Donna McFarlane, the director/curator of Liberty Hall: The Legacy of Marcus Garvey, is the guest on Conscious Lyrics this weekend, said Shujah Reiph, host/producer of radio magazine.
According to museologist McFarlane, the Liberty Hall building was refurbished in 2003 and houses the Marcus Mosiah Garvey multimedia museum, the Garvey research/reference library, the Garvey multimedia computer center, and a gift shop. The Jamaica-based museum also provides outreach programs.
"We are developing Liberty Hall as a cultural/educational institution that will be beneficial to residents of the surrounding inner-city communities of downtown Kingston first, then all of Jamaica, and the world," said McFarlane.
Marcus Mosiah Garvey was the founder of the UNIA that famously championed the liberation of Africa, the Caribbean and Black peoples everywhere during the first part of the 1900s — from colonialism, imperialism and other forms of oppression. He is today a premier National Hero of Jamaica, where he was born in St. Anne Bay on August 17, 1887.
To remember and even to be inspired by the struggles and achievements of this great hero, Conscious Lyrics will feature a two-hour special on the life and times of Marcus Garvey.
In addition to the exclusive McFarlene interview, Conscious Lyrics will feature selected readings about Marcus Garvey, speeches by Garvey, an interview with UWI Professor Rupert Lewis, chairman of The Friends of Liberty Hall Foundation, and references to Garvey’s influence in St. Martin.
"Garvey influenced a number of St. Martiners in the early part of the last century, from L.B. Scot, who founded the PMIA in Great Bay, to Thomas Duruo, a leading political and social organizer from Rambaud," said Reiph.