Rex Nettleford performing in 1965; photo by Maria LaYacona

I made the mistake of not getting this out last week, when The Hon. Rex Nettleford, OM, FIJ, OCC passed. For that, I apologize. For those unfamiliar with Rex Nettleford, and the legacy he leaves behind, see the passage below…

Jamaica lost one of its most revered cultural figures last night when Professor Rex Nettleford, vice-chancellor emeritus of the University of the West Indies (UWI) and founder of the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC), died, just hours before he would have celebrated his 77th birthday…

…”Jamaica and the entire world have lost an intellectual and creative genius, a man whose contribution to shaping and projecting the cultural landscape of the entire Caribbean region is unquestionable,” (Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce )Golding said….

In the time since his death, numerous pieces have come up all over the net, a few of which I’ve compiled below…

• BBC Caribbean: Rex Nettleford: Death of a cultural icon.
• Jamaica Gleaner: Icon lost - Golding, Simpson Miller mourn Nettleford.
• Jamaica Observer: Nettleford ’soars like an eagle’, says former UWI head.
• Yahoo! News: Jamaican scholar, choreographer dies in US at 76.

For more on the life of Mr. Nettleford, see the video below, courtesy of The Jamaica Gleaner…

World Nomads, FIAF’s annual exploration of transculturalism in the 21st century, returns in May with a focus on Haiti—a country brimming with a rich and vibrant cultural life that is both fiercely original and stunningly universal. View Event List (below).

FIAF has partnered with downtown music pioneer S.O.B.’S, the PEN World Voices Festival of International Literature, Haiti’s Ciné Institute, and New York’s revolutionary film center The Maysles Institute for the second edition of the series, in order to bring some of the most exciting examples of Haitian culture to New York.

Spanning all of FIAF, from Le Skyroom to Florence Gould Hall, and stretching between the Maysles Institute in Harlem to S.O.B.’S and The Bubble Lounge downtown, World Nomads Haiti celebrates the inspiring cultural landscape of Haiti—a closely knit community that remains full of hope and promise for the future.

World Nomads is generously supported by American Airlines, the official airline of FIAF; Afrique & Caraïbes en créations–CulturesFrance; and Organisation internationale de la francophonie.

Haitian Aid Organizations: A wealth of foundations and organizations exist whose missions are devoted to providing humanitarian aid in Haiti. Click here for a list of these organisations.

Shouts to Asho, once again, for passing this info onto me. Powerhouse Books is getting set to release It’s Just Begun: The Epic Journey of DJ Disco Wiz, Hip Hop’s First Latino DJ in a few weeks. Check out the details on the book below…

Half-Cuban, half-Puerto Rican, Luis “DJ Disco Wiz” Cedeño is 100 percent Boogie Down Bronx. Raised in the 70s, he learned the code of the streets while hustling with his crew, the East Side Boys. He discovered salvation when he hooked up with the legendary Grandmaster Caz to form the Mighty Force Crew, waging some of the biggest DJ battles in the Bronx during hip hop’s earliest years. An innovator, originator, and a battle-style DJ with no fear, Wiz swept through the Bronx like a tornado. But the streets wouldn’t leave him in peace. Convicted at the age of 17 on an attempted murder charge, he was sentenced to nine years upstate and forced to leave his baby daughter. But as time went on and he overcame his struggles with violence, drugs and alcohol, and women, liberating himself from the path of self-destruction through love, self-respect, and self-determination.

Featuring over 50 never-before-seen photos, It’s Just Begun: The Epic Journey of DJ Disco Wiz, Hip Hop’s First Latino DJ is a gritty and gripping tale of one man’s struggles to not only survive, but to triumph over adversity and abuse that will make your blood run cold. By conquering unimaginable obstacles, Wiz offers inspiration to anyone who has ever wondered, “Why me?”

The book hits shelves on May 19. For more info on the book click here: It’s Just Begun: The Epic Journey of DJ Disco Wiz, Hip Hop’s First Latino DJ @ powerHouseBooks.com

Also, check out info on the release event at the powerHouse Arena in Dumbo after the jump…

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When I was coming up, one of the artists my father always tried to hip me to was Linton Kwesi Johnson. That being the case, I know he’d be happy to know now that college courses in South Africa feature LKJ’s work. Check the details below…

Ask the academia and ask the man in the streets. His pen cuts deeper than the sword. To legions of world music and dub poetry fans worldwide he is LKJ. These three letters say it all. Linton ‘Kwesi’ Johnson. One of the pioneers of the revolutionary dub poetry movement and a living testament to ‘word, sound and power.’

For well beyond thirty years, he has reigned as international dub grand-master. His works have resonated with all who have taken a keen listen. His recently concluded April 25 show at Rhodes University located in the city of Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape Province, saw many reeling out the R100 per ticket, even despite financial woes of many in that city. His monumental visit to South Africa held a series of other LKJ performances from April 24 to May 2, which saw him taking the stage in Johannesbourg, Cape Town and Durban to similarly enthusiastic patrons.

This is a genius of a man, with an extraordinary lyrical acumen . He holds the distinction of being only the second living poet – and the first black poet – to be published in the highly regarded Penguin Modern Classics series. LKJ’s critically acclaimed work forms part of a post-colonial literature course at Rhodes University….

Check out the full story here: LKJ Brings Bass and Culture To South Africa.

After the jump, check out a video of the man at work…

image via Bartek Muracki on Flickr.

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I gotta give a shout to Brook for passing this info on to me. This Sunday Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn is teaming up with The Haitian Book Center to celebrate Haitian literature, in particular that of Author Edwidge Danticat, who’ll be there as a special guest. Check out the info below…

For more info click here: Haitian Book Day @ MEC with Edwidge Danticat THIS SUNDAY!

Jamaican-born, New York-based performance artist Staceyann Chin is getting set to release her memoir, The Other Side Of Paradise next week. She’s had a unique life to this point, to say the least. Check the description of the book below…

No one knew Staceyann’s mother was pregnant until a dangerously small baby was born on the floor of her grandmother’s house in Lottery, Jamaica, on Christmas Day. Staceyann’s mother did not want her, and her father was not present. No one, except her grandmother, thought Staceyann would survive.

It was her grandmother who nurtured and protected and provided for Staceyann and her older brother in the early years. But when the three were separated, Staceyann was thrust, alone, into an unfamiliar and dysfunctional home in Paradise, Jamaica. There, she faced far greater troubles than absent parents. So, armed with a fierce determination and uncommon intelligence, she discovered a way to break out of this harshly unforgiving world.

Staceyann Chin, acclaimed and iconic performance artist, now brings her extraordinary talents to the page in a brave, lyrical, and fiercely candid memoir about growing up in Jamaica. She plumbs tender and unsettling memories as she writes about drifting from one home to the next, coming out as a lesbian, and finding the man she believes to be her father and ultimately her voice. Hers is an unforgettable story told with grace, humor, and courage.

Staceyann is holding a reading/book signing next week at Barnes & Noble in Union Square. Check out the info on that, as well as a video of her at work, after the jump.

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I just got word that the new issue of Nat Creole Magazine is now online.

The new issue features an interview with Beth Lesser, the photographer behind Dancehall: The Story Of Jamaican Dancehall Culture. I’ve posted a bit of the interview below….

Scott C.: I can imagine. What was your introduction to reggae music?

Beth Lesser: We started listening to reggae back when the Skinheads, or what they used to call Suedeheads, were still around. These guys had nothing to do with neo-Nazi movements, but everybody was into reggae and ska and the whole two-tone thing, and we really got into it in the late ’70s. I was never really a big fan of Bob Marley, but I was attracted to groups like the Clash who were working reggae into their sound.

SC: So how did you go from being just a reggae lover, to someone who was privy to the inner workings of an emerging subculture?

BL: (laughs) It was just accidental, you know what I mean. You just meet the right people at the right time and it clicks. The first person we connected with was Augustus Pablo. He had a friend who had a wife up here in Canada and that allowed us to become friends with Pablo and the group of musicians and artists that he worked with. We hung out at Pablo’s store, Rockers, on our first trip to Jamaica and started the first incarnation of Reggae Quarterly based on people who we met through him. That fanzine was called Live Good Today after a Prince Jazzbo song. Surround sound

SC: It just sounds like all you had to do was show up, and all of this music business would just carry on around you.

BL: It was really amazing how welcoming people were. You’d get to know them, and pretty soon we were just like anybody else hanging out in the yard. It got to the point where in the course of one day; we would sit in on a recording session at Jammy’s, then go up to Studio One, and even Sugar Minott’s Youth Promotion all in one shot.

Check out the full interview here: Nat Creole - Beth Lesser. The Story Of Jamaican Dancehall Culture.

Be sure to check out the rest of the new issue right now at natcreole.com.

The BBC has a nice little video report of Ernest Hemingway’s Cuban home, check it out.

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Junot Díaz & Jamaica Kincaid recently sat down with a group of NYC high school kids to discuss their careers as writers, with hopes to inspire some of them to pursue their own careers and The New York Times was there to cover it all. Check out a excerpt from their article below…

Candor and profanity flowed freely among Ms. Kincaid, Mr. Díaz and the students. Conversation quickly turned to transplanted childhoods — Ms. Kincaid emigrated from Antigua as a teenager and Mr. Díaz left the Dominican Republic as a young boy.

“If your past was somehow different, would you still be writers?” asked Nikeeyia Howell, a senior at DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx. Students from Long Island City High School in Queens and Riverdale/Kingsbridge Academy in the Bronx sat at nearby tables.

Ms. Kincaid described her first years in New York as an “emotional Siberia” and said that if she had stayed in Antigua, she likely would have “been a woman of many children, of many lovers.”

One of the students, Yessica Mañan, 17, a senior at DeWitt Clinton, said she felt a personal connection to Mr. Díaz’s short stories. Like Mr. Díaz, she was born in the Dominican Republic; her family moved to the Bronx when she was 2. “I’ve been there, I’ve felt what he felt, I’ve seen what he saw,” said Ms. Mañan, who described herself as an aspiring writer. “With other authors, you’re not always a participant, you can’t always relate.”…

It’s a good read throughout….Check out the full story here: Before Their Eyes, Writers Profane and Very Much Alive.

Dr. Carlos Moore, one of today’s most highly respected authors on the topic of race, will be holding a Book Signing and Discussion for his book Pichón: Race and Revolution in Castro’s Cuba tonight in Harlem. Check the info below…

Shouts to Ariel “Asho” Fernandez for the look on this. For more info on the book, and Dr. Moore, check the video and info after the jump… (more…)