Easter 2013

A Marcus Garvey Primer: Preparedness

The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Frederica Wilson, Congressional Representative and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897

Thank you for your support.

A Marcus Garvey Primer: Power

The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Frederica Wilson, Congressional Representative and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey

We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897
Thank you for your support.

Book Launch: IRKI by Kadija Sesay

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The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Frederica Wilson, Congressional Representative and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey

We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897
Thank you for your support.

Call for Submissions: Tough Times in America

Call for Submissions

There are millions of Americans from all walks of life who are going through a tough time. Many have been severely affected by the economic recession and can neither pay their bills, nor afford the basics such as food and medicine. Our anthology, Tough Times in America, aims to provide a platform for telling these stories. 

We will accept true stories, as well as “fictionalized” versions of real life events.  This collection aims to preserve and document narrative accounts of the anger, fear and frustration that most Americans are feeling due to the recession which has resulted in massive job losses, loss of homes, loss of healthcare, reduced retirement benefits, etc. 

We also hope to document the hope and gratitude that bloom even in the midst of despair—true testaments to the tenacity of the human spirit.  Significantly, we would like this collection to reflect the diversity of America in the 21^st century, and so we welcome submissions from people from all ethnicities, racial, cultural and socio-economic backgrounds.

Submissions for Flash fiction should be between 1200 and 1500 words, and traditional stories must be between 10000 and 15000 words in length, typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman or similar sized font (12 point), and more).

Stories must be previously unpublished in any form, including print, web etc. Each story should be identified within the geographic location/landmark of the city in which it is set. We want to show that these experiences are common to many Americans, regardless of race and ethnicity, so the cultural component is vital. We welcome established as well as unpublished writers who would like to represent their experiences or the experiences of their friends and loved ones. Deadline for submissions is August 29, 2013.

Please send your submissions to: Max Freesney Pierre: (prrmax@yahoo.com) Donna Aza Weir-Soley: (weirsole@yahoo.com) (weirsole@fiu.edu).

Donna Aza Weir Soley is an Associate Professor of English at Florida International University. Dr. Weir-Soley is the author of First Rain, a poetry collection, Eroticism, Spirituality, and Resistance in Black Women’s Writings, and co-editor of Caribbean Erotic. 

Max Freesney Pierre is a former Administrator and College Adjunct Professor of Education at Miami-Dade College. Pierre is a poet/writer/journalist, the author of Tambours de la Mêlée, Fée Caraïbe, Soul Traveler and Le chant de l’apaisement.

A Marcus Garvey Primer: Poverty

The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Frederica Wilson, Congressional Representative and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey
We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897

Thank you for your support.

A Marcus Garvey Primer: Purpose

The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Frederica Wilson, Congressional Representative and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey
We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897
Thank you for your support.

Jamaica Ex-Police Association of South Florida, Inc. Scholarship Programme

Jamaica Ex-Police Association of South Florida, Inc.

SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAMME

Requirements for Awarding Scholarship

The Goal

The Organization will award to an individual annually, a one-time scholarship, to encourage the recipient to achieve a higher educational standard. (The association will determine the value amount.)

The Objective

• Show community involvement.
• Encourage, and show commitment to the achievement of higher education by members of the community.
• Project a positive image of the association.

Criteria for obtaining scholarship: (Local - USA)

• Applicant should be a lawful resident of the tri-county:  Palm Beach, Broward, or Dade County.
• Applicant should provide proof of residency.
• Applicant should be an undergraduate student in a 2-4 year college, or should have already been accepted in a 2-4 year institution.
• Applicant should write a 2-page essay stating why he/she should be awarded this scholarship. Essay should be typed in size 12 Font, and double spaced.
• Applications should be submitted by March 25, 2013.

Procedure: 

1.      Advertisement will be done through community news release, print media, or electronic means.

2.      Committee will review applications and choose, based on academics, aptitude and community involvement.

3.      Selection will be made by April 1, and the recipient informed by April 6, 2013.

4.      Presentation will be made at the annual ball, where the recipient and one chaperone will be invited guests. 

5.      The president or his designee will make the presentation.

Criteria for Scholarship: (JAMAICA)

Applicant must be accepted in, or is a high school student.

Money awarded can ONLY be used to purchase school supplies (books, uniforms etc).

Disbursement should be “as needed for the period of 1 year.”

Disbursement is to be administered by the principal of the recipient’s school with a report on expenditures.

Selection is made by the Police Community Relations Department. (It is recognized that officers from the department are drawn from all divisions and selection should not exclude any division)

Award is to be made to the recipient at the police station refurbishing project. 

A reception will be held late afternoon on the day the project is implemented. The 2013 project is scheduled for Thursday May 30, 2013, at the Siloah Police Station, St. Elizabeth.  

The Community Relation personnel is to monitor performance, and disbursements.

Contingent on continued disbursement, awardee must be attending school, and performing within a reasonable standard.

Failing (8) above, Community Relations Officer can make representation to Jamaica Ex-Police Association of South Florida, Inc. for scholarship to be withdrawn.

(10) Based on a recommendation another awardee will be identified, and receive partial scholarship for remainder of the school year or funds whichever is appropriate.

Awards committee: Prof. Eulett McKnight-Samms: (305) 237-8125;

Ms. Jasmine Martin (954) 610-8042 ; & Roy Bennett (954) 297-8777.

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Renowned Nigerian author Chinua Achebe dies | NewsDay Zimbabwe

“Achebe’s global significance lies not only in his talent and recognition as a writer, but also as a critical thinker and essayist who has written extensively on questions of the role of culture in Africa and the social and political significance of aesthetics and analysis of the postcolonial state in Africa,” Brown University writes of the literary icon.

Mr. Achebe was the author of Things Fall Apart, published in 1958, and considered the most widely read book in modern African Literature. The book sold over 12 million copies and has been translated to over 50 languages worldwide.


Renowned Nigerian author Chinua Achebe dies | NewsDay Zimbabwe:

'via Blog this'

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The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Frederica Wilson, Congressional Representative and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey
We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897

Thank you for your support.

Book Review: Huracan by Diana McCaulay

"White gal!" the barefoot man shouted, pointing at her with a half empty bottle of white rum. He wore a vest and torn shorts and his eyes glared. Leigh McCaulay turned her head away--it was a familiar, damning description echoing from her childhood. She watched the traffic light, which remained on red (11).

In Diana McCaulay's latest novel, Huracan, the phrase "white gal" serves as a catalyst for Leigh McCaulay, the protagonist, to reconcile the atrocities of white colonialism with her relationship to the landscape and black people of Jamaica. Taking its title from the Taino word for "storm," the novel weaves together two centuries of reimagined family history and uses the leitmotif of the hurricane to explore the complexity of white identity in a black nation.

From the first encounter with the barefoot man, the racial tensions are evident. In an interesting list of adjectives that suggests moral equivalency, Leigh cannot find the correct word to describe him: "He tipped the bottle of white rum to his head and Leigh could see his throat muscles working. How to describe him -- poor man, sufferer, black man, rum head, bhuto, Jamaican man?" (11). The "light which remained on red" also serves as an apt metaphor for Leigh's connection to the island. Since childhood, Leigh has been stuck in emotional paralysis, unable to resolve her relationship with black Jamaicans. In her childhood, it was easier to disappear: "Then she had burned her skin in the sun, hoping to pass for brown, wanting unremarked passage" (22).

However, with the mysterious death of her mother and return from America, Leigh contends with the familiar contradictions: "In Jamaica, people like her had the freedom of an abundant land, but in America she had the freedom to be one of the people" (39). Added to this is Leigh's outsider status as prodigal.

"Fine, Father," she said.  "It's good to be home." This last statement was expected. Jamaicans who had never left the island expected deference from the prodigals. They, the faithful, had stuck it out -- the politics, the crime, the poverty. The flirtation with socialism, the austerity programmes, the empty supermarket shelves. They had not run. They had not had the benefit of a foreign education. They were the born yahs, grow yahs, never left yahs. They were the tough ones, the ones who deserved Jamaica (26).

As she begins to reacclimate herself with Jamaican life and the details of her mother's death, Leigh becomes romantically involved with Danny, a young black Jamaican man. She crosses the "color line" that her forebears, Zachary McCaulay, a bookkeeper on a sugar plantation, and John McCaulay, a Baptist missionary, had to confront in the course of their family's history in the island. All three characters must resolve their status within a system of white privilege--sometimes at the cost of their humanity. Throughout the novel, Leigh and her ancestors make the mistake of transgressing the trappings of white privilege and have to be reminded of their position in society

"So," Bannister said, "how are you finding Fortress?"

"Quiet. Few people at service last Sunday. No horse available here -- I'll have to make a trip to Falmouth for that I'm told."

"You should do that as soon as possible. It's unseemly for you to be seen walking. You'll never gain the natives' respect if you're seen on foot too often" (129).

If crossing the "color line" revealed the characters' conflicts with the culture, then their encounters with hurricanes exposed their deepest motivations. The hurricane unmasks the characters' compassion or lack.  The eye of the hurricane is a moment of transformation, and in the case of Zachary McCaulay, the cause of his epiphany comes from an unlikely source, Madu, the African:

         "Wait!" he said. "I telt ye, I will buy your freedom. Dinna risk the forest and the Maroons. Come back wi me and I will tell them what happened. Please."

         "You caan' buy me freedom," she said. "Not fi you to buy.' She left him then and in seconds he could not see her, nor hear her passing. He had not told her he was grateful (237).

Madu, or Victoria, as the planters would like to call her, represents the indomitable African spirit than runs counter to the façade of white privilege of the plutocracy. Madu will not be a slave. Zachary's recognition of Madu's humanity leads him to other discoveries which are similar to Leigh's after her experience of the hurricane: "Jamaicans--we Jamaicans -- she thought, we tek serious ting and mek joke" (284).

The code shifting from Standard English to patwa is pitch perfect and signals Leigh's' movement from paralysis to wholeness. She can identify with Jamaica's story and has written herself into the narrative of the island.

Huracan is a courageous novel. McCaulay's deft characterizations and ability to weave of plot lines across two centuries demonstrate her talents as a remarkable storyteller and witness to uncomfortable truths. Huracan reminds us that in the midst of slavery there were individuals who were willing to transgress the boundaries of the color line and claim their humanity--a lesson that Leigh McCaulay learns in the present and which sets her free.

A Marcus Garvey Primer: "One God, One Aim, One Destiny."

The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Frederica Wilson, Congressional Representative and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey

We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897
Thank you for your support.

A Marcus Garvey Primer: Nationhood

The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Frederica Wilson, Congressional Representative and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey

We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897
Thank you for your support.

The Folio Prize

The Folio Prize is the first major English language book prize open to writers from around the world. Its aim is simple: to celebrate the best fiction of our time, regardless of form or genre, and to bring it to the attention of as many readers as possible.

Through The Folio Prize Academy, an international group of people who write, review and delight in books, it will discover and promote excellence in writing, encouraging people to put great literature at the centre of their lives.


The Folio Prize is open to all works of fiction written in English and published in the UK. All genres and all forms of fiction are eligible. The format of first publication may be print or digital.


For more information, please follow this link: http://www.thefolioprize.com/

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Miami Dade College needs local tax to remain ‘dream factory’

Miami Dade College needs local tax to remain ‘dream factory’ - Other Views - MiamiHerald.com:


BY NORMAN BRAMAN AND BOB MARTINEZ
BOB@COLSON.COM



Opportunity is the bedrock of our nation. And, nothing better exemplifies that opportunity than the prospect of a college education. In our community, Miami-Dade College provides that opportunity to almost two-thirds of our high school graduates each year.

MDC serves more than 175,000 students annually, making it the largest institution of higher education in the U.S. It is also our nation’s largest producer of associate degrees, and graduates more Hispanic and African-American students than any other institution of higher education in the nation.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/03/16/3288717/miami-dade-college-needs-local.html#storylink=cpy


'via Blog this'

A Marcus Garvey Primer: Man

The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Frederica Wilson, Congressional Representative and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey

We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897
Thank you for your support.

2013 OCM Bocas Prize Shortlist Announced

2013 OCM Bocas Prize shortlist announced:


Writers from St. Lucia, Trinidad and Tobago, and Guyana have made the shortlist for the 2013 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, sponsored by One Caribbean Media.

From a longlist of ten impressive titles in the poetry, fiction, and non-fiction categories, the prize judges have chosen a shortlist of three books, written by one of the Caribbean’s most esteemed poets, a well-known contemporary novelist, and a distinguished academic-cum-politician. These three books, announced as the winners in their own genre categories, now go on to vie for the overall 2013 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature, which comes with a cash award of US$10,000.


'via Blog this'

Save Miami Dade College: Support the Local Option

In the midst of the current legislative crisis, Miami Dade College has not been sitting idly by. The college has revived the local option referendum, which will secure funding for the 176,000+ students that attend our college each year.

There are two bills in the Florida House of Representatives (HB 1295) and Florida Senate (SB 1718), which would give our community the option to support local funding.

Please contact your representative and senator and ask him or her to support HB1295 or SB 1718.

Here the plan of action:

Here's the plan of action:

First find your senator or representative, http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/sections/representatives/myrepresentative.aspx, and ask him or her to support HB 7057.

You can also make your voice be heard on Facebook and Twitter:

Florida House of Representatives on FB: https://www.facebook.com/MyFLHouse:

Florida House of Representatives on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MyFLHouse: @MyFLHouse

Use the Hashtag #savemdc

Florida Senate on FB: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Florida-Senate/105573599475603

Florida Senate on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FloridaSenate

@FloridaSenate

Miami-Dade County Legislative Delegation on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Delegation

Miami-Dade County Legislative Delegation on Twitter: https://twitter.com/dadedelegation

@DadeDelegation

Use the Hashtag #savemdc

Thank you for your support.

Save Miami Dade College!

I have rarely used this blog to speak about issues facing my place of employment, but there are several bills in the Florida House of Representatives and Florida Senate that would negatively impact Miami Dade College's "open door policy."

The first is Senate Bill 1720. On March 2, 2013, Senator Bill Galvano filed Senate Bill 1720: Education, which would effectively defund developmental education in Florida.

The effect on MDC's budget would range anywhere from 18% to 30%.

I am therefore asking my readers to contact their representatives (I have) in support of HB 7057.

As one of my colleagues noted in a recent email: "Minority, low income, returning veterans, and those adults returning after many years of being out of school will be pushed to Adult Education. Most of our students are on financial aid. How will these students continue with their education?  Are we going to allow the Florida Legislature to segregate our colleges taking us back to the 1960's/70's where only the wealthy can attend?  What happens to our open access policies which allow all students the freedom of a continued education?  How are these students going to feel when they are told they are not good enough to attend "community" college?  We won't exactly be serving our "communities."

For the past fifty years, Miami Dade College, "democracy's college," as Dr. Eduardo Padron likes to call us, has been the gateway for success to the many brown and black students who have graduated with A.A.. A.S. and now B.A. degrees.

I am one of those students. I am MDC.

Here's the plan of action:

First find your senator or representative, http://www.myfloridahouse.gov/sections/representatives/myrepresentative.aspx, and ask him or her to support HB 7057.

You can also make your voice be heard on Facebook and Twitter:

Florida House of Representatives on FB: https://www.facebook.com/MyFLHouse:

Florida House of Representatives on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MyFLHouse: @MyFLHouse

Use the Hashtag #savemdc

Florida Senate on FB: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Florida-Senate/105573599475603

Florida Senate on Twitter: https://twitter.com/FloridaSenate

@FloridaSenate

Thank you for your support.

Marcus Garvey: "Look for me in the Whirlwind"

The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Frederica Wilson, Congressional Representative and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey
We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897

Thank you for your support.

Finalists: Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize.

Fourteen writers from seven countries have been named as finalists for the inaugural Hollick Arvon Caribbean Writers Prize.

Announced by the judges on 10 March, 2013, the finalists include emerging writers from Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Bermuda, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St. Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago. The winner of the Prize will be announced on 27 April, during the third annual NGC Bocas Lit Fest in Port of Spain.

The finalists are:

Lisa Allen-Agostini (Trinidad and Tobago)
Katherine Atkinson (St. Lucia)
Angela Barry (Bermuda)
Vashti Bowlah (Trinidad and Tobago)
Brenda Lee Brown (Antigua and Barbuda)
Lenworth Burke (Jamaica)
Barbara Jenkins (Trinidad and Tobago)
Ilsa Lopez-Valles (Puerto Rico)
Ira Mathur (Trinidad and Tobago)
Sharon Millar (Trinidad and Tobago)
Amanda Choo Quan (Trinidad and Tobago)
Lelawatee Manoo-Rahming (Bahamas/Trinidad and Tobago)
Ann Second (Trinidad and Tobago)
Hazel Simmonds-McDonald (St. Lucia)

The Prize, worth US$15,000, will offer the winning Caribbean-based writer time to advance a work in progress. It includes a year’s mentoring by an established author, and travel to the United Kingdom to attend a one-week intensive Arvon Foundation creative writing course of their choice. The winning writer will also have three days in London to network with literary professionals, hosted by Arvon, the UK’s leading creative writing organisation, in association with Free Word Centre and literary agents Rogers, Coleridge & White. The winner will also receive a cash award of £3,000 (US$4,500).

“We were very pleased with the quality of entries and the range of new writers coming up in the region,” says Funso Aiyejina, chair of the judging panel, who also remarked on the fact that only one of the finalists is male. A total of 65 writers writing in English, from thirteen Caribbean countries, submitted entries for the Prize.

Marina Salandy-Brown, co-founder of the Prize and Director of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest, says the Prize is guaranteed for three years, thanks to the Hollick Family Charitable Trust in London. “This is a rare and valuable opportunity for our writers, who largely lack access to those who can help advance their work. One person will take home the Prize, but nobody loses by putting their work out there. You never know what might happen as a result.”

Further information on the Hollick Arvon Prize, click here

A Marcus Garvey Primer: Leadership

The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Frederica Wilson, Congressional Representative and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey


We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897

Thank you for your support.

Lecture: “Rethinking Garveyism in the Twenty-First Century,”

The lecture series, “Rethinking Garveyism in the Twenty-First Century,” had been going petty well. So far, I’ve given presentations in Liberty City, Hialeah, and at the North Campus of Miami Dade College. 

One of the questions that I am frequently asked during the Q&A is “How come we haven’t heard about Marcus Garvey before?” Another more common question is “Why do you feel so strongly about exonerating Marcus Garvey? He’s been dead for over seventy years!”

How do you explain love?

The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Frederica Wilson, Congressional Representative and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey

We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897

Thank you for your support.

Women's History Month: Caribbean Women Writers

Caribbean Women Writers 

(L to R)

Pam Mordecai, Lorna Goodison, Olive Senior

Joanne C. Hillhouse, Hon. Louise Bennett-Coverley, Lisa Allen-Agostini

Opal Palmer Adisa, Diana McCaulay, Joanne Gail Johnson

In celebration of Women's History Month, here are a few of the Caribbean women writers whose work has been featured on this blog:

Caribbean Women Writers 

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I am also giving thanks for the many women who have helped, guided, and inspired me through the years: Merty Philp (nee Lumley), Nadezka Philp (nee Ferro), my two daughters, aunts, sisters, my mother and sisters-in-law, Andrea Shaw, Andrene Bonner, Sokari Ekine, Barbara Makeda Blake Hannah, Yvonne McCalla-Sobers, Ida Does, Vanessa Woodward Byers, Michelle McGrane, Marva McClean, Ludy Rodriguez, Josett Peat, Donna Aza Weir-Soley,  Patti Harris, Gina Cortes-Suarez, Lou Skellings, Malou Harrison, Hannah Bannister, Dawn Marache-Allen, Heather Russell, Hazel Campbell, Diane Browne, Cynthia James, Jean Lowrie-Chin, Karean Hailey Williams, and Audrey Hadley.

 I am blessed to have known the pleasure of your company.

1Love,

Geoffrey

***

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• Fourth Annual Louise Bennett-Coverley Reading Festival (geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com)
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Women's History Month: A Trinity of Pan-Africanist Women

In honor of Women's History Month, RESPECT is due to three powerful Pan-Africanist Women who stand beside Garvey in the struggle for freedom.

Amy Ashwood Garvey
Amy Jacques Garvey
Henrietta Vinton Davis

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The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Frederica Wilson, Congressional Representative and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey


We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897

Thank you for your support.

A Marcus Garvey Primer: Kingdom

The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Frederica Wilson, Congressional Representative and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey
We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897

Thank you for your support.

A Marcus Garvey Primer: Justice

The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Frederica Wilson, Congressional Representative and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:
http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey

We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897

Thank you for your support.

A Marcus Garvey Primer: Inspiration

The Coalition for the Exoneration of Marcus Garvey is petitioning Frederica Wilson, Congressional Representative and the Congress of the United States of America for the exoneration of Marcus Garvey:

http://www.causes.com/actions/1722148-urge-congress-to-exonerate-civil-rights-leader-marcus-garvey
We are also petitioning President Barack Obama to exonerate Marcus Garvey:

http://signon.org/sign/exonerate-marcus-garvey?source=c.url&r_by=4631897

Thank you for your support.

Longlist for the 2013 OCM Bocas Prize

The judging panels for the 2013 OCM Bocas Prize have announced a longlist of ten books in the three genre categories, with a further three books receiving special mention:

POETRY

Dark and Unaccustomed Words, by Vahni Capildeo (Trinidad and Tobago)
Fault Lines, by Kendel Hippolyte (St Lucia)
South Eastern Stages, by Anthony Kellman (Barbados)

Special mention:
The Festival of Wild Orchid, by Margaret Ann Lim (Jamaica)

FICTION

This Is How You Lose Her, by Junot Díaz (Dominican Republic/USA)
Archipelago, by Monique Roffey (Trinidad and Tobago)
Light Falling on Bamboo, by Lawrence Scott (Trinidad and Tobago)
God Carlos, by Anthony C. Winkler (Jamaica)

NON-FICTION

The Predicament of Blackness: Postcolonial Ghana and the Politics of Race, by Jemima Pierre (Haiti/USA)
The Sky’s Wild Noise: Selected Essays, by Rupert Roopnaraine (Guyana)
Sugar in the Blood: A Family’s Story of Slavery and Empire, by Andrea Stuart (Barbados)

Special mention:
Abolition and Plantation Management in Jamaica, 1807–1838, by Dave St Aubyn Gosse (Jamaica)
Ismith Khan: The Man and His Work, by Roydon Salick (Trinidad and Tobago)

The prize shortlist will be announced in March 2013.