Son, Hollywood actress-activist to headline Marcus Garvey Day events

A major public conversation on emancipation, reparations and Black achievement will take centre stage this month when the son of the pioneer pan-Africanist will join a Hollywood actress and activist on visits here for the Marcus Garvey Day celebrations, government officials announced on Thursday.

The celebrations will welcome Marcus Garvey’s son, Dr Julius Garvey, who will attend with his wife the private rededication of the Steel Shed amphitheatre at Queen’s Park on August 18. It was there that the pioneer pan-Africanist gave a prominent lecture titled Intelligence Versus Ignorance in October 1937, witnessed by a 17-year-old Errol Walton Barrow.

Actress and activist Jennifer Lewis is to be the featured guest at a major event on August 17 at the Lloyd Erskine Sandiford Centre.

“We’ll be inviting to Barbados the acclaimed actress, activist and author Jennifer Lewis to engage in a fireside chat [and public conversation] around important events representing emancipation,” said Rodney Grant, programme advisor in the Division of Youth and Culture and Office of Pan African Affairs and Heritage at a media launch for the celebrations.

Explaining the choice of guest, he said organisers wanted “to take the conversation of emancipation beyond slavery” by highlighting the achievements of people of African descent while engaging the wider African diaspora.

Discussions on reparations for the transatlantic slave trade during a recent meeting in Accra, Ghana highlighted the shared experiences of Africans across the diaspora, he said.

“We recognise that the same trials that our foreparents would have gone through here they would have gone through as well,” he said, noting the struggles of African Americans during the civil rights movement. 

“It’s important that we are able to move the conversation then to where we are at now as Black people and to examine the achievements that we are making…because people of African descent would have had to engage in specific struggles… and therefore achievements for us were not ever easy.”

Lewis will also meet with young creatives on August 18 at the Wildey Gymnasium from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

“She explicitly asked to engage young creatives,” Grant said, adding that participants would include children from summer artistic camps and cultural groups.

Lewis, who is also a singer and author with a career spanning more than four decades in film, television and theatre, is often referred to as the “Mother of Black Hollywood” for her frequent portrayals of mothers on film. She is best known for roles in the television comedies Black-ish and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, as well as for her advocacy on mental health and African-American cultural issues, appearing in public service announcements promoting the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Organisers will also announce the winners of the Marcus Garvey Entrepreneurship Pitch during the August 17 programme. Grant pointed to the competition’s rapid growth since its launch in 2023.

“In 2023, we had only 15 entrants, in 2024 we had 30, in 2025 we had 63, and this year we had 130. So we almost doubled every year,” he said.

Judges are narrowing the field from 130 entrants to five finalists before selecting the top three. The winner will receive $20 000, with second and third place earning $7 000 and $3 000 respectively.

Tickets for both public events are available free of charge from the National Library Service in Bridgetown, BTMI in Warrens and the Division of Culture at SkyMall.

(SB)