Dr. Ivan Van Sertima among honorees of the Guyana Cultural Association – Folk Festival Awards
BROOKLYN, NY – The Guyana Cultural Association – Folk Festival, is proud to announce the recipients of the 2007 Guyana Cultural Association Awards.
Author of award winning movie “To Sir With Love ” E. R. Braithwaite, will be among 12 to be presented with the 2007 GCA Exemplary Award at the organization’s 6th Awards Ceremony, scheduled to take place at Brooklyn Borough Hall, on Wednesday August 29, at 7:00 p.m.
Born in British Guiana, Braithwaite attended Queens Collage – the country’s most prestigious boy schools, before moving to England, where he completed his studies at Oxford University, graduating in History and Engineering. He received his Master’s Degree in Physics, and later enlisted in the Royal Air force during WW II.
Braithwaite is world renowned for his autobiographical novel To Sir With Love”ù that chronicled his life as a teacher in London’s East End. The book “To Sir With Love” became a movie, starring Academy Award winner Sidney Potier. Braithwaite continued to write novels and short stories even while he had a long international career as an educational consultant with UNESCO, Paris, Permanent representative from Guyana to the United Nations, Guyana Ambassador to Venezuela and teaching English at New York University.
Dr. Ivan Van Sertima
The Lifetime Achievement Award will be given to Dr. Ivan Van Sertima, who has spent nearly a generation’s time through scholarship in asserting the truth of African civilization. He is a literary critic, a linguist, and an anthropologist.
Dr. Ivan Van Sertima is the author of “They Came From Columbus ⤓ The AfricanPresence in Ancient America. The prolific Guyanese studied at London University where he graduated with honors. He came to the United States in 1970, where he completed his postgraduate studies at Rutgers University, and began his teaching career as an instructor at the same university where he later became Professor of African Studies in the Department of Africana Studies.
Celebrating the theme “ Origins, Identity and influence, and the bicentennial of the abolition of the Trade in African captives, Guyana’s Ambassador to the United States, the Hon. Bayney Karran, will join in honoring GCA/Folk Festival Awardees; Poet, Politician and Lyricist Eusi Kwayana, Master Drummer and Herbalist Menes De Groit, Calpsonian GeoffreyPhillips(the Mighty Rebel), Stage & Screen Entertainer and Broadcaster Cy Grant, Sybil’s Bakery – Entrepreneur Vibert “Cookie” Bernard, Cultural EnablerBrindley Horatio Benn, Snr., Musicians the Paul Brothers, Writer, EditorPetamber Persaud, Spoken Word folklorist Pauline McKenzie Thomas, and Tots and Teens of Guyana.
Attendance at the Awards Ceremony is by invitation only.
