In recognition of the 50th anniversary of Independence for Jamaica, and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, the Florida International University (FIU) Libraries Special Collections and the Digital Library of the Caribbean has designed a special exhibit: 50 | 50 The Road to Independence – Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago which also celebrates Black History Month, South Florida Caribbean News reports.
The event will feature a conversation about the ‘Journey to Independence’ to be held next Tuesday, February 28, starting at 5:30 p.m. in the Green Library, Room 220, (South Campus) located at 11200 SW Eighth Street, Miami. Featured speakers will include FIU Professor Percy Hintzen, and Erica Williams Connell, the daughter of former Caribbean statesman Eric Williams who led Trinidad to its independence. FIU Professor Dr. Donna Weir-Soley will also read poetry commenting on the need for independence by the Hon. Louise Bennett, OM, OJ, Jamaica’s cultural icon, folklorist, writer and educator.
The event is co-sponsored by the FIU African and African Diaspora Studies Program and the FIU Latin American and Caribbean Center, with supporting material from the Jamaica Tourist Board, the Consulate General of Jamaica and the University of the West Indies Fifty/Fifty Project.
The exhibition traces the road from the West Indian Federation to independent nations of Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago through politics, art and culture.
Items of special note in the exhibit include the Gleaner newspaper from September 20, 1961, which published the results of the Referendum to decide if Jamaica remained a part of the Federation; and original art from the first Jamaican post-Independence exhibition. Also, there will be a series of Trinidadian pamphlets from the University of Florida Latin American Collection.
The exhibition continues throughout the month of February. For more information, please call 305-348-3008.
For the original report go to http://sflcn.com/story.php?id=11342
The image above is available for sale at http://www.seen-site.com/jamaica-independence-day-sale-%E2%80%93-save-48-455
Black History
One day me cross over punt trench
greenheart bridge only wide like me shoulda
me machete tie ‘pon me waist
me head-band tie strong
fuh steady me head
me bend down and scratch me big toe
waiting like a morning cock a crow
in Goberdhan back yard
‘till overseer done make he list
me and Cujo fuh cut cane
‘till punt come, ‘till punt come
quick, quick me squat on the grass
take out me calabash
with me dry-coconut
and me salt-fish
eat quick, quick and drink water
from the canal
and all day we cut cane
cut and bundle cane
load punt ‘till sun come down
skin black like punt
ashen-gray in Picasso color
in the truck I listen to the voice
deep inside my heart
how the dust from my black skin
will one day take me far, far away
on a journey of my dreams
from Africa, through the villages in Ghana
across the Atlantic and the Pacific
into the cold, winter streets of America
and rendezvous in Canada
for my new generation
to make black history
a curriculum of their lives.
http://www.poemhunter.com/members/mpoems/default.asp?show=poem&poem=21293333
By: needybad4u on February 26, 2012
at 2:13 am