SOUTH FLORIDA – Since May when Sharon Gordon held a signing for her first book, Sheribaby, at VP Records in Queens, New York, the author has had similar events in South Florida, New Jersey and Toronto. Each attracted enthusiastic crowds and took her down memory lane.
While inspired by her youth in Jamaica, Gordon says Sheribaby is not an autobiography. It reflects on the title character’s life in Jamaica from 1969 to 1975 in Rollington Town, a middle-class community in east Kingston.
“Amazing response to the launch events; packed houses; high energy; lots of conversations and many books being sold and signed,” Gordon told South Florida Caribbean News. “Attendees include lots of elected officials; celebrities as well as media folks; as well as regular folks have been coming out to support Sheribaby including my Alpha ‘old girls’ as I am an Alpha girl.”
Alpha, a leading all-girl school, is a five-minute drive from Rollington Town. That area was a hotbed of political activity during the late 1960s and throughout the 1970s when Jamaica underwent tumultuous political and social change.
Gordon migrated to the United States in 1979 and like many Jamaicans, settled in Brooklyn, New York. She has never forgotten her upbringing in Kingston, and as a nod to those roots, Sheribaby is written in patois, the Jamaican dialect whose use was advocated by legendary folklorist Louise “Miss Lou” Bennett-Coverley.
As she prepares for another book signing in Laurel, Maryland on July 10th, Gordon encourages West Indians who live overseas to write books like Sheribaby.
“It is extremely important for those of us in the Diaspora to document our roots in an effort to leave a legacy, leave a document for our children and grandchildren, so they know their history and their heritage and the important contributions we have made to society in general,” she said.
