Oh wow.

Finally, the presentation part of the cocktail is very, very important.

Yeah.

And your garnish is gonna be a representation of usually what's in your drink, right?

Look at this.

Look at that.

And there you go.

He's a mixologist.

Oh man.

Cheers my friend.

What do we call this?

On The Town with Frank.

Love it.

On The Town with Frank.

This is great.

That's awesome, right?

Oh.

Wow!

That's awesome.

Well, Bootleg Greg, you are the man.

This is great.

Cheers my friend.

Thank you so much.

Today, we learned more about the rich influences Caribbean-American heritage has on the Palm Beaches.

Whether it's high energy dance, music, art, food or culture.

We hope you'll get out and explore everything that Palm Beach County has to offer.

Join us the next time we go on the town in the Palm Beaches with me, Frank Licari.

Look at that.

Right?

Right?

Right.

And now you... You just go around.

Well that's easy.

Five, six, seven, eight.

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I felt it right away.

I'll give you a little bit of this too.

I'll give a little bit of that too.

Come on!

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