Caribbean Heritage

THE MONTHLY GLEANER | MAY 17 - JUNE 16, 2021 | www.jamaica-gleaner.com | YOUR AGENDA 7 NEWS WASHINGTON, DC: T HE INSTITUTE of Caribbean Studies (ICS), the nation’s lead- ing Caribbean American advo- cacy and development organisation, has adopted ‘Our Shared History, Our Shared Future’ as the charge for Caribbean American leaders across the country, counting down to the launch of the 16th Annual Caribbean American Heritage Month celebra- tions this June. “This year’s events reflect the realisa- tion of our community on the need to wake up and show up in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 race uprising. We have to continue the work that (Marcus) Garvey and Malcolm X started. It is our time now.” said Dr Claire Nelson, ICS president and founder. Since 1999, the ICS has worked together with community leaders, strategic partners and other stake- holders to successfully grow aware- ness of the commemoration; and more importantly signal a sea change in Caribbean immigrant relation- ships with the political and policy elite. To signal this, the ICS will pub- lish an anthology of works about Caribbean history, culture and lifeways. Among other signature programmes being presented are the National Caribbean Restaurant Week (June 6-13); World Ocean Day (June 8); and the Caribbean American Legislative Forum (June 21-25). After a brief COVID-induced hiatus, the ICS will once again honour 30 under-30 Caribbean American emerg- ing leaders at an awards ceremony to be held in June at the Organization of American States or, pending restric- tions, virtually. National Caribbean American Heritage Month (NACHM) has been celebrated officially every June since 2006, when the first Presidential Proclamation was issued by President George Bush. The NCAHM national show, which interviews Dr Nelson and former Hartford DeputyMayor Veronica Airey-Wilson, covers all aspects on the importance of this celebratory month and may be viewed on YouTube at https://bit.ly/NCAHMView . The ICS, the architect of the cam- paign to celebrate June as National Caribbean American Heritage Month, now has partners in over 20 cities and county locales across the country. These include Atlanta, Birmingham, Boston, Charleston, Chicago, Detroit, Hartford, Los Angeles, New York, Oakland, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Providence, Reno, Sacramento, South Florida, Tallahassee, Tampa and Washington, DC. C’bean American Heritage Month celebrations on June 1-4 Opening Events June 4-6 Caribbean Literary Conference June 5-8 Blue Green Economy Forum June 6-13 National Caribbean Restaurant Week June 9-13 Creative Economy Forum June 10-12 Caribbean Lens Film Festival June 14-18 Healthful Economy Forum June 19 Ignite Caribbean Emerging Leaders Forum June 21-25 Caribbean American Legislative Forum June 28-29 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise June 30 ‘Bookish’ – Tales of the CaribbeanCovidemicx Chronicles This Day in Our Past | May 17: Maurice Myton of St. Catherine (left) winning the 880 yds. for class 1 boys from Texas Francis of Clarendon. Myton who was the class 1 boys’ champion clocked a record 2 mins. 7.9 secs. GLEANER PHOTOGRAPH 1964: Prince Buster has two records on the Jamaican Hit Parade with “WashWash”at number two and“TimeWill Tell”at number five. The number one record is Millie Small’s “My Boy Lollipop”while“Sammy Dead” by Eric Morris is at 10. 1950: Jamaica’s elected representatives in the House back a bid of industrialist, James F. Gore, to undertake the establishment of a Tourist City on 25 acres of land in the Hellshire Hill area of St. Catherine. They cabled the British Government requesting the release of blocked funds in sterling for investment in Jamaica.