Some people host events. Others build bridges. Monikah Lee builds architecture — not of steel or stone, but of narrative and connection. A broadcaster by trade and a cultural strategist by instinct, she has steadily positioned herself at the centre of how Jamaican stories are told in London and beyond.
Her trajectory is far from accidental. Raised between the UK and St. Elizabeth, Lee embodies the constant negotiation of diaspora life — the pull of home and the demand of foreign spaces. It is precisely this duality that sharpens her work: creating platforms where Jamaicans, wherever they reside, are not reduced to accents or stereotypes but elevated as curators of their own legacy.
That philosophy underpins her creation of the Jamaican Creative Network (JCN). More than a collective, it functions as an ecosystem where talent across music, literature, business, and wellness can collaborate without waiting for permission. JCN’s flagship programme, The Jamaica Series, isn’t staged for spectacle — it is built as a seasonal infrastructure for dialogue, skill-sharing, and visibility.
This year’s edition stretched across London in August, aligning with Jamaica’s Independence celebrations but refusing to play into nostalgia. Instead, it staged interrogations and celebrations side by side: from workshops on sound system culture to panels on identity and creativity in a global economy. A wellness day reminded participants that the preservation of culture also requires the preservation of body and mind.
What threads all of this together is Lee’s refusal to let Jamaica’s global story be outsourced. Even in her media work — including an exclusive conversation with dancehall artist Alkaline, breaking nearly a decade of silence — she approaches the mic less as interviewer and more as archivist, etching history in real time.
Her projects prove a wider point: cultural power doesn’t only sit in ministries or boardrooms. It lives in networks, events, and communities that choose to define themselves rather than be defined. And in that arena, Monikah Lee isn’t just participating. She’s drawing the blueprint.
