For those who have been waiting — there’s only a few days left to go before the launch of the Caribbean Mystics Podcast, a locally-based paranormal show that, on a deeper level, has given its founders a modern way of repurposing traditional stories that have been passed down within their families for generations.
Paulina Creque and Gabrielle Querrard, two ancestral Virgin Islanders, collaborated to develop the podcast, which will be available this Thursday on all streaming platforms. A chance meeting at a mutual friend’s birthday party helped form the connection, and when Creque later developed the idea for the show, she reached out immediately to Querrard, who had begun amassing a following on TikTok for her retelling of V.I. folktales.
TikTok, what it stood for, and the opportunities for exposure it offers its content creators made Querrard fall in love with the platform.
“I had no idea what avenues it would open up for me, and when Paulina reached out to me, it was the very first opportunity that came my way, by way of just making this content and not really knowing if it would do anything. Paulina’s vision of this podcast offered an avenue to carry this information to the next generations that are coming,” she said.
Growing up on St. Thomas, both women were exposed to urban folklore, myths and superstitions, which they can recount for hours. For Creque, one favorite is of her great-grandfather, who, according to family lore, discovered treasure on Norman Island. While some twists have been added over the years, Creque discovered as she grew older that there was truth to the narrative – a discovery that both she and Querrard have uncovered in many of the tales they explore.
“One of the stories my father would tell me is that my grandmother was walking behind Creque’s Alley when a large glass shattered behind her. My great-grandmother said, ‘oh my goodness, that’s a sign, that’s a superstition, and it implies that someone close to us is going to die.’ A day later, my grandfather passed away,” she said.
A V.I. and world history buff, Querrard’s father also passed down stories often left out of local textbooks.
“Growing up he had us pulling fish pots and bottom fishing. He had us doing a lot of the traditional things that our ancestors had done but at that point of time, they did it out of necessity, and now we were doing it out of homage, being able to feed yourselves, and a lot of celebrating these skills,” Querrard said.
He would teach their family various planting techniques, how to collect vegetables and the therapeutic applications of the plants in the garden. The stories, Querrard said, were always a significant aspect of her childhood.
The shared experience offered a natural segue into the podcast, and with both also sharing a fascination of the paranormal – particularly within Caribbean culture – the pair decided to shed light on parts of history many may not know, or that have been buried.
Interestingly, all of the tales on the podcast are based on actual occurrences and discoveries that have been passed down through generations or recalled from each narrator’s personal experience. The episodes will include both historical and cultural contexts and feature islands from all around the globe, with the goal of taking the listener on a trip around the region.
The first half of each episode includes the story, told “campfire-style,” with sound design, recounted by a narrator. In the second half, Creque and Querrard will delve deeper, exploring the background of each story and related paranormal theories, among other things.
“We want to get people excited about their own history and offer another context in which this information can be shared. Not everybody is a lover of reading or has access to books that carry this kind of information. Being a vehicle for information is going to be reflective of the culture and community here in this region,” Querrard said. “The digital footprint is necessary — we are moving toward a world that is highly focused on social media and the digitization of information. This is an opportunity for us to begin the side step into this world versus years down the line hoping someone touched on these stories.”
The podcast will be streamed on all platforms.
If you have any true supernatural stories set in the Caribbean, you can contact caribbeanmysticspodcast@gmail.com.
