Last Wednesday, a sample of literature books and CDs were presented to the Philipsburg Jubilee Library (PJL) by House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP), one of the St. Martin Book Fair organizers.
The books are gifts from Cuba’s Casa de las Americas for libraries in St. Martin. The University of St. Martin (USM) library received a sample of titles on June 5, following the President’s Forum at the 7th annual St. Martin Book Fair (June 4-6, 2009). A set of books will also be presented to the Marigot Library, said Shujah Reiph, president of Conscious Lyrics, a book fair partner. Casa received the book fair’s President’s Award on June 6 in recognition of its 50 years of publishing and contributing to the literary and cultural arts in the Caribbean and Latin America. Caridad Fernandez, a research specialist at Casa in Havana, delivered the President’s Forum lecture at USM and received the award on behalf of Casa at the closing ceremony of the book fair. (Interestingly, a few years ago PJL and HNP had jointly presented books about St. Martin’s culture, history and politics to Cuba’s Jose Marti National Library). In photo (L-R): Sorellis Peters of HNP’s book launch committee and Ans Koolen, PJL assistant director, pose with the sample of literature books and spoken word and music CDs – including titles in Spanish by two of the finest authors of the Americas Jacques Roumain (Haiti) and Pablo Neruda (Chile).