Caribbean nationals have made, and continue to make, important contributions to the arts both inside and outside of the Caribbean. Yet, Caribbean authors and the experiences and wisdom their stories bring traditionally have had limited access to the American market. Both HBF and the Consulate believe it’s important to create a platform for authors to promote and share their work to the benefit of all cultures and to the promotional benefit of the island nations from which they write.   

The launch of The Art & Literary Salon will be Friday, August 29, 2008 7:00pm at The Consulate General of Jamaica 767 Third Ave 2^nd Floor, New York, NY 10017 featuring Beverley Manley’s new book, The Manley Memoirs. Beverley Manley is an activist for gender rights, motivational speaker, and former first lady—fourth wife of Michael Manley, Jamaica’s fifth Prime Minister during the 70’s. The Manley Memoirs was released in Jamaica, W.I. May 2008. Since then she has shared her book with others in the Caribbean and Florida. Her first New York book discussion was during the 10th anniversary of the Harlem Book Fair on July 19, 2008. The Manley Memoirs tells of “a young girl, starved of her mother’s love because she was darker than her siblings, and forced to do housework while her sisters relaxed, Beverley was a modern-day Cinderella. Told incessantly that she was good for nothing, she defied her mother’s prophecy by becoming a household name in local radio, television, and on stage”.  

It was her path at the then Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation (JBC) that lead to Michael Manley and the Jamaica House. Marriage to Michael also leads to her political awakening. Beverley assumed an activist role in the governing Peoples National Party (PNP), becoming embroiled in the ideological politics of the 1970s that would eventually lead to her estrangement from Michael, the destruction of their marriage, her flight into the arms of a rival lover and finally to a self-imposed exile in the US, where she took refuge from the ire of the Jamaican elite for daring to walk out on one of their own. 

The Art & Literary Salon will showcase authors & visual artists of CARICOM as a means to promote the islands, the richness of its’ cultures, and the creativity of its’ people through the written word & visual artistic expression. The Art & Literary Salon and its participants will be aggressively promoted through news print, online, email blasts and various blogs & websites.

About the Harlem Book Fair and QBR/The Black Book Review

The Harlem Book Fair was founded in 1999 by Max Rodriguez, publisher of QBR The Black Book Review as a community event and forum for the African Diaspora readers to discover, experience and celebrate Black history and culture through books. Attended by over 50,000 readers and televised nationally on C-Span, the success of that first book fair began what has become a week-end long event and the country’s largest community gathering of readers and book lovers. It has evolved into a national brand that is expanding into new markets each year. We are proud to expand the book fair to highlight members of the African Diaspora.  

About the Consulate General of Jamaica

The primary mission of the Jamaican Consulate General in New York is to promote and safeguard the interest of Jamaica and Jamaicans in the thirty three (33) States under the jurisdiction of the United States, Puerto Rico and Bermuda. The Consulate also seeks to strengthen the linkages with the Jamaican Diaspora and encourage their participation in national development.