The Garvey Blueprint: A Conversation with the Marcus Garvey Education Academy

February 19, 2026 | 7:00 PM EST

Register: bit.ly/garveyblueprint

Direct Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/4045329958

 

I grew up in Kingston, Jamaica. Marcus Garvey was everywhere and nowhere. His name was on buildings. His face was on currency. But his ideas were absent from the classroom.

That absence shaped everything I have done since.

For thirty years, I studied Garvey’s writings. I spent six years teaching middle school English and 27 years teaching college.  And during that time, one question kept returning: Why do our children learn about Garvey as a portrait on a wall, rather than as a thinker whose methods they can use?

The Garvey Blueprint is my answer.

On Thursday, February 19, at 7:00 PM EST, I will be presenting The Garvey Blueprint at the Marcus Garvey Education Academy. The presentation is open to educators, parents, school leaders, and anyone who believes that Black children deserve a curriculum built from inside their own intellectual tradition.

What Is The Garvey Blueprint?

The Garvey Blueprint is a three-year Pan-African literacy curriculum for grades 6 through 8. It uses English Language Arts as the medium through which students encounter the intellectual, political, and cultural history of Africa and its diaspora.

Across 39 instructional weeks per year, students study 31 historical figures per grade. Over three years, they encounter 75 unique historical figures and one fictional character. Nine staple figures return every year, studied through a different analytical lens each time. A sixth grader meets Frederick Douglass through the question of clarity. An eighth grader meets Douglass through the systems that criminalized Black literacy. The figure stays the same. The thinking transforms.

Three pillars govern the curriculum: the Power of the Mind, the Importance of Purpose, and the Strength of Perseverance. These pillars come directly from Garvey’s educational philosophy. They are structural principles embedded in every quarter, every framing question, and every assessment.

Why This Curriculum Exists

Colonial education divided what belonged together. African intellectual history. Caribbean political thought. African American literary tradition. These are chapters of the same story, separated by design. The Garvey Blueprint reconnects them.

Every instructional week begins with an original historical fiction anchor text. Students enter through the story. They meet Harriet Tubman, Arturo Schomburg, Frantz Fanon, Antonio Maceo, Ella Baker, and dozens more as characters in a narrative before analyzing them as strategists and system-builders. The stance toward every figure is operational: What did this person build? What did it cost? Can the method be applied?

This is what we call Builders and Their Blueprints. Historical figures studied as architects of liberation whose methods transfer to the student’s own condition.

What I Will Cover on February 19

The presentation will walk through the curriculum's architecture. How the three pillars organize instruction across quarters. How the eight developmental stages, drawn from Garvey’s own declarations, create a spine that holds three years of learning together. How the weekly rhythm moves students through four cognitive levels every single week. How the Grit Guardrail Framework ensures that when we study perseverance, we study it alongside the systems that made perseverance necessary.

I will also address the question that every parent and educator asks first: How does this prepare students for standardized assessments? The answer is direct. The Garvey Blueprint aligns with state ELA standards. Reading, writing, speaking, and listening are embedded in every week. Students write claims with evidence. They build analytical essays. They engage in Socratic discussion. By eighth grade, they defend a capstone portfolio that traces their intellectual development over three years.

The curriculum does not choose between cultural grounding and academic rigor. It treats them as the same project.

Who Should Attend

If you are an educator looking for a curriculum that teaches Black history as a year-round intellectual framework, this presentation is for you.

If you are a parent searching for something that meets your child where they are and takes them somewhere they have never been, this is for you.

If you are a school leader considering what a Pan-African ELA curriculum looks like when it is standards-aligned, assessment-ready, and built to last three years, this conversation is where you start.

Join the Conversation

Date: Thursday, February 19, 2026

Time: 7:00 PM EST

Host: Marcus Garvey Education Academy (MGEA)

Register: bit.ly/garveyblueprint

Direct Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/4045329958

 

Share this with anyone you think may be interested. The door is open.

 

Geoffrey Philp is the founder of The Garvey Classroom LLC and creator of The Garvey Blueprint. He is the author of several books of fiction and poetry, a Silver Musgrave Medal recipient, and a Marcus Garvey Award for Excellence in Education honoree. He has spent twenty-seven years teaching at the college level and six years teaching middle school English.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Garvey Blueprint curriculum?

The Garvey Blueprint is a three-year Pan-African literacy curriculum for grades 6 through 8. It uses original historical fiction anchor texts to teach 75 unique historical figures across three years, organized around three pillars drawn from Marcus Garvey’s educational philosophy: the Power of the Mind, the Importance of Purpose, and the Strength of Perseverance.

Who created The Garvey Blueprint?

Geoffrey Philp, a Jamaican-born author and educator with twenty-seven years of college teaching experience, six years as a middle school English teacher, and two decades of Marcus Garvey scholarship, created The Garvey Blueprint through The Garvey Classroom LLC.

Is the Garvey Blueprint aligned with state standards?

Yes. The Garvey Blueprint aligns with state ELA standards, including the New York State Next Generation English Language Arts Learning Standards. Reading, writing, speaking, and listening are embedded in every instructional week.

What grades does The Garvey Blueprint serve?

The curriculum serves grades 6 through 8 across a three-year developmental sequence. Each grade has its own central question and analytical lens, with nine staple figures returning each year at increasing levels of cognitive demand.

How is The Garvey Blueprint different from other culturally responsive curricula?

The Garvey Blueprint is story-driven, meaning every instructional week is built around an original historical fiction anchor text. It studies historical figures as strategists and system-builders whose methods are transferable. Social-emotional learning is embedded in the academic work, with no standalone SEL lessons.

What is the Marcus Garvey Education Academy (MGEA) presentation?

On February 19, 2026, at 7:00 PM EST, Geoffrey Philp will present The Garvey Blueprint at the Marcus Garvey Education Academy. The virtual presentation is open to educators, parents, and school leaders. Register at bit.ly/garveyblueprint.

A Conversation With...Anton Nimblett

Where were you born? Describe current family life.  


As  the saying goes my navel string is buried in San Fernando, Trinidad.  Unfortunately, I can't claim it literally because my parents were too "modern" for that traditional rite, yet San Fernando for sure.  I played kiddies carnival, and regular sailor mas' in San Fernando.  I attended school there until form two, when I moved to Brooklyn.  And, I still occasionally wake from dreaming of a small wooden house on a short hilly street in San Fernando.  That house, long demolished but intact in my mind, in very many ways says "home".



Home now is an apartment in an ever-changing Brooklyn neighbourhood.  I'm a single man of a certain age, with neither chick nor child.  So family life: my parents a 30-minute trip away; my sister and teenaged-niece a 20 minute trip in another direction.  My sister and I work at the same organization, so I see her more regularly than anyone else.  My parents seem always glad to see me.  They are both great cooks -- with a healthy dose of competition about their skills -- so their refrigerator is always full and I'm never allowed to leave their home without a care package, a treat of some sort.  


Actually, I initially disliked the "family life" question, but as I respond  it's impossible to ignore how strongly my family life affects my writing.  To be comfortable writing about gay subjects, for instance, is a clear by-product of the foundation of unconditional love from my family, coupled with an  awareness that many others don't have that experience: so often the writing is a sharing.  And, oh gosh, doh talk 'bout de food eh?  Food is layered through so much of my fiction, sometimes in the background,  often as a theme, sometimes as a central plot piece, perhaps sometimes rising to the level of a character on its own.   There's a direct line from food in my family life to food in my fiction.


What do you do for a living? Why did you choose this vocation?


I currently work for a non-profit organization, providing social services at a domestic violence shelter.  In the years that I've worked there, I don't think I've mentioned my job once without someone  saying how heavy or intense or stressful it must be.  But, the work is none of those things for me.  I find that it both draws on and feeds my creative soul.   Because really, there's no cookie-cutter model that could work to engage, encourage and even inspire individuals -- each with a different history, each in a different spiritual and emotional place -- as they work to reclaim their lives.  So even to try to be of use in that space is an exercise in creativity.  To have any effect is a creative success.  


Yet it's not a vocation I "chose".  In high school I did want to be a psychologist or therapist, but I strayed far afield and worked in the land of data processing for years, enjoying all the problem solving that came with that field. Yet, life does what it does, and here I am, now.  


Who are your three favorite writers? Why?


Of course, this is an impossible question: three is too few; today's favorites are different from yesterdays, and hopefully different from tomorrow's as I meet new brilliance in literature; and is the "favorite" the one I enjoy reading most, or the one whose craft instructs?   Still, who am I to leave one of Geoffrey's questions unanswered?  So I'll name three favorite writers from a list of thirty three or so:


Earl Lovelace.   I left Trinidad before knowing his work, didn't find it until I was an adult.  Lovelace does all that I think a writer should.  Things like: take your breath away with beautiful language; comment on the human existence;  captivate the reader.   And he does it within the richness of the Trinidadian cultural tradition: making social commentary and flinging picong like a calypsonian; relating stories like the saga-boys on the corner, or the tough-tongued market women; singing the songs of my people to the rhythms of  every culture in our twin-islands.   And all this while being radical.


Toni Morrison.   Aside from the obvious, or perhaps in defense of the obvious nature of this choice, there's a sentiment to the selection.  Morrison was like a gateway drug to writing for me. Years ago, before I started writing, I went through a  Morrison phase that was intense and important and wonderful.  I read Tar Baby, Song of Solomon and Beloved in a book club where the members included two women who later published widely and one man who knows me better than anyone else in the world.  I remember us all celebrating Morrison's Nobel Prize on a personal level.  And I know that in Beloved  there is a special passage that I can turn to,  read aloud, and get goose bumps.  So yeah, Morrison.


Jericho Brown.  Here's a poet with one published collection, Please, and a string of accolades, achievements an awards.  But I'll list him in my three because he illustrates the changing nature of favorites.  I  just discovered his work last year, and it left me breathless often.  The poetry embarrassed me when I read it on the subway because it left me emotionally naked in public spaces.  And the collection showed me I could connect to poetry in new ways.  List worthy.


What was the first book you fell in love with and how have your reading habits changed over the years?


Listen, every West Indian writer my age, must start this off the same way: saying that he/she grew up reading Enid Blyton.  I cut my baby teeth on The Famous Five, it's how I became a reader.  The Hardy Boys came later, exchanging books with schoolmates in standard five, competing to see who would read the entire series first.  And in high school I remember Allan Patton's Cry, The Beloved Country.    I read plays a lot in high school too,  I think that helps my own work now.  


Yet, to name a book that I fell in love with?  Maybe for real love of a book, like real romantic love, one has to be adult, to have lived, to have learned.  So as an adult, the first book I loved is Marquez' Love in the Time of Cholera.  I think no explanation is needed  if you've read it, if you've spent half hour talking to me or reading my own writing.  No further explanation.


I read fiction, mostly.  But sometimes that looks like "serious fiction" and sometimes there's pulp.  There have been phases, surely, as I discovered new authors and styles.  As my life changed.  But while there's been pulp, there is always quality.  In that regard I am a snob.  Not an academic, or an egghead, but a snob.   Here's a list of three writers I'll never read again...just kidding.  


What are you reading now?


I'm reading Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov.   Sounds pretentious I know, but consider that right before this I was reading a John Irving novel and a cartoon collection, The Essential Calvin and Hobbes.  And consider that I'm reading Dostoyevsky for the first time, trying to fill in one of many gaps in my literature education.   Not too late, to have recently caught up on Moby Dick and Ulysses and Walden.  Glad of it too.  Shocked to see blatant homoeroticism in Melville, along with radically progressive comments on religion and environmentalism.   Blessed to have read Joyce at the right time to inspire a breakthrough on the final story in my collection.  

What makes you laugh?


I don't laugh enough.   But my best laughs I suppose are at myself.  Yeah, I crack me up.  


What are your other passions?


I'm often described as laid back.  And I think of myself as cynical.  Neither of those qualities seems to fall in line with being passionate.  And perhaps my passions are more apparent in my writing than in my daily life.  So, I had to think about this one for a while.  And then I came up with two answers.  One frivolous and fun:  I'm passionate about chocolate.   Literally, not a day goes by without me consuming chocolate in some form.  Never is my cupboard bare of hot chocolate mix and chocolate cookies of some kind.  Yes liquid, solid, or in-between.  A gourmet truffle, an over-the-counter chocolate bar, a home-made brownie.  Bring it on.  My favorite fragrance is A*Men: heavy with notes of cocoa.   I think my Grenadian forefathers who grew up in the cacao would approve of this one.


And one passion, a bit more serious:  I'm passionate about growth.  I'm glad to say that I'm not the person I was five years ago, or ten.  I'm relieved to understand that I won't be the person I am now five years hence.   I'm honored to work in a field where I get to see others grow.  And my greatest wish for those I love is that they allow themselves the growth that life makes possible.   


About Anton Nimblett:


Anton Nimblett is the author of Sections of an Orange (Peepal Tree Press, 2009).  His fiction appears in the award-winning anthology Our Caribbean (ed. Thomas Glave, Duke University Press 2008), as well as the journals African American Review, African Voices and Calabash.   His poetry is included in War Diaries, the latest activist-anthology from AIDS Project Los Angeles.  He curated  the 2009-10 season of Caribbean Cultural Theatre's reading series Poets & Passion.  He has presented work at many venues, including: Bowery Poetry Club, Caribbean Cultural Theatre, Chashama, Cornelia Street Cafe, Fire and Ink, Harlem Book Fair, Kumble Theater, The LGBT Center, Louder Arts Collective and Paper Based Bookshop.  Visit him at SectionsOfAnOrange.com

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Photo of Anton Nimblett:  Leslie Ward.

A Conversation with Tobias Buckell

Tobias S. Buckell is a Caribbean-born speculative fiction writer who grew up in Grenada, the British Virgin Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. He has published stories in various magazines and anthologies. He is a Clarion graduate, Writers of The Future winner, and Campbell Award for Best New SF Writer Finalist.

His first novel, Crystal Rain, combined SF adventure and his Caribbean background, as did his second, Ragamuffin. His third book, Sly Mongoose, will be out summer of 2008.

Where were you born?

I was born in Grenada. I currently live, in all places, Ohio. I live far away from the ocean now. I'm happily married, with two dogs, two cats, and a small house in a small town.

What do you do for a living? Why did you choose this vocation?

Right now my income is divided across writing fiction and writing freelance articles and some blogging for pay. I've always wanted to be a writer, and love being creative. I used to work in technology support, but after getting laid off, decided to make the jump into trying to do what I loved. And for some crazy reason, it worked.

Who are your three favorite writers? Why?

Cordwainer Smith, Arthur C. Clarke, and Bruce Sterling. Smith amazes me. An American growing in China, he wrote some really imaginative whacked out novels that still read freshly to this day. A lot of science fiction ages as time goes by and we learn more about the world and technology. It's often dated by societal mores and the times it was written in. But Cordwainer's crazy tales are just as lyrical, haunting, and paint just as strange a future of our world as it did over fifty years ago. I like Clarke for his sheer engineering, not only did he write science fiction, but his imagination gave us geosynchronous satellites. He literally helped change the face of this world with his ideas. And Sterling I love because he was the first SF writer I read who wrote a book that took the developing world seriously, setting his novel Islands in The Net in Grenada, India, then Africa. As a result of that, I felt empowered to try and write my own fusion SF and Caribbean novels.

What was the first book you fell in love with and how have your reading habits changed over the years?

The first book I remember falling in love with was Arthur C. Clarke's Childhood's End. One, it features something fairly unusual in SF, a black protagonist, a scientist who travels through space and time to see what the fate of the human species will be. But the thing that blew me away was this big picture view and question of what humanity as a whole was, where it might be headed, what it was suited for, and where evolution may take it. The book lit my imagination on fire at the tender age of six or seven. I've been engrossed by science fiction ever since.

What are you reading now?

In the mail is Karl Schroeder's Queen of Candesce, and then a handful of books by Bob Baer about the CIA's negative activities throughout the world that I'm reading as research for one of my next novels.

What makes you laugh?

Everything. I'm pretty easily amused, to be honest. I amuse myself, I have trouble telling jokes often enough because I crack myself up while telling them. Life, people, fun, sitcoms, I'm easygoing and very entertain-able.

What are your other passions?

I'm a geek, I love my computers and new technologies. Blogging. Interacting with people. Information in any form I can consume it. I'm aware that I'm a bit undeveloped in the spare hobbies, I've spent so much time working to become an author that it took up all my spare time from the time I was 15 until now. That's 13 years of turning down partying and so forth, except for three years of playing soccer in college. I think it's getting time to pick up an instrument or learn a martial art to find something extra to do.

***

On Wednesday (10/3/07), "A Conversation with Richard Grayson."

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Scott Rudin and Miramax Films have acquired feature rights to Junot Diaz’s The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. (Via Maud Newton)

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A Conversation with Karel Mc Intosh

Karel M^c Intosh is excited about social media, and the opportunities it creates for communications and creating relationships. Currently, she authors the Caribbean Public Relations blog, where she focuses on media and communications in the Caribbean. Karel is based in Trinidad. She also works in Trinidad and Tobago’s tourism industry, and holds the rank of Corporate Communications Coordinator.

A qualified communicator, she holds a MSc. in Corporate Communications with Distinction from Thames Valley University (England), and a BSc. in Government with a minor in International Relations (Upper Second Class Honours) from the University of the West Indies (Trinidad).

Diverse public relations, writing and editorial projects have defined Karel’s five-year communications career. Her career started in 1999 when she joined the Trinidad and Tobago Newsday as a freelancer, and soon became a full-time reporter, copping Newsday’s Best Story of the Year Award in 2000. Since then, she has amassed valuable experience writing for communications, lifestyle and business magazines. Currently, she is a columnist with the Jamaica Gleaner’s JobSmart. Karel has also worked in public relations consultancy, where she gained a wealth of experience with companies from various industries, including the energy, engineering, financial, and non-profit sector. Karel has also lectured in the fields of communications, public relations and foreign policy.

Karel is a Member of the International Association of Business Communicators, and actively participates in the Trinidad and Tobago Chapter. You can contact her at caribbeanprblog@yahoo.com

Where were you born? Describe current family life.

I was born in Trinidad, and have lived there all of my life, except for a few vacations and the year I spent pursuing my master's in England. I’m the only girl out of four children and I come from a full, nuclear family with Mom and Dad still together, and having always been there for us. I’m especially tickled by my nieces and nephews who I absolutely adore.

What do you do for a living? Why did you choose this vocation?

I work in the field of corporate communication, and love it. Writing was always a strength of mine, so initially I had considered journalism, and law for some reason, as potential careers. During a year off from my Bachelors studies, I took a year off to work with a Trinidad newspaper, and from there kept doing communications-related stuff during my UWI years. By that time I was convinced that communications was for me, especially since I liked the strategic aspect of it. I believe in sticking with what I’m good at, and more importantly what keeps me happy, and communications does that for me.

Who are your three favorite writers? Why?

Gosh, that’s a bit of a tough question for me. I don’t read as much as I’d like to and I haven’t for a while. But growing up – in my pre-teen years – I read DH Lawrence, Chinua Achebe, Michael Anthony, Jane Austen, and Charles Dickens. I’m really all over the place with writers, but I absolutely love Elizabeth Nunez, and Chinua Achebe.

What was the first book you fell in love with and how have your reading habits changed over the years?

I love, love, love, Chinua Achebe. To me Things Fall Apart was great and riveting. I equally love Green Days by the River by Michael Anthony, and DH Lawrence’s Sons and Lovers. In primary school, I read the usual Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys, but mixed it with great, Caribbean literature from the likes of Michael Anthony and Selvon, and Achebe, Lawrence etc. In secondary school I studied English Literature right up to "A" Levels, and so I read George Elliott’s The Mill on the Floss, Jamaica Kincaid’s Annie John, Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d'Urbervilles, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, lots of DH Lawrence, and other books on the curriculum.

I love Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon, but wasn’t impressed by her other offerings. While I was in England I took advantage of lots of free delivery by Amazon and I stocked up on Elizabeth Nunez. In between that I read tonnes of corporate communications, public relations, advertising and marketing books and journals for my Masters. Now, if I’m really bored, I’ll borrow one of my friends’ romance novels, which in my book aren’t real literature. What I really want to do is to create a library of great, Caribbean books. My problem is easy access locally to Caribbean authors (somehow bookstores think that VS Naipaul alone qualifies), so Amazon is going to get business from me.

Honestly though, reading actual published works has taken a bit of a backseat for me since my addiction to the Internet took over my life J

What are you reading now?

The Internet (laughter). Most times I read stuff on social media etc. I do read Bajegirl’s fiction at the Cheese-on-Bread blog though J Currently, I’m searching high and low in Trini bookstores for a copy of Green Days by the River, which I read over 15 years ago, but I remember I loved it, and want to get it badly so I can enjoy it again. So, if I don’t order it from Amazon, Santa’s elves can send me a copy (yes, I’m already waiting for Christmas with bated breath)!

What makes you laugh?

It doesn’t take much to make me laugh, and I laugh quite often. I laugh at ridiculous comments, picong, outright funny jokes, people’s quirky movements, someone else laughing and seriously lame jokes. I’m a winner at stale joke competitions as well, so I have career options. Mostly, I laugh at my nieces’ and nephews’ antics, which most of the time I instigate, and which they do because they know Aunty Karel will reward them with a hearty round of laughter.

What are your other passions?

I love singing, as I used to attend music school, and would like to start that back one day, as well as to get back on my piano. As noted before, I’m really into the Internet, and would like to become a full-fledged tech geek one day, as well as a designer. These will marry well with my current communications skills. These days I’m also in the gym, trying to be a fitness freak. Hopefully, I’ll become really passionate about that. LOL. Otherwise, my overall passion is simply enjoying life to the fullest, living each day thanking God for life, strength, joy, his goodness and family and friends. I’m a real simple person.

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A Conversation With Karla Gottlieb

Karla Gottlieb is the Director for Community Partnerships at the Human Services Coalition. Previously, she worked with community colleges on related issues to civic responsibility for seven years. As the Campus Director for the Center for Community Involvement at Miami Dade College, she coordinated service learning projects for more than 35 faculty members a semester. In 2000, she began lecturing nationally on civic engagement and its relationship to service learning. She has published two books, The Mother of Us All: A History of Queen Nanny, Leader of the Windward Jamaican Maroons (Africa World Press 2000) and A Practical Guide for Integrating Civic Responsibility into the Curriculum (co-editor with Gail Robinson, AACC Press 2002). She lives in Miami, Florida.

Where were you born? Describe your current family life.

The middle bed, the Maternity Ward at Jackson Hospital, Miami Fla. The bed had a heart scratched onto it, or so my mother relates.

I live with my husband of 7 years and my soon to be 5-year-old son who is the joy of my world and the heart of my life. I see my mother twice a week and talk to my father twice a day.

What do you do for a living? Why did you choose this vocation?

I am the Director of Community Partnerships at a local nonprofit, the Human Services Coalition. Our goal is to eliminate poverty. I am also a writer. I don’t think I chose these professions – I think they chose me.

Who are your three favorite writers? Why?

Annie Proulx. Howard Zinn. A.S. Byatt. Barbara Kingsolver. Chinua Achebe. Lee Smith. Is that three?

I love them because they are geniuses. They draw you in to their worlds and you can’t put the books down, then you learn something amazing with every new chapter.

What was the first book you fell in love with and how have your reading habits changed over the years?

I would have to say Judy Blume when I was a child. Now the books I read aren’t as sexy. I also listen to more books on tape, which I tend to do at the same time that I am reading. With very few exceptions, I prefer novels and historical novels over everything else. I usually have a hard time reading nonfiction, which is odd because I have written two non fiction books.

What are you reading now?

Angle of Repose; Antigua Penny Puce; The Stone Diaries; Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled

What makes you laugh?

When someone else laughs, especially my son or husband.

What are your other passions?

Eating, (therefore) yoga, swimming, reading, animals, talking with animals, growing things in my garden (arugula, mangos, avocados) the environment, trees, National Geographic, the ocean, Jamaica, Tahiti, Africa, the Everglades, camping, going to little traveled places, jewels, shells, other precious things, love, children especially mine, magic, dreams, dream journals, writing, sleeping, the sun, sunny places, snow, indigenous cultures, Arab culture, respect.

***

On Friday, "A Conversation with Fragano Ledgister."

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Why I’m Switching to Vocal

 

I have always been concerned about the erasure of Black memory. That's why I began blogging at Geoffrey Philp's Blog Spot.

In some of my earliest blog posts, "Why I Continue to Write" and “Why I Continue to Blog,” I explained the reasons for starting the blog and what I hoped to achieve. The blog has served as an important platform for Caribbean literature and culture, connecting Caribbean writers, artists, and a wider audience. It has played a significant role in raising awareness of Caribbean literature and culture.

I'm particularly proud of several posts that I have written:

·         Posts About Marcus Garvey: https://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/search?q=Marcus+Garvey

·         Posts About Bob Marley: https://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/search?q=Bob+Marley

·         Posts From Caribbean and South Florida Writers: https://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/search?q=In+My+Own+Words

·         Posts About Caribbean Writers: https://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/search?q=Caribbean+Writers

·         Interviews With Caribbean Writers: https://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/search?q=Five+Questions+With

·         A Conversation With: https://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/search?q=A+Conversation+With

·         Birthday Posts: https://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/search/label/Happy%20Birthday

I have also participated in a few podcasts, although some of them have been lost in the ether: https://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/search/label/podcast

In the next few days, I will switch many posts to Vocal, where I have written haiku, a short story, and a few bad limericks. I've decided to make this switch for several reasons:

·         Active community:

Vocal has a large and engaged community of writers and readers, meaning others are likelier to see and read my posts. It provides me with a broader reach than I would have on a personal blog.

·         User-friendly interface:

Vocal's interface is designed to be easy to use, making it simple for me to create and publish my content. But most importantly, Vocal compensates writers for their work. For every 1,000 views my posts receive, I will earn $3.80. Additionally, I will earn $0.10 for every share my posts receive. Vocal also offers readers the opportunity to actively support writers by tipping. I plan to use the earnings to help with my travel expenses for research, book promotions, and especially for Archipelagos.

I will continue writing One Minute Book Reviews, announcements about book publications and fairs, and interviews with Caribbean Writers. You can find them on my blog at the following links:

·         One Minute Book Reviews: https://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/2023/05/one-minu

·         Book Publications and Fairs: https://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/search?q=Book+launch

·         Interviews with Caribbean Writers: https://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/search?q=Five+Questions+With

In the meantime, I invite you to visit my page on Vocal. If you enjoy a haiku or story, you can subscribe, share it on social media, or leave a tip.

See you on Vocal!

#BlackMemoryMatters 

#CaribbeanCulture

 #CaribbeanLiterature 

 #VocalPlatform 

#SupportWriters 

#AmplifyBlackVoices

New Ebook: Forbidden @ Smashwords and Amazon

Guest Post by Tony Williams.


Finally, after many years of struggle I’ve managed to get my first novel published. For the past eighteen months, I’ve been using my blog to inform writers about new developments in the book trade and to urge them to consider non-traditional publishing options now available, especially ebooks. I’ve now decided that after ladling out advice so generously, it’s time to take a dose of my own medicine. My book is titled Forbidden, but more about that later. First, let me tell you about my self-publishing journey.


It turned out to be quite easy and uneventful. Over a period of just two days, I was able to have my book available for sale as an ebook in the Kindle Store and at Smashwords. Here’s how it works. 


When you sign up, upload your manuscript and cover to the Kindle Direct Publishing platform, http://kdp.amazon.com it takes up to 48 hours to be vetted for proper formatting and then it is listed for sale in the Kindle Store. With Smashwords, it took about two hours in a queue before going live on their website. If you want it included in their premium catalogue for sale in other distribution channels, you have to wait about a week for further vetting (this time manually) and approval. I got the green light for inclusion. Smashwords has already shipped it to the Apple iBookstore, the Nook (Barnes & Nobel) Kobo, Sony and Diesel and it should be on sale there in the next two weeks. 


The paperback edition is available via the UK-based website CompletelyNovel.com (CN) and is printed and distributed by the POD printers Lightening Source. The set up is the same – sign up with CN, upload your manuscript and cover to their website and thereafter it immediately goes on sale.


I’m currently based in St Lucia, light years away from the global publishing hubs of North America and London. With a laptop and an internet connection it took me about twenty minutes max. to sign up and upload my book for publication on each of the three platforms. I found their instructions easy to follow. And it’s free. To get the paperback sold through multiple distribution channels including Amazon.com, I had to subscribe for a CompletelyNovel ‘Pro Plan.’ It cost me US$190 a year (or US$21.99 a month). It’s a lot cheaper at the Amazon affiliate Createspace – a flat fee of $35. I found out too late.


My biggest challenge was having the manuscript and cover formatted to their individual specifications. Since I’m hopeless with formatting, I hired a graphic artist recommended by Smashwords to format my ebook. For US$65 she formatted the manuscript and cover for both Kindle and Smashwords. It’s also good for the other ebook retailers. I paid CompletelyNovel.com to format the paperback. A St Lucian graphic artist (Mageesa Boudhar) designed my cover. Altogether, I spent about US$300 for formatting and cover design. 


What I now have to sort out is how to get multiple paperback copies to interested bookstores in the Caribbean in a cost effective way. It turns out that this is easier and cheaper to do if the bookstores are in North America or the UK where Lightening Source have their printing operations.


I also discovered, much to my surprise, that I have to pay the IRS 30% of my royalties on sales made in the US. It doesn’t matter that I’m not a US citizen, or that I’m not based in the US. Both Amazon and Smashwords warned me up front that they are mandated by law to withhold taxes from my earnings and submit them to Uncle Sam. The only way around it is if you are a citizen of a country whose government has signed a Tax Exemption Treaty with the US government. You would automatically qualify for full or partial exemption from tax withholdings on your earnings. You have to apply for a foreign tax number by submitting a W-8BEN form. The IRS then issues you a foreign tax ID, which you have to submit to Amazon and Smashwords. Thereafter, they’re no longer required to withhold taxes on your royalties. That’s the only way to fend off the taxman. To view countries that have tax treaties with the US, see this PDF file: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p901.pdf

Apparently only three Caribbean governments had the foresight to negotiate tax exemption treaties with the US on behalf of their citizens - Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados, although it’s still not clear to me from the abovementioned document that writers are included in the exemptions. For the rest of us in the English-speaking Caribbean, we’re evidently been left out in the cold.


I haven’t been able to confirm whether CARICOM and the OECS are aware of this and, if so, whether they ever attempted to negotiate a US Tax Exemption Treaty collectively with the US Government on behalf of their citizens, instead of the individual governments going about it in a piecemeal fashion. I intend to follow up and find out. 


My novel, Forbidden tackles the sensitive issue of race within the context of a Caribbean island whose residents, over time, have bought into the ideals of colourism; the preference for lighter skin tones, and the tendency to regard fair-skinned people as more desirable. It also examines to what extent religion has contributed to this world view and looks at how the Church and the Bible have shaped Black people’s self image and our sense of self worth. It is controversial and I knew from the start this would further limit my chances of ever being published.


Nevertheless, I believe in it. I also think it addresses issues that people grapple with from day to day, and not just in the Caribbean. Many other societies and cultures struggle with the issue of colourism, not to mention matters of faith. My book, however, is an attempt to have a conversation with my brothers and sisters from the Caribbean. Now, consider this. 


The English-speaking islands of the Caribbean have a population of approximately 5.444,762 (CIA World Factbook 2009 estimates). Add to this a further 7.3 million people of Caribbean descent I’ve estimated (through research) to be living in the Diaspora – altogether some 13 million people. I haven’t even included African, African-American, Black British and Black Canadian readers.


Perhaps not immediately, but in the long run, I believe authors who have digitized their books will have a better shot at tapping into that diverse demographic. Physical books will always be there. Many readers still prefer them. But if your aim is to try to reach as many readers as possible among a demographic that is so widely dispersed, physical books just don’t cut it. Their comparatively higher cost doesn’t help either.


If technology provides you with a mode of delivery that is, for the most part, accessible and free, and you’re sure that your work is polished and edited as well as it can be, and it is appealing, why look a gift horse in the mouth?


Marketing and promoting is going to be hard work. It’s always been, even for established writers who are increasingly expected to do their bit in promoting their work. Personally, I’m game for the challenge. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. 


But new writers like me aside, Caribbean writers locked into deals with traditional publishers will sooner or later (if they haven’t done so yet) have to contend with the issue of what to do with their titles which have gone out of print, or are likely to. What do you do if your publisher is unwilling or reluctant to invest in new editions of your book, even while seeking to maintain control of it and your current and future work? At present, most traditional publishers are insisting on pocketing 75% of all ebook sales. Amazon and Smashwords are offering indie writers up to 70% and 85% respectively on sales made directly from their websites. Third party sales still earn you more than you get from traditional publishers. 


These are all indications of how book publishing is undergoing dramatic change, forcing writers and publishers alike to face up to the reality that they have to adapt and consider options that, in the past, they probably wouldn’t have given a second thought.


In one of the most thought-provoking articles on publishing I’ve read yet, writer and blogger, Dean Wesley Smith advised in his recent post Killing the Sacred Cows of Publishing: the Myth of Security: “... don’t think that just because you are an indie publisher and in control of your own covers that you have security. You don’t. And don’t think that just because you sold a big book deal to a traditional publisher you have security. You don’t. So maybe get the security from learning the business and enjoying the writing. For me, doing a job I love is the real reward.” 


This is precisely how I feel. 

Forbidden is available from Smashwords:
http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/46947 and the Kindle Store http://www.amazon.com/Forbidden-ebook/dp/B004S2CPMW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&m=A1TQLU46ZJXED5&s=digital-text&qid=1300758886&sr=1-1

The paperback is available at CompletelyNovel.com http://www.completelynovel.com/books/forbidden (USA) will soon be on sale at Amazon.com and other retailers worldwide.

About Tony Williams

Tony Williams was born in Castries, Saint Lucia. From a young age, he set out to pursue his dream of becoming a writer. He started as a news reporter with the Government Information Service in 1977, soon after leaving secondary school. A few years later, he left journalism to take over the management of a family-owned banana plantation. Ten years later, he gave it up to return to journalism and went on to become the editor of the Crusader newspaper in Saint Lucia. He was subsequently awarded a Reuters Fellowship in journalism at Green College, Oxford University. In 2007, he gave up full time journalism to devote more time to creative writing. Along with freelance journalism, he does consultancy work and speechwriting part time. He’s the creator of Caribbean Book Blog.

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