Keita Charles honoured with Caribbean American Heritage Award on Long Island

Trinidadian-American businessman Keita Charles has said he felt deeply honoured after being named among the recipients of the Caribbean American Heritage Award in Nassau County, Long Island.

“Receiving the Caribbean American Heritage Honor was a truly humbling and meaningful experience for me,” Charles told Caribbean Life on Friday, July 17, after the presentation at The Reckson Center at the Museums at Mitchel – Cradle of Aviation in Garden City.

The ceremony was backed by Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, the Nassau County Office of Minority Affairs, Caribbean Business Connections, and Team Jamaica Bickle.

“I felt proud to be recognized as a Trinidadian-American and grateful that my work, values, and commitment to the community were acknowledged,” said Charles, a Morehouse College alumnus who is also a father, entrepreneur and community advocate. His career has spanned real estate, banking compliance, marketing and business development.

In a more recent role, Charles collaborated with Schneps Media and Caribbean Life to help neighbourhood businesses and civic groups raise their profiles through print and digital platforms, advertising and strategic marketing campaigns.

He said he continues to champion Caribbean culture, back entrepreneurs and open pathways for others in the community.

“The honor also gave me an opportunity to reflect on my journey as a father, entrepreneur, and man of faith,” Charles said. “I was thankful for the family members, mentors, friends and supporters who encouraged me along the way, and helped shape the person I became.

“I accepted the honor with gratitude and pride, knowing that it represented more than my individual accomplishments,” he added. “It represented my heritage, my community, and my continued responsibility to inspire, serve and create opportunities for others.”

Among the other recipients was Patricia Chin — widely known as “Miss Pat” — the celebrated Jamaican businesswoman, music trailblazer and co-founder of VP Records. Over more than 60 years she has brought reggae and dancehall to listeners around the globe, building a modest Kingston shop into one of the Caribbean’s most consequential music firms.

“Miss Pat’s vision, determination and dedication have made her a respected cultural icon and a powerful example for women in business,” Charles said.

Also honoured was Andrew Morris, a Jamaican-born businessman who co-founded and leads Sam’s Caribbean Marketplace in West Hempstead, Long Island. Together with his wife, Jean, he launched the family enterprise in 1993 and has since widened access to genuine Caribbean foods and goods for shoppers across the United States and overseas. Morris is likewise regarded as a community figure devoted to sustaining Caribbean culture through enterprise, civic work and learning.

Drawing on Trinidadian roots and a Morehouse education, Charles has spent over 20 years in real estate, advertising sales, compliance, entrepreneurship and civic involvement. He is known for linking people, openings and concepts deliberately — whether assisting households with property deals, guiding firms toward multicultural markets, advancing advertising efforts for Caribbean Life and Schneps Media, or pursuing new work in AI marketing. In all of that, he said he applies “strategy, heart, and hustle.”

As a committed father, sibling, son and person of faith, Charles said he holds that “true success is measured not by personal achievement alone, but by legacy — by the doors opened, the bridges built, and the ground made firmer for the generation that follows.” Living by the saying that “one hand can’t clap,” he frames his efforts around partnership, lifting others and business practice that respects culture.

Charles said his career has never been “a straight road.” Moving from banking compliance into real estate, then media sales and business development, he has shown a capacity to adjust, renew himself and press ahead. In his words, that path mirrors “the determination carried by so many Caribbean-American families who arrived on these shores with faith, ambition and a plan.”

He now presents himself as embodying Caribbean-American progress that is commercially driven, family-oriented, culturally confident and community-minded. Recognition during Caribbean American Heritage Month, he said, speaks not only to his own record but to the ancestors, elders, mentors and neighbours who formed him, “because Caribbean Americans have always contributed far more than food, music, and carnival energy.

“They have brought leadership, entrepreneurship, education, creativity, and a work ethic that commands respect,” Charles said, describing his heritage as a “foundation.” He said he navigates life “through the world the way Caribbean people always have — with grace under pressure, fire in the vision, and an unshakable belief that what was built with sacrifice deserves to be celebrated.

“The work continues, the legacy grows, and the culture wins.”