By Steve Seepersaud
"The seeds of activism and being vocal about the issues that are important to me were definitely planted at Binghamton," Lucas said. "Race is very personal to me and experiencing racism and dealing with it is in the fabric of my life experience. In terms of formalizing my life experience and sharing that with others, it came about ― like for a lot of Black folks ― due to the post-George Floyd movement. For me, it brought along the opportunity to work with groups of people committed to unlearning and addressing their own proximity to racism."
Lucas was an adviser on Civil Rites directed by Andrea Luka Zimmerman; the British film starts with Martin Luther King’s speech when receiving his honorary doctorate from the University of Newcastle in 1967. The cine-poem explores how the core themes of poverty, racism and war continue to haunt our lives.
Lucas was a co-host of "Yoga Journey Conscience Conversations," a monthly online discussion about race and anti-racism. In addition, she has been an advisor to the University of Newcastle and other organizations, led discussions around race and anti-racism, and organized community and school events.
Last year, she published The Little Book of Peace (Gatekeeper Press), driven by the belief that world peace starts with the individual. It's more than a self-help book, according to Lucas, as making yourself happier needs to go a step further into everyday interactions with those closest to you.
"I am a practicing Nichiren Buddhist and I wanted to plant the seeds of Buddhist Philosophy in an accessible way that could be applied to day-to-day life."
Her current work follows an earlier career in hospitality, another area where she credits Binghamton because she waited tables at the Olive Garden on the Vestal Parkway during her student days. After moving to England in the late 1990s, Lucas developed a hospitality agency in England that worked with Twickenham Stadium, Wimbledon and the Ryder Cup.
Lucas had considered coming back to the United States; she was born in Oklahoma, raised in California and had lived in New York and Florida before moving to the United Kingdom. In search of a more favorable climate ― not necessarily in terms of weather, but race relations ― she settled in Barbados about two years ago. As she continues to write and work on a new book, The Fall of Innocence, she is tapping into her hospitality background. Visit Pebbles Beach in Bridgetown and you'll find Lucas and her Pop Up Coffee (PUC) stand.
"PUC was an unexpected treat for me personally, and filled an overdue gap in the tourism element on the island," Lucas said. "In Barbados, race horses are bathed in the early morning hours in the sea. This has been going on every day for nearly 20 years and has become quite the tourist attraction. It starts from about 5:30 a.m. I thought to myself, 'This is happening every morning and no one is selling coffee?' So, that's how it got started. It's definitely a far cry from the Olive Garden and with much better weather!"