Louise Bennett-Coverley Reading Festival: Urban Voices

Presenter Chris Walker Sr. Choreographer of NDTC of Jamaica

Nicaraguan Poet Francisco Larios, Jamaican storyteller Sydney Roberts, spoken word/hip-hop performance from First Wave touring ensemble from the University of Wisconsin - Madison & Tallawah Mento Band

The African American Research Library and Cultural Center in collaboration with the Louise Bennett-Coverley Heritage Council presents the 16th Annual Louise Bennett-Coverley Reading Festival: Urban Voices. This year's theme will focus on dance, music, poetry, and real-life stories from Caribbean Artists. Three major cultural experience will take place: keynote presenter, Jamaican-born Professor Chris Walker, professor of dance at University of Wisconsin-Madison and a former dancer with the National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica (NDTC); internationally known Nicaraguan poet Francisco Larios, lecturer at Miami-Dade College, will present from his three poetry collections; community activist Sydney Roberts, head of Jamaica Awareness, will present stories from the beginning of Jamaica’s cultural development in the early 1960s. Tallawah Mento Band and Sophia Nicholson will guide the performances throughout the event.

About the African American Research Library and Cultural Center 
The Broward County African American Research Library and Cultural Center (AARLCC) is located in the Sistrunk community, one of the oldest historically Black communities named for one of Fort Lauderdale’s first Black physicians. Opening to the public on October 26, 2002, AARLCC became the third public library of its kind in the United States dedicated to the study of Black history and culture. The 60,000 square-foot Center serves as a repository of materials related to the local, national, and international voices of the African diaspora with more than 85,000 books, manuscripts, artifacts, framed art, print, photography, audiovisual, and documents held in our Adult Services Section and Special Collections. The Youth Services Section features a special collection of Coretta Scott King Award books and the Ashley Bryan Art Collection from illustrators of African Descent. AARLCC also features a 5,000 sq. ft. museum, a 300-seat state-of-the-art theatre, and a Computer Training Center.

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