Some familiar names, and voices, will be part of a new Caribbean-American broadcasting effort - One Caribbean Radio (620-AM), “New York’s Newest Voice.”
The Brooklyn-based station, located in the Bedford-Stuyvesant Restoration Plaza complex, had its official launch Friday. Listeners can get music, news and other information from a crew of longtime, respected broadcasters – including former WLIB program director Bob (Spiceman) Fredricks, veteran international journalist Donn Bobb, Mad Man Maddy, Ian (The Goose) Eligon, Lorraine Murr, Sam Taitt and Franklin (Bobby) Vieira.
With listeners and advertisers in mind, One Caribbean Radio was established to help bring more Caribbean-oriented programming back to the New York market, all under the leadership of chair and CEO Edmon Braithwaite. Advertisers can gain access to the city’s viable Caribbean consumer market.
Visit www.onecaribbeanradio.com or call 718-622-1081 for information and advertising opportunities.
Fine arts show
The annual National Black Fine Art Show, the African-American art event of the year, returns to New York this week.
Painting, photography, mixed media, limited edition prints, sculpture and other mediums will be on display and up for sale at the big show, which runs from Thursday, February 14 through next Sunday, February 17 at the Puck Building, 295 Lafayette St. at Houston St.
Also returning will be the educational series of programs - a favorite of veteran and novice art lovers - presented by the Museum of Contemporary African Diasporian Arts (MoCADA).
A charity preview on Wednesday is actually the first event of the show. Proceeds from the pre-show sneak-peek, reception will benefit the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
For the public, the show opens Thursday. Hours are noon to 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday. Saturday show hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The MoCADA educational programs include daily guided tours of the big show and panel discussions. For information, call 718-230-0492.
General Admission is $15 for adults with a three-day pass available for $40. Students with ID get in for $10; $25 for a three-day pass. Children 16 years-of-age and under admitted free when accompanied by an adult, but no strollers are allowed on the show floor.
For information on the National Black Fine Arts Show, visit www.nationalblackfineartshow.com or send e-mail to info@blackfineartshow.com.
Whole Kitts and caboodle
In celebration of this week’s start of nonstop Delta Air Lines flights from Atlanta to St. Kitts, Robert Kelly of the St. Kitts Tourism Authority was touting special summer promotions to the island last week in Manhattan.
Beginning on Saturday, February 16 Delta will start its nonstops from Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport to the Caribbean nation. In addition, Kelly brought more good news - the “Two Great Weekends, One Great Destination” summer promotion and a low-fare offer from Delta Vacations.
Setting off to work
An organization of Eastern Caribbean States regional program to help young people successfully enter the work world is underway in St. Lucia with the help of $3.5 million from the World Bank’s International Development Association.
Grenada is slated to be the next nation to introduce the project designed to help young people and the economy by increasing the employment rate and decreasing crime and other negative factors.
Started late last year, the OECS Skills for Inclusive Growth Project has several goals. The initiative will prepare young people for their entry into the job market and take advantage of the economic expansion-taking place in St. Lucia and other parts of the Caribbean.
The initiative subsidizes the training of close to 2,000 unemployed youth and their placement in training programs in private companies.
The project also takes aim at the nation’s high youth employment rate. Youth unemployment in St. Lucia was 39 percent in 2005. Recent World Bank estimates show that a reduction in youth unemployment - to around the general population’s jobless rate of 13 percent - could increase the nation’s gross domestic product by more than 1 percent.
The regional project is being funded by a multi-million dollar, zero-interest credit line from the International Development Association, a division of the World Bank that provides interest-free loans.
To their health
Two groups - the Provident Clinical Society and the Organization for International Development - joined forces to hold a recent medical and dental mission to Jamaica, which began in the Maroon community of Accompong and visited about a half-dozen locations.
“This collaboration represents the initiation of what we are confident will be a sustained relationship for humanitarian health care relief, not only in Jamaica but on a global scale,” said Dexter McKenzie, president of Provident Clinical Society.
“Both organizations have wonderful legacies and are committed to service for the underserved, so it is only fitting that we find ways to compliment each other’s strengths in order to realize a more substantive and sustained effect,” McKenzie said.
On the medical trip, the volunteers provided dental and medical care, including team treatment of hypertension, diabetes, cholesterol, asthma and infection.
When the medical mission came to St. James Parish, about 1,200 residents of Springfield and surrounding communities showed up for dental, optical, pediatric and other services. The clinic was held at the Springfield Baptist Church.
This column is reprinted from the February 10 Sunday editions of The New York Daily News. If you have any items suitable for this column please e-mail them to jmccallister@nydailynews.com.
