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…

Our peoples at F.O.K.U.S. have just dropped the latest issue of their monthly mag, INSIGHT. Check out the details below…

…Check out the new issue of INSIGHT, Volume II, Issue 3. This issue features a commemorative cover of Michael Jackson by Justin Bua, a playlist of MJ songs and art that is as diverse and multi-faceted as the life of Mike Jackson.

In this issue, F.O.K.U.S. spoke with Anthony “Fascious” Martinez about his one-man play Penumbra and Markus Ward caught up with modern furniture designer Hugh Acton in a sophisticated Q&A called “A Modern Man.” This issue also features art from Michael Sorgatz, photography by Clay Williams, poetry by Adam Faulkner and much more…

Check out the new issue here: INSIGHT, Volume II, Issue 3.

One of Guyana’s most accomplished and respected scholars, Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, died earlier this week at the age of 74. We’ve spoken a bit about his work before, and now is as good a time as ever to give the man his due. Oscar Ramjeet wrote a peice on Van Sertima that appeared online today. Check an excerpt from the article below…

…Guyanese have not only contributed to the Caribbean, but the entire world.

I just learned of the passing of Dr Ivan Van Sertima, a former professor of the University of Rutgers and an important son of the soil, who told the United Nations that Columbus did not in fact discover the Americas.

Van Sertima was a Guyanese-British historian, linguist and anthropologist. He was a noted for his Afrocentric theory of pre-Columbian contact between Africa and the Americas….

Van Sertima was a prolific writer on the history of Africa and The Americas. To purchase some of his work, including his most well-known, They Came Before Columbus: The African Presence in Ancient America, click here: Dr. Ivan Van Sertima @ Amazon.com.

Also, check out a few videos of Dr. Van Sertima at work after the jump…

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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.

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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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.

I’ve been meaning to write a post on this year’s Calabash International Literary Festival, which took place a few weeks back in JA. I was hoping to give a full recap, including winners of awards, etc… but I haven’t been able to find all the info on everything online. That being said, I thought it would be good to shed some light on this year’s proceedings, to give an idea of the flavor of the fest on the whole.

For a short recaps, check out a podcast from Caribbean Free Radio here, and another from Radio Open Source here.

For more info on Calabash on the whole, check out their official site here.