SUNRISE – A two-day celebration to honor the 122nd birthday anniversary of Jamaica’s first National Hero, the Right Excellent Marcus Mosiah Garvey will be held Saturday (Aug. 15) and Monday (Aug. 17), at the Joseph C. Carter Park in Sunrise, Florida.
Under the patronage of Jamaica’s Consul General, Mrs. Sandra Grant Griffiths, the two-day Extravaganza will begin on Saturday (Aug. 15) at 2:00 p.m., with a variety-packed program paying tribute to the National Hero. The event will feature cultural performances of song, dance and drama featuring several artists from Jamaica and the United States of America as well as art and craft and ethnic cuisine displays.
A recreation of Garvey’s Liberty Hall headquarters, located in downtown Kingston will also be displayed at the event which will also feature a multi-media exhibition of photographs, art and information about the historical life and times of the National Hero.
On Monday (Aug. 17), three honorees will be recipients of awards for outstanding community service in the South Florida Diasporic community at a Community Forum beginning at 7:00 p.m. Guest speaker will be Pan Africanist and former Government official and diplomat, Ambassador Dudley Thompson, O.J.
Marcus Garvey organized and led the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) the largest international mass movement of black people.
During his career, he also traveled extensively throughout many countries observing the poor working and living conditions of black people around the world. He also organized the African Communities League (ACL) in Jamaica as a means of uniting and uplifting the downtrodden masses of Black people, and giving them a sense of purpose, pride and positive self-identification.
A journalist, publisher and patron of the arts, Garvey was the catalyst behind the cultural rebirth of the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920’s America. He also established the UNIA’s Liberty Hall, located in downtown Kingston.
Garvey was born in St. Ann’s Bay on August 17, 1887. He died in England in 1940. In 1964, his body was brought back to Jamaica and buried in the National Heroes Park in Kingston.
