Anika +Jason INTENTIONAL MODERN ROMANCE...

In our Summer 2023 issue, we got personal with Tony Award-winning actress Anika Noni Rose, best known for her role as the voice of Tiana from Disney’s “Princess and the Frog” and her husband, actor Jason Dirden , known for his role as Basie Skanks in “Greenleaf,” about the joy of intentional living, their romantic love story, and wedding highlights.

For our first-ever international destination cover shoot, the MunaLuchi team headed to the Dutch Caribbean island of Curaçao with a team of seasoned artists to create magic. Our cover couple, Jason and Anika, brought romance and affectionate vibes to our mini-moon-inspired fashion editorial. Their passion and love for one another are palpable through the photos and videos we were able to create together.

Fashion stylist Jason Rembert and his team Kirsten McGovern, and Jarrett Meilleur elevated the fashion story with colorful and trendy bridal and resort-chic looks for Jason and Anika. Anika’s makeup looks were dreamy and natural thanks to the artistry of Jamecca Dickerson and paired gracefully with gorgeously crafted natural hairstyles by Ryan Burrell.

We loved how it all turned out, and you’ll be able to relive each moment through the lenses of our accomplished photo and video team, Kareem and Sandy of Reem Photography and Homely and Brittany of Unleashed Visuals.

Shot on location at Sandals Royal Curaçao, the resort was the quintessential location to document the affection Anika and Jason have for one another. With their love for travel, culture, and exploration, there was no shortage of scenic backdrops and landscapes on the 44-acre resort to set the stage for each look. Sandals Royal Curaçao is truly a humbling escape, providing exquisite rooms and suites stretched along the Spanish Water Bay and Caribbean Sea, 11 dining options, white-sand beach and amongst the various water features, the bi-level Dos Awa infinity pool. Delight in this luxe editorial and read our exclusive interview with Anika and Jason!

Creative Team

Creative Direction: Jacqueline Nwobu, MunaLuchi Bride Magazine

Shot on Location: Sandals Royal Curaçao in Santa Barbara, Curaçao

Hairstylist: Ryan Burrell

Makeup Artist: Jamecca Dickerson

Wardrobe Styling: Jason Rembert (Kirsten McGovern - for Anika; Jarrett Meilleur - for Jason)

Photography: Kareem and Sandy Virgo

Cinematography: Homely Appolon and Brittany Blackshire

INTERVIEW BY JACQUELINE NWOBU

How did you two meet?

ANIKA: Well, we did a show together. We did A Raisin in the Sun on Broadway together. We became friends during the show. We had a lot of time that we spent together in rehearsal when we…

[Jason laughs]

Jackie: Oh, what's that laugh for?

JASON: Our scenes were always together. I didn't have scenes with anyone else but her. And we were, from my point of view, love interests…So you know, because of that, when I was in rehearsal, if I wasn't rehearsing or she wasn't rehearsing, then we were just either talking about the play or just getting to know each other on just a personal level.

ANIKA: It's true. My character had two boyfriends, so...

JACKIE: No way!

ANIKA: And then he was not chosen..

JASON: And that's the difference between play and reality.

[Everyone laughs]

ANIKA: Neither one of us were thinking about anything other than the platonic level of what that was. And we just got to know each other [and] enjoyed each other on stage. We had a great time, but we also had a good time talking, and we had lots of walking to do in the city, because he was staying in Jersey.

JASON: That was about 34, 35 blocks.

JACKIE: Wow!

JASON: Good conversation made it a little easier to make that trek. We had discovered so much about each other, particularly the number of people we had in common. She didn't know me at all. I think by chance she found out that she and my brother share a manager. But that's all she knew about me. But I think that kind of created this lightness and this comfort between us. We actually have some degrees of separation between us, and that's why the vibe is kind of easy between us, you know? We found out we had a similar spirit for humor...for selflessness.

This was 2014 when you met, right?

ANIKA: Yeah.

How long was this production for?

JASON: I think [in] total it was about 14 weeks with rehearsal and then performance.

After the production was over, what happens next?

ANIKA: We went our ways and we didn't really connect again till... about a year and a half, maybe. He was doing another show. I went and saw the show and we were like...huh.

So did you go and see the show because he was in it or did you just want to see it? Did you keep in touch?

ANIKA: Yeah. We kept in touch, but lightly.

JASON: The sweet thing about Anika is [that] she holds stuff close to her chest and she moves very stealthily. So I told her one day when we were doing A Raisin in the Sun , that if I ever had a chance to do a certain show, I would love to do it because there is a role that I really want to play. It just so happened that my brother was directing the show at and I was going to be playing THE role. The universe just happened. I didn't tell Anika that I was doing this. I didn't tell her anything… We're doing the show. We come down one night, I go backstage and Anika's backstage in the hall.

She just happened to be back there?

JASON: Just standing there, grinning. And in my mind…in that moment, I was like, okay, let's maybe try to discover what's here… that’s more than friendship.

JACKIE: Nice!

JASON: Clearly there's a connection between us and we had not really given it a chance. But if she's doing this, then I'm clear that she wants a brother.

[Jason laughs]

JASON: No, what I mean is I'm clear that she's open for the exploration of what could possibly be.

ANIKA: And I brought opening night gifts.

JASON: She did.

Oh, you brought gifts! What kind of gifts did you bring?

ANIKA: I made cheesecakes.

JASON: Cheesecake with...

ANIKA: Peanut M&Ms.

JASON: Peanut M&Ms on top.

JACKIE: I love the attention to detail!

JASON: And she remembered [that I love cheesecake]. So she brought little mini cheesecakes with peanut M&Ms.

Well, you had a great foundation to start off with just by talking. No expectations. Just conversation and vibes.

ANIKA: I think it's so important for people to give themselves time to make a friend and see who that person is. And also to know really clearly who you are before deciding to marry somebody... that's a big deal. [Relationships] need to start with some sort of firm foundation. We did a lot of talking. We did a lot of playing Scrabble. It was just easy getting to know each other without an agenda. And I think that's really because you can have a conversation and get to know somebody, but if you have an agenda, then you're going to be missing something.

JASON: We were able to discover so much about each other through not just asking questions, but through song. We would email each other songs.. "I really like this song. Do you know it? You should listen to it." And one of them was "Come Away With Me" by Nora Jones. It was one of the first songs that she emailed to me.

ANIKA: Because he loves music.

JASON: I love music

Do you play any music?

JASON: I do. Well, it's funny…

ANIKA: He can play spoons.

JASON: ... I grew up playing the saxophone. [I wanted] to be a worldfamous saxophone player. And that ended in ninth grade. I played from third grade to ninth grade. That's when I started acting. But I've always [had] an ear for musical instruments. Learned how to play the trumpet for a role. Had to learn how to play the harmonica for a role. Spoons. But I love, love, love music. And she does too.

ANIKA: And so we often played music in the show in the hallway while everybody was getting ready…usually on Sunday. It was almost a three-hour show. We did eight shows a week. By the time you hit Sunday, we were like...

JASON: Needed something to lift you up.

ANIKA: And so I would play Pharrell's "Happy" Blast it in the hallway so we could get everyone in a mood and just have a moment. We

Shirt/trousers by ETRO

Location: Oceanview Pavilion, Sandals Royal Curaçao really connected on music. And I would tell him different artists that I enjoyed [and would] ask if he knew about them. I think I introduced you to Gregory Porter.

JASON: You did. But it taught me so much about who she was and what her spirit was. There was nothing shallow about the music she was sending. It was deep, it was personal, it was warm, it was moving. The stories meant something, you know, you couldn't not be affected by what you were hearing in the music. She's a very intentional person. And if she allows you to be this close, she's speaking with her heart. So be careful with it. You know what I mean? All of that came through with the music that she was sharing.

That's beautiful. So 2016, you start dating, right? And did that continue or was there a gap before we got to where we are now?

JASON: Yeah, kind of…

ANIKA: We did have a gap.

So you took some time off. What was that spark that got the relationship back on track?

JASON: Yes. I cared deeply for Anika, and I was like, yes, let's really explore this. I knew internally, I wasn't ready mentally and emotionally to give our relationship what it deserved and what she deserved in a partner. And that's because I had come out of a long relationship, you know what I mean? There's a time period where you need to really be by yourself and recalibrate.

Recalibrate and rediscover.

ANIKA: ... You know, I think that when you're talking about healing, very often that is a journey that you have to take on your own because you can't see clearly when there's extra noise. So you know, it has to be a singular motion for healing.

So when did you get back together?

ANIKA: It took a minute.

JASON: It took a minute. It took over a year. And I was okay with that. And I told her, I said, take whatever time you need because I understand. But I was never going to close that door again until she closed it and locked it…

That's beautiful. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be, you know?

JASON: ... When we moved forward together, it was like the music she was giving me...it was very intentional. There was a reason behind it. We both understood what we were coming out of and going into as individuals and as teammates.

You were dating through the pandemic then, right?

ANIKA: Yeah, we actually moved in together right before the pandemic.

JASON: Yeah, like three months before.

ANIKA: We were really lucky. We were in a small house. We had a really nice backyard. We were both in LA, so it was a neighborhood that had fruit everywhere. I don't think I bought a piece of citrus. I would just walk around in the evening and pick lemons.

JASON: Stealing fruit.

[Jason laughs]

ANIKA: They would put lemons and limes and oranges in baskets and just put them out and say "free." I picked berries. I picked so many things, which is something that makes me very happy. God provides.

[Anika smiles]

ANIKA: If I can pick a piece of sustenance from a tree or a bush, it makes me exquisitely happy. So there was horror happening but we also had the calm and the nurturing that is nature. We could just go sit in the grass and turn on some music. It was very therapeutic.

I love that! At what point, Jason, did you feel like, "I want to propose"? At what point did you say, "I want to take this to the next level"?

JASON: She started talking about rings. Not in the sense of getting married, but she would share Instagram pictures.

ANIKA: Now, mind you...I want to say very clearly that it was not a passive-aggressive hint of anything. I mean, what did you do during the pandemic but look at Instagram?

[Everyone laughs]

JACKIE: Right What did you do? Content overload.

ANIKA: Rings would pop up. I looked at rings. We looked at houses. We are big house lookers on Instagram. That doesn't mean I'm about to buy a mansion.

JASON: I'm thinking, well, there’s a lot happening right now. When I started to make decisions about things, I would have her in mind. And I didn't mind having her in mind. It was no longer just about my path. So all of those conversations, those happenings, the moving in together, the DM-ing or forwarding of rings, or dresses or pictures…

ANIKA: I didn't forward him not one thing!

[Jason laughs]

JASON: She didn't.

How did you find out what Anika would like in terms of rings?

JASON: As a man, when I propose…when I get the ring… I wanted to do it all on my own and pop up with it. You know what I mean? But she is very particular about what she wears, especially something that she's going to wear for the rest of her life. From that standpoint, I didn't want the moment to be ruined by making a bad choice. So we decided to do most of it together...

JACKIE: So something more custom and unique, right?

JASON: Yeah. She really spearheaded the design, and I was a teammate on it. We settled on a few things.

ANIKA: And then, I stepped away.

JASON: It was so much fun as opposed to feeling anxiety about choosing the right ring. You know what I mean?

Absolutely! Once you finally did settle on something that spoke to your heart, how did you plan this proposal? Was it a surprise?

ANIKA: Yes!

He actually did surprise you?

ANIKA: I'm a difficult person to surprise.

That's what I was gathering! I don't know how you pulled this off. How did you pull this off Jason?

JASON: I know Anika's spirit. It’s the same as mine in that we don't like the spotlight on us like that. I wasn't going to do a huge, public thing. That was never going to be a possibility. We had this conversation out of the blue. She was like, "Jason, if and when you propose to me, you don't have to do it on any kind of major holiday. Not Valentine's Day, not my birthday…Let that day be that day. Do it on a random day.” I chose Christmas.

JACKIE: What?! Is Christmas not a holiday?

JASON: Well here's why. Number one, I knew she wouldn't assume that it was going to happen on Christmas because we had that conversation. Number two, this is 2021. We're still not really traveling. I want, at least my family and her family to be a part of it. For the last couple of years, my family has been doing a Zoom Secret Santa. She's been taking part in it. I called up her dad, her mom, and her brother. And then I called my dad and we talked and told him my plans. The two nights before Christmas, I'm up at 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning. I'm getting out of bed. She was like, 'What's wrong?' I say, 'I can't sleep and I don't want to toss and turn and disturb you.' She's a light sleeper. 'I'm going to go downstairs and watch TV.' What she didn't know was that I was staying up till 3:00, 4:00 in the morning putting together a video of pictures of our excursions throughout our time together. From the moment we met in the Raisin in the Sun up until 2021…putting it all together. I had Nora Jones' "Come Away With Me" underscoring it all.

On Zoom, it's myself and of course, we're together. My parents are on there, my brothers, my sisters, and everyone who's part of the Secret Santa. We're all having fun. All of a sudden, Anika looks up and her dad pops up on the Zoom. Her mom pops up on the Zoom, and her brother pops up on the Zoom. Some mutual friends that we love pop up on the Zoom. We are all on the Zoom. She's like, 'Daddy, Mama, wait a minute!' That's when I play the video.

ANIKA: It was beautiful.

Oh, you got her!

JASON: I got her. I got myself, too. I could barely get the words out. I was crying. It was one of those moments where you are watching yourself, because it was, again...it was very intentional. An intentional move forward. Until it actually happens, you can't believe it's happening. You can't believe you're having the privilege of it actually happening. I'm watching myself barely getting these words out. I had a much longer speech to give. I was like,'"Will you marry me?'

ANIKA: It was lovely. It was very beautiful. He's a great editor. It was so thoughtful, and beautiful and surprising. Pictures that I didn't even know he still had. And then, to put that song there, which was the first song that I sent saying, 'Hey, do you know this artist? She's fantastic. I love this song.' For that to become the song, it was really beautiful.

Well done, Jason! So you went from the proposal to a quick turnaround for the wedding, or what was the transition from that? How much time did you have to plan and how was the planning process?

ANIKA: In a perfect world, we had what, a year? The wedding was October, 2022. However, I booked a show so I was in New York shooting from January through June. By the time I really got back to LA, it was mid-August. We had planned nothing, because... there was no way I could get away from the show to do those things. At first, we were thinking of doing it on the East Coast, because I'm an East Coast girl. Maybe, on the vineyard, because that's where my family has spent our summers. We realized that there were too many things that were going to make that difficult for people. We were not going to do Houston. Rain, heat and cold...

Were you in Houston? Why Houston? Do you have family there?

JASON: I'm from Houston. My immediate family is in Houston.

ANIKA: Okay, well, California. We'll find somewhere in California. We had no idea where, and visited a couple of places. The place that we ended up with, we saw by accident, almost. His friend said, 'I went to a wedding here recently.' We looked it up online, and we went and looked at the place. It was a gorgeous 1920s estate called The Paramour.

JASON: Because she was working until early July, and I was in New York working for a little bit, by the time we could concentrate on planning, it was the end of July.

ANIKA: We had eight weeks!

JASON: We desperately wanted the wedding outside.

ANIKA: That was important. So we asked what dates [they] had. We had five dates to choose from, and we were like, we'll take this one. And we made it work. We made it happen and we did a lot of things ourselves, which I think we would've done anyway. We did have a wedding coordinator. She didn't live in California, she lives in Philly... Stacey Thomas of The Philadelphia Wedding Chapel.

JASON: She was great. Really, really, really great.

ANIKA: I ordered things from Etsy. I loved it. I ordered bubbles and we had ribbons with our names and the dates. I ordered bow ties for the young boys in the wedding, and a regular tie for my dad, so everybody had the same color. I bought the flower girl's basket and spray-painted it the color the exact color I wanted.

Simple and elegant. I love how you incorporated so many DIY elements thoughtfully.

ANIKA: We did all of these things. We ordered amazing chocolate from a company called Fine and Raw out of Brooklyn. It's dark chocolate and it's made with oat milk. It was delicious. I ordered tiny bars for our wedding favors, because I didn't want people to take home stuff that they're like, what I'm going to do with this? And I found an artist… Jennifer L. Meyer ...I've been following her on Twitter for some time. She does [illustrations] of beautiful, whimsical little animals and sweet things [and] we wanted a fox because Jason sort of looks like a fox.

JASON: She told me that about eight years ago. And I just ran with it.

ANIKA: So we wanted a fox riding a bicycle, because we love to ride bikes. That's something we did during the pandemic. We did it in New York as well. She painted this whimsical portrait of a fox riding an old school bicycle [with a] basket full of roses. It's stunning. And we turned it into the welcome sign.

JACKIE: Beautiful.

ANIKA: And we also had it put on the labels of the chocolate bar with our names and the dates of the wedding.

JASON: This word, intentional...We are so intentional about how we move, and if we're going to have something, it has to be of us. Not just nice, not just because your aesthetic for what's beautiful and wonderful may be great, but if it's not our spirit, it's not of us. So even if we had an on-location planner, we still would've been there every single step of the way to try to customize [our wedding] around what [works for both of us].

So what flavors were the cake?

ANIKA: So I love vanilla. Maria my cousin, is an amazing baker, and she was like, well can I do raspberry filling? I was like, nooo you can't, because I hate it. But I said, what about apricot? I love apricot and it's something that's not too sweet. So she created some apricot filling and a white chocolate frosting decorated with real flowers and goldleaf. But really softly, not aggressively. Really soft and beautifully placed. And she baked that cake in Massachusetts and FedExed it.

JACKIE: FedExed the cake?

ANIKA: Yep. I put it in the freezer. She flew out three days before the wedding with 30 pounds of buttercream in her luggage and decorated the cake the morning of the wedding.

JACKIE: She had to bring her own buttercream? It was that good.

ANIKA: Brought the buttercream. It was amazing. It was so delicious.

Her name is Maria B. Rose of The Tiered Bake Shoppe in Boston.

JASON: People enjoyed it so much that the night of the wedding we left the venue and realized, oh, we forgot the top tier of the cake that we're supposed to save and freeze. The next day we go back to get the top tier ...half of that tier is gone!

JACKIE: Who ate it?

JASON: I don't know. But they're smiling and they're happy and still talking about it.

JASON: My mom has always made cookies my whole life. She's known as ‘The Cookie Lady.’ And so I asked her, instead of having a groom’s cake, I said, Mom, can I get groom's cookies? I want you to make them for the wedding. So she made probably 300 cookies. Oatmeal, chocolate chip and white puff cookies…

ANIKA: It was fantastic. I got somebody that I met on a show to choreograph our dance for us. Her name is Brittany P. Russell. She's amazing. She's an actor, dancer and choreographer. But what Jason didn't know is that I went to a producer's house and I rerecorded the song with my vocals.

JASON: "Come Away With Me "

ANIKA: That's the song that we danced to.

So when the song came on, Jason, what did you feel when you heard Anika's voice?

JASON: It was layered, right…So number one was…I was so concentrated on the moves. I didn't recognize it right away. And then there's a line she sings "on a bus" and it's the way she sang "on a bus". I was so shocked.

JACKIE: She got you.

JASON: Yes, yes. She got me to the point where I froze for half a second. And was like wait a minute. I can't mess up this dance. I was so moved because I know how private Anika is and how private our relationship has been. So for her to open up and be that vulnerable and share that gift for me in front of our guests was special.She got me.

ANIKA: Yeah. And by then I’d changed into my reception dress which was designed and created in two weeks.

JASON: Yes, it was.

Your reception dress was made in two weeks?! Same designer or different designer?

ANIKA: No, designed by Simin, of Simin Couture . She's amazing, and a beautiful spirit. I was very lucky with the dresses and designers that I had. Both Simin and Alonuko ! I just feel so grateful. I had my new dress and I came out and we did the dance and it was just lovely. There was a gorgeous pool in the back, and that's where cocktail hour was. And we had our quartet there, and they were amazing. They were playing both contemporary music and classical music mixed in.

It sounds like it was everything that you wanted and more.

ANIKA: It was.

JASON: And so much more.

And you did all of this on your terms without anyone telling you what timeline and what budget you were supposed to abide by. You did it your way and everyone had a great time, and you speak about it with so much joy. I can just tell it was truly one of the best days of your lives. You actually had a wedding and enjoyed the wedding.

ANIKA: It was fun! One of my closest friends, Colman Domingo, officiated. And we ate! People were like, oh, the couple never gets to eat. I was like, oh, not this Bride.

JASON: Yeah, it was what we wanted…we wanted it to be classy, but [approachable]. You know what I mean? We wanted [our guests] to be a part of it.

ANIKA: [We wanted] for it to be a tactile experience. Which is one reason why that estate was so amazing because it's sort of like a museum. I wanted people to have space to move around. In the reception room, framed pictures of ourselves through the years were placed throughout. That was part of the decor…fairy lights...electric candles. And Stacy Thomas , who was the Coordinator was really helpful in that. There was a huge fireplace and she filled that with tiered candles. She just did a lovely, lovely job bringing all of what we wanted together.

So beautiful! So how did the two of you keep your relationship private?

JASON: We weren't hiding, but because we're private people and we know how this business and how social media works...one little kernel of information [gets out] and people run with it thinking they know you. We're us, we're together, and that's that. So the day that we planned was…...It felt like a wedding was happening, and everyone was looking on through a window...an open window, and people were leaning through. And we were happy about it. It was our one opportunity…

JACKIE: To give a glimpse?

JASON: To be us without any type of inhibitions. We were just us, and I think we felt safe because of who was there and the spirit that was there, and in turn, that allowed everyone else to be themselves. It was more than beautiful. It was freeing and satisfying.

ANIKA: And it truly felt magical. It felt…I don't know. It felt blessed in the moment.

ANIKA: And the reason we kept it private and we kept our relationship private was because we didn't want a third party in the relationship. We didn’t want to be a throuple with the public. We wanted to be able to know ourselves as ourselves and learn who we were as a unit on our own…They're not paying attention the way you think they are. They're looking…but not really paying attention. So we didn't do anything extravagant. I didn't wear the ring around Los Angeles.

JACKIE: Of course.

ANIKA: And we're not really huge PDA people anyway.

JASON: But also I think what really helps is that these are all things that we communicated.

JACKIE: You guys were on the same page.

JASON: Yes, absolutely. We were very open about how we should move.

And so, now you're married. What was the transition like right after that? Did you have jobs that you were going right into? Or did you have some time to kind of just be together?…I know you had just finished working.

ANIKA: So that was a week after the wedding. The night of the wedding, after we helped everybody get back to their hotel, we got extra cookies.

[Anika laughs]

JASON: We drove to Palm Spring.

ANIKA: I call it a mini-moon. We knew that wasn't going to be the real thing, but it was something to make it feel real. And he planned all that. It was a whole retreat. And it was so peaceful and nice.

JASON : And right after that we went to Tahiti to The Brando.

Was Tahiti the actual honeymoon?

JASON AND ANIKA: Yes.

Who picked Tahiti? Did you pick together?

ANIKA: I did. I don't think we're finished honeymooning. It was short. Not like teensy, but I think we're going to do some more traveling too. It was really nice. It was breathtaking. And God, it was the most beautiful water. We were on a private island. It felt divine. And we rang in the new year.

What are some of your favorite things to do together? I know you love music. And I think you're foodies, right?

JASON: I like good food, but I can eat the same thing five days in a row. She can't. Anika sees food as an experience.

JACKIE: Yeah. It's an experience. It's family. It's bringing people together.

ANIKA: And it's an expression of love as well. And I think we know that here in America, but we also have a culture of fast food…I just want it to be good. I want it to be an experience. I want to take a bite and be like, 'Oh my goodness, I've never tasted this before.' And I love experiencing other people's cultures through food. I think you really get to know people differently that way. So that's my journey through food. When I go somewhere, it's very rare that I stay in one spot. I'm out. I'm like, 'Where are the people-'

So, who cooks?

JASON: We share the responsibility. I cook more now. And actually, I enjoy it more. I was able to survive on my own. I would cook, but simple stuff to eat. But she finds those kinds of mundane meals boring, so I experiment.

JACKIE: You gotta spice it up!

ANIKA: I love cooking. I follow the New York Times cooking section, and I try to make something new every week. There was a time where I was making a couple things a week.

JASON: We love to watch baking shows as well.

What's the most recent baking show you've watched?

JASON: Summer Baking Championship.

ANIKA: Yeah, we love the Kid's Baking Championship! Love it. Some of those kids are amazing.

JASON: We also like to go to open houses. Even if we're not actively looking for a home, we’ll just go pop up at an open house, and judge it. Like, 'Why would they do that?' Or, 'If we bought this house, we would do this.'

[Everyone laughs]

ANIKA: We do a lot of serious walking.

JASON: We do.

ANIKA: I'm a walker. And I think I started walking even more during COVID. I called it my mental health walk because I would wake up early around 5:30am to do it. I love to walk. And I've gotten him into walking. And I love to travel.

If you can travel anywhere today, where would you go?

JASON: Well, we want to go to Japan. We would love to go during the cherry blossom season.

ANIKA: We’d like to go to Ghana. And Madagascar. And Seychelles. I’d like to go everywhere in Africa…all the countries that I can go to, I want to go. But we also want to go to go to Iceland. Oh…we would like to see the tulips in Amsterdam because we went once, and we missed tulips by a couple weeks.

JASON: She wants to experience the world and all of its people.

JACKIE: Yeah. Do it while you can. Why not?

ANIKA: That's part of my why my Instagram handle became anikaaroundtheworld . I was lucky, traveling with work. I've been to places with my job, where I may have never gone otherwise. I've been to Vietnam and had an amazing time in Vietnam that wasn't for work. Curaçao was really lovely. It was fantastic.

Yeah, getting out to see the culture and the people is really, really special there in Curaçao. It's very interesting.

JASON: Absolutely.

ANIKA: It's always thrilling to me where we find Black people, because I think that the world tries to tell us that we only exist in certain spaces. And we can be found everywhere. And learning different parts of who we are in the diaspora is fantastic.

JACKIE: Yes, absolutely. Absolutely.

While you were in Curaçao for the shoot, you saw a shooting star! Tell me more about that experience.

ANIKA: [gasps]

JASON: She really did.

ANIKA: I had never seen a shooting star before. I was in the pool at night, and there were only four of us in the pool. We were having a conversation. I went, 'Oh, it's a shooting star!' And nobody else saw it.

JASON: We were all looking for it.

ANIKA: It was so beautiful. I don't know...it just made the trip. Which was a perfect trip, by the way. Thank you.

JACKIE: Thank you.

ANIKA: It was a perfect group of people. It was so much fun and joyous. It was like the capper. It was like somebody took a champagne bottle and went [pop].

JASON: It really was.

And so, on that note, what's your wish? What's something that you'd like to tell Jason? Your wish for this marriage, and for your life together. And Jason, you do the same for Anika.

ANIKA: Ooh. I wish for us to have longevity, joyous longevity, and prosperous longevity. Not just monetarily, but spiritually prosperous. I hope that we always are able to talk to each other, listen to each other, hear each other. And I wish us a lifetime of adventure.

JASON: That was beautiful. Oh my gosh. Oh, man. I wish for us that we remain just like the music that we used to send to each other...intentional and full of heart.

That’s so beautiful.Thank you so much, Jason and Anika, for participating in this editorial shoot!

ANIKA AND JASON: Thank you so much, Jackie. This is not something that either one of us thought that we would be doing. And I have to say, that it is due to the care that you take with the magazine. We felt like it would be a safe space. Thank you for making it a safe space, and for being interested in our journey, and our story, and who we actually are. We had a great time in Curaçao

"I wish for us to have longevity…joyous longevity, and prosperous longevity. Not just monetarily, but spiritually prosperous. I hope that we always are able to talk to each other, listen to each other, hear each other. And I wish us a lifetime of adventure ." -