Guyana Cycling Association of North America Spring Fundraiser

The 22nd Annual Sunshine Awards Nominees for 2010

The SUNSHINE Awards
P. O. Box 3717, Teaneck, New Jersey 07666 USA * 201-836-0799 * Fax 201-836-4440

News Release

Contacts:
Public Relations Department
Phone: 201-836-0799
Fax: 201-836-4440


For Immediate Release


New Jersey, USA, September 20, 2010 -------- The SUNSHINE Awards organization announced the nominees for the 22nd Annual SUNSHINE Awards which will take place on Saturday, October 23 at the AXA Equitable Center, 787 Seventh Avenue in New York City.

Announcing the candidates in the various categories for the 2010 SUNSHINE Awards and the nominees for induction into the 2010 SUNSHINE Awards Hall of Fame, the co-founder of the SUNSHINE Awards Hall of Fame and Chairman of the Nomination Committee, Dr Hollis “Chalkdust” Liverpool said, “It is always an uplifting and proud moment for me to release the names of those unsung heroes for recognition by the SUNSHINE Awards organization. I am proud and excited to continue what we have done annually since 1989. Over the years, I have seen many award institutions and organizations pay tribute to individuals and organizations who have contributed to the calypso, steelband and the carnival arts but the SUNSHINE Awards organization has maintained its tradition of giving recognizing and paying tribute not to the well-known artists but to those equally deserving but seldom haled.” Today, the SUNSHINE Awards organization like a rock in the Caribbean Sea is pleased to release the nominees for the 22nd Annual SUNSHINE Awards”. They are:

Famoro Dioubate, Xylophonist (Guinea, West Africa) On the African music scene, Dioubate is regarded as the guardian of traditions dating back to the 13th century in the ancient Mande Empire.

Dancin Africa (Barbados) was founded twenty-years ago as a community-based non-profit organization to cultivate the skills, talents and potential of individuals ranging in age from nine to thirty-eight years old.

Yves Joseph of Tabou Combo (Haiti) is one of the original members of the Tabou Combo Band. Tabou Combo is one of Haiti’s most famous groups that has made the world aware of 'Kompa' – the popular Haitian dance rhythm sung in French, English, Spanish and Creole.

Dorbrene O’Marde (Antigua) is best known as a playwright, Director, producer, songwriter and lobbyist for the Performing Arts for over twenty-five years.

Sonny Blacks (England) One of the earliest friends of calypsonians in Trinidad and Tobago; a personal friend of the Mighty Spoiler, Blacks produced calypso and dance shows involving the outstanding artists of the era throughout 1940's before going on to England in the 1950's.

Drupatee Persad (Trinidad & Tobago) Drupatee is known as the Chutney Queen of the Caribbean. She started singing at the tender age of 12 alongside her mother in the Hindu temples of Trinidad.

Ramiro Crawford (Costa Rica) Ramiro Crawford is best known in Costa Rica and Central America for using the Performing Arts to bridge the gap between the region and the wider Caribbean, and promoting the African presence in South America.

The Following are the nominees who will be inducted into the 2010 SUNSHINE Awards Hall of Fame:

Dave Martins and the Tradewinds (Guyana). The Tradewinds Band led by the versatile, Dave Martins was formed in 1966. The band became one of the most revered groups in the Caribbean. The Tradewinds first hit, “Honeymooning Couple”, was penned by Dave Martins in 1966, six months after the band was formed. Following on that success, Martins' song-writing ability kept the band at the forefront of Caribbean popular music for decades with such other classics like, “West Indian Alphabet”, “Wong Ping”, “Where Are Your Heroes”, “Old Time Calypso” and “In Guyana”, and “Not a Blade of Grass”. Martins has also written over 110 songs.

Bill Trotman (Trinidad & Tobago) Calypsonian, singer, comedian, dancer, painter, visual artist, writer, poet and are all apt descriptions that describe this talented artist from Trinidad and Tobago.

Norman Darway Adams (Trinidad & Tobago) his whole life has been in the steelband as player, agent, storyteller, researcher, writer, radio and television host, and above all, lecturer/historian.

Alfred “Sacks” Mayers (Trinidad & Tobago) who is often described as one of the steelband pioneers of the 1940's.

The SUNSHINE Awards was founded in 1989. It was designed to recognize, honor and pay tribute to the creators, performers and promoters of Caribbean music, art, poetry, dance and culture. Special features of the program are the SUNSHINE Awards Hall of Fame and the SUNSHINE Awards Student Recognition Program which was started in 1998. Learn more about the awards at http://www.sunshineawards.com/

Help the Earthquake Victims of Haiti

People searched for survivors in the rubble of a supermarket in Port-au-Prince.
Photo: Frederic Dupoux/Getty Images

The magnitude 7.0 earthquake, that struck Haiti shortly before 5pm on Tuesday, January 12, 2010, occurred approximately 10 miles south of the capital city of Port-au-Prince. There were at least three aftershocks greater than a magnitude 5.0 in the hours immediately following the main shock.

The earthquake was felt widely, including in the Dominican Republic, the southeastern portion of the Bahamas, as well as in Jamaica and Cuba.

Over two million people are estimated to live in the area that experienced very strong shaking. Due to the overall construction quality, few buildings in the region are resistant to ground shaking from earthquakes.

Many aftershocks followed the quake and more were expected, according to the

United States Geological Survey. People fled into the streets of the capital.
Photo: Tequila Minsky for The New York Times

Two places the Community Collaborator suggests contacting to help our Haitian brothers and sisters are Brooklyn 's District 40 Office of Haitian born Councilman Mathieu Eugene. His office is located at 123 Linden Boulevard, telephone: 718-287-8762 and Samaritan's Purse, which is headed by Franklin Graham. http://www.samaritanspurse.org/

Help Haiti Quake Victims and lift the nation up in prayers.

Keeping Caribbean Impact in Print

AN OPINION

Relight the Torch of the Caribbean Diaspora

BROOKLYN, NY: Is it just me... or is there a hint of the ‘we can’t do anything about it’ mentality when our small Caribbean-American focused newspapers stop printing? Yes, the economy is bad but news is always important and newspapers are the most believed venue for news and information for many in this Diaspora...

Well, I’m not happy about it, and I’m sure that the sage members of the Diaspora are not prepared to loose a part of their fiber that still resonates as the best way to get the real story… The printed words of newspapers have seen better days for centuries; newspapers moved from telling us who died, got married, bought land and who was wanted for crimes, to being tomes of information and financial betterment. What’s happening now is that people have more choices to get news. But newspapers are nowhere near becoming lost in our history, especially with the variety of community papers that are available for the Caribbean American Diaspora.

Print newspapers and their online versions combined today are more popular than imagined, and yet mainstream media reports always seem to imply the print industry as gasping for air at the throat in the clutches of a digital hand.

Case in point is Caribbean Impact, based in New York and known as the Torch of the Caribbean-American Diaspora in its tri-state hub. Since its inception, the paper has been published and distributed freely in their hub and transported to the Maryland-DC, Atlanta and Florida areas that boast significant numbers of Caribbean-Americans. They found a niche in ensuring coverage for each island in business, politics, culture and folklore. The print version was followed by an online version http://www.caribimpact.net which enjoyed viewership internationally from the Caribbean and Guyana, to Europe and Africa and even to Turkey.

I’m not complaining about the internet as a vehicle for delivery of news and more; I think the internet does lots of things right. It allows papers like Caribbean Impact to compete, on breaking or expanded news. It provides additional information beyond what’s printed on paper, including documents that substantiate specific news reports. It enables us to creating links to other stories and past articles can be easily retrieved from the online archives. It’s made the growth of our Diasporic publications like CaribbeanWorldNews.com, Caribbean360.com and Caribbeannetnews.com and more, progress nicely. However, I do think it’s a troubling that print newspapers are losing readership; and getting our very community to understand the importance of their support is

Your help is needed to fund the continued printing of this paper which is distributed and provided freely to you, the community it serves.

Apart from being among the contributing writers who volunteer their ability to the paper for its bi-weekly publishing I’m among those disturbed by the threatened loss of print news. If you’ve been paying attention, then you know this is a tough time for newspapers. Advertising revenues and circulation is down. Readership is shifting to the internet, and the economic base that sustained print papers is not presently there either. The consequences have meant an impromptu hiatus for papers like Caribbean Impact. Their last issue printed was published on April 1, 2009.

Caribbean Impact was founded in 2003 by Dennis Nelson, Edgar Henry and Godfrey Wray, their vision was to provided news and information for the Guyanese and Caribbean-American community members who’d emigrated here. With dedicated sections of news covering the various islands and countries, Caribbean Impact provides indebt reporting and coverage beyond the bits and pieces of mainstream publications and media, editorials and opinions. This publication includes the community it serves; there are personal highlights from milestone birthdays to academic achievement, humor and obituaries; customary for the audience who like the feel of reading something they would if still living ‘back-home’. Newspapers are valuable and authoritative sources of information in the ex-patriot Caribbean-American mind; and newspapers are the usual source of quick news updates reported on the radio.

MAKE AN IMPACT…

This is an appeal to the Caribbean Diaspora at large to step up and support Caribbean Impact to ensure that we maintain coverage of the current events that matter to us.

The Friends of Caribbean Impact is the first group to openly call for the revival and upkeep of this paper; they plan to host a series of fund raising benefits begining on July 4th. Show your support for Caribbean Impact by making a donation or becoming an Advertising Patron of the publication.

You can also make a personal donation to Caribbean Impact; send it to the Brooklyn office at 282 East 42nd Street, Brooklyn, NY 11203 – Attention: Godfrey Wray