Ambassador of Culture, Louise Bennett-Coverley. - Contributed
September 7, 1919:
I was born in Kingston, the daughter of Kerene Robinson-Bennett and Augustus Bennett, a businessman. My weight? You too fas'.
February 2, 1942:
Guess what? The management and staff of the Government's radio station, ZQI, invited me to join a whole heap of artistes at a benefit concert given in honour of Archie Lewis, Jamaica's most popular radio, nightclub and stage show star at the St. George's Hall, Duke Street, Kingston. Archie will leave shortly for England where he will play his part in Britain's war with Germany by working in a munitions factory. With me are Racca and Sandy, George Moxey and his trio, Carmen Allen, Blanche Savage, Tony Ableton, Eric Coverley, Granville Campbell, the four Dukes, Gladys Waldron, Rum and Ginger, Harold Holness, Oliver 'John Canoe' Kirkpatrick, Eric Reid, Barrington Estick, Dudley Heslop, and the East Queen Street Young Men's Fraternal. I recited one of my poems.
February 21, 1942:
My poems have become very popular, and George Bowen of the Jamaica Arts Society announces a competition with a first prize of two guineas for an art design for the cover of a book of fifty of my poems. I am described - listen to this carefully - as a "Legitimate interpreter in verse of Jamaican life with all its pungent humour and native colour, and here 50 poems while naturally amusing also have a far deeper and more vital message of the spirit of Jamaica". Hear me trial! What a sinting!
October 31, 1942:
People in the theatre world say I am a natural actress, and I am cast in Forbidden Fruit, a play written by Archie Lindo. It opens tonight at the Ward Theatre in Kingston and stars George Bowen, Vere Johns, Eric Coverley, Inez Hibbert, Ivorall Davis. The theatre pack and according to a reporter in the audience, "hundreds are turned away". Them vex, so-till.
December 18, 1942:
George Bowen presented me with my first book of poems, Jamaica Dialect Verses. The cover design was done by Marjorie Scott who won the Jamaica Arts Society contest announced in February. A feel good.
July 2, 1943:
Once again I appear in another play by Archie Lindo. It opens at the Ward Theatre. This one is called Under the Skin and
it is produced by the Jamaica Arts Society. It is a comedy-drama and is described in the programme as "a daring expose of the colour question blended with the old charm of comedie a la vernacular, which is right up my speed. Plenty plenty tourist is in the audience and them join the native folk in the laughter. Other members of the case are Caswell Henry, Marie Maxwell, Guy Poolman, Hugh Morrison, far Richardson, Gene Joseph and Hazel Colefield.
November 1, 1943:
Imagine, I am in another play at the Ward Theatre. This one is written by Myrtle Cupidon, the wife of one of our most famous comedians. Others in the cast are Daisy Riley, Louise Lamb, Francisco Francis, Eric Darby, Harold and Dudley, and Racca and Amos.
December 25, 1943:
This year's Christmas morning concert at the Ward Theatre presented by Eric Coverley is a musical revue, Anancy Goes To Town. Eric gives me a big part in the revue and my co-stars are Daisy Riley, Mike Campbell, Carmen Allen, Tony Johnson, Tony Ableton, the Rickwell Sisters, Harold and Dudley and their troupe of dancing girls, and Smokie Willie.
December 26, 1944:
Greta Fowler of the Little Theatre Movement invites
me to join the cast of the
LTM Pantomime, Soliday
and the Wicked Bird. By the way, it only plays for six
performances.
March 10, 1945:
An all-night farewell cabaret takes place at the Sugar Hill Club on the Stony Hill Road in St. Andrew for "golden-voiced balladeer", Gloria Espeut (Lawd, she can sing!) Gloria is migrating, and Eric Coverley produces this farewell for her with what he calls "the best of the best" singers, dancers, musicians and comedians. Singers are Francisco Francis, Julian Iffla, Hugh Rickets, Hugh Falconer, Karlene Harris, and Ben Bowers. Dancers are Kid Harold, Shirleena and Rena, the musicians include pianists Con Allison, Constance Bryan and Baba Motta, violinist Flo Wilson and trumpeter George Alberga, calypsonian Lord Flea, and comics, Bim and Racca, Ranny Williams and Lee Gordon, and believe you me, yours truly.
July 7, 1945:
Jolly old England - here I come. I am awarded a scholarship by the British Council to take a special course in dramatic arts, specialising in rural drama at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts in London town.
October 15, 1945:
The editor of The Daily Gleaner has written to me in London asking me to send him some original poems for publication in his newspaper. The first, of what will be done every week, is published today and describes my flight from Jamaica to England. It is titled, Pon Plane and the first verse is:
"Dear Cousin Jane, me deh 'pon plane
Me way up eena sky.
Koo how me po' gal climb and climb
Till' at last me deh fly."
January 29, 1946:
Me head nearly swell when I receive a standing ovation from an audience in a packed auditorium at the British Council's Colonial Students Centre in London at the end of a performance of Jamaican folk songs and dialect poetry.
August 1, 1947:
Every seat in the Ward Theatre is taken by an enthusiastic audience attending the Emancipation holiday three-hour-long show, Il' Man Mose. It is produced by Ben 'Hi-de-Ho' Bowers. From the Overture, Bugle Call Rag by Roy Coburn and his Blu Flames orchestra to the appearance of the old Mose's remains in a swelegant purple and silver casket, there are laughs and thrills. Coburn is also supported by the Don Hitchman band. The cast includes Levi 'Amos' Gordon, Ranny 'Andy' Williams, Carlyle Heywood, Anton Curvo, Lord Fly, Harold Holness, Dudley.
