Three promi­nent his­to­ri­ans-Dr Mau­reen Warn­er-Lewis, Prof Emeri­ta of African Caribbean Lan­guage and Ora­ture at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, Mona Ja­maica, Dr Hol­lis R Lynch, Prof Emer­i­tus of African His­to­ry, Uni­ver­si­ty of Co­lum­bia, New York, and Ho­race Wil­son, out­stand­ing script writer and film pro­duc­er -will be ho­n­oured at the To­ba­go Word Fes­ti­val. The gala cer­e­mo­ny takes place on Sep­tem­ber 22 at Mt Irvine Bay Ho­tel. There will even be a spe­cial award for a well-known To­ba­go his­to­ri­an, ed­u­ca­tion­al­ist and re­searcher. The in­di­vid­ual will be named there. A re­lease is­sued by fes­ti­val di­rec­tor Deb­o­rah Moore-Mig­gins said, "The fes­ti­val is in­tend­ed to de­vel­op the skill of writ­ing among To­bag­o­ni­ans and to recog­nise the dis­tin­guished writ­ers of To­ba­go. In 2011, the fes­ti­val was a re­sound­ing suc­cess and this year promis­es to be even more ex­cit­ing!" The fes­ti­val opened yes­ter­day with a work­shop on the Yoru­ba lan­guage which was fa­cil­i­tat­ed by cul­tur­al icon/singer El­la An­dall. She sang the clas­sic Miss­ing Gen­er­a­tion. An open-mic ses­sion for po­ets, rap­pers, com­posers and writ­ers fol­lowed.

About To­ba­go Word Fes­ti­val

The Em­pow­er­ment Foun­da­tion of To­ba­go, the To­ba­go Writ­ers Guild and the Jeg­na Ed­u­ca­tion­al Ser­vices with the sup­port of the To­ba­go House of As­sem­bly, have col­lab­o­rat­ed to stage the sec­ond an­nu­al To­ba­go Word Fes­ti­val (Sep­tem­ber 15 to 22). The fes­ti­val will al­so fea­ture sev­er­al work­shops for writ­ers and teach­ers of sec­ondary and pri­ma­ry schools by renowned ed­u­ca­tion­al­ists and pro­fes­sors who teach var­i­ous gen­res of writ­ing. There are valu­able prizes for the school, church, teacher or in­di­vid­ual with the high­est lev­el of at­ten­dance or par­tic­i­pa­tion in the fes­ti­val.

Sep­tem­ber18

Well-known guid­ance coun­sel­lor Camile Swapp will fa­cil­i­tate a ses­sion on child and ado­les­cent de­vel­op­ment for par­ents, guardians and teach­ers at 9.30 am at the Works Lec­ture Room, en­ti­tled Coun­ter­ing the Neg­a­tive Im­ages of Blacks in Ad­ver­tis­ing; at 6.30 pm at the Works Con­fer­ence Room; and Spey­side High School at 2 pm.

Sep­tem­ber 20

Cul­tur­al his­to­ri­an An­tho­ny Brow­der at Char­lot­teville at 6.15 pm

Sep­tem­ber 21

Dr Pe­dro Noguera, renowned Trinidad-born and in­ter­na­tion­al ed­u­ca­tion­al­ist spe­cial­is­ing in at-risk youth will con­duct ses­sions en­ti­tled From Risk to Re­silience: Cre­at­ing Schools that Sup­port Aca­d­e­m­ic Achieve­ment and Youth De­vel­op­ment, and Build­ing the Ca­pac­i­ty of Schools to Pre­pare Youth for Col­lege and Adult­hood. For more in­for­ma­tion, con­tact aisha@visit­to­ba­go.gov.tt