Caribbean Connections Celebrates Caribbean-American Heritage Month “All of WE is Family”

What a wonderful event last night at Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL), Event Center, York Public Library celebrating Caribbean Heritage Month. The event began with an incredible fashion show featuring the House of D’Marsh - led by talented Jamaican born Glenroy Marsh. He opened the program with an elegant fashion show with amazing imagery and style.

Followed was an amazing panel of Caribbean community activist, and advocates that guests speakers were Nadege Fleurimond, Shelley Worrell, Meagan Sylvester, Linda Watson-Lorde, and Glenroy March, with Loretta Green-Williams, Moderator. The panel of professionals shared their beginning career paths, and inspirations towards their perspective industry.

The Panelists

Glenroy March, Jamaican-born New York based fashion designer, Tastemaker and chief couturier of the revered design brand, House of D’Marsh has been driving creative conversations in the fashion industry for almost two decades. The award-winning designer who received his early training from top Caribbean fashion house Uzuri International as an intern assistant designer, has since gone on to a successful career as an award winning designer whose designs have adorned the runways and showrooms across the globe. Since its inception, D’Marsh Couture collections have debuted in the Caribbean, the United States, Asia and most recently the continent of Africa. Among the international shows the designer has appeared includes the Guangzhou International Fashion Week in China and Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Accra in Ghana.

Meagan Sylvester is a published author from the Caribbean twin island of Trinidad and Tobago. She is a UWI, St. Augustine graduate and a Caribbean scholar whose doctoral research focused on Narratives of Resistance in Calypso and Ragga Soca Music. Her continuing interrogation within the academy centers on music, gender, and national identity in calypso and soca, music of diasporic carnivals, narratives of resistance in calypso and ragga soca music, steelpan and kaisojazz musical identities. Teaching and research interests are Caribbean music cultures and African Diaspora popular culture.

Linda Yvette Watson-Lorde was born to Nigel Neblett and Eleanor Watson (now deceased), in God’s mini paradise, the island of Barbados. The mother of three adult children and the grandmother of three, she is a devout Christian, with membership in the Diocese of Long Island in the Episcopal Church. She joined the Consulate General of Barbados as the Cultural and Community Affairs Officer in December 2004. Linda holds a BA in Political Science from Brooklyn College, New York.

Shelley Vidia Worrell is a cultural entrepreneur born in NYC and raised between Brooklyn & the Caribbean. She is the Founder of I AM CaribBeing, a thriving venture at the crossroads of culture + art + lifestyle that collaborates with some of the Caribbean’s most visionary talent and brands. Worrell also led the movement to name Brooklyn’s Little Caribbean, to support and celebrate hyperlocal Caribbean-American communities and culture.

Nadege Fleurimond is an Entrepreneur, culinary mastermind, real estate investor and real estate agent. Nadege is a passionate innovator who harnesses her entrepreneurial skills and creative inspiration to serve communities. Through her work she seeks to educate about entrepreneurship, financial empowerment and bridging communities through powerful food endeavors and conversations. She successfully juggles a thriving catering company, a growing real estate venture, an event space, and a flourishing consulting business helping entrepreneurs.

Moderator, Loretta Green-Williams is Senior Vice President for Global Branding & Culture Awareness for Caribeme Magazine, a culture-conscious lifestyle digital magazine that she co-founded with her daughter, Dana Verde. Green-Williams is the founder and executive director for Women of Concern Professional & Strategic Conscious Networking (WOCPSCN), and holds the covenant title of Advocacy for Human Rights from the US Institute of Diplomacy and Human Rights. She is an ordained minister under the National Association of Christian Ministers and the founder of the Caribbean Diaspora Professional and Business Association. She is authoring her third book, regarding African American communities in Southern New Jersey that has been recognized by the New Jersey Historical Society.

Photos Courtesy of Zena George, SNPL Assistant Director