Tapping into the vibrant Caribbean-American marketplace, Courts Caribbean – the popular Caribbean furniture, electronics and appliance chain - opens its first North American store here this week with a free special delivery offer for customers with relatives and friends in the islands.
Courts, which has stores in 11 Caribbean countries, is offering its Brooklyn store customers the option to have orders delivered without charge to Caribbean destinations where the chain has branches.
After months of preparation, promotion and anticipation, the new store, located at 2822 Church Avenue (between Nostrand and Rogers Avenues) opens to the public on Friday, October 31 a day after a VIP reception and kickoff at the New York Marriott at Brooklyn Bridge.
A division of the international Unicomer Group, Courts Caribbean started in 1959 and is known throughout the region for affordable appliances and furniture. Courts Caribbean currently operates in Antigua, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, St. Lucia and Trinidad, and has 90 stores in the region.
Awards benefit Mustard Seed
The Caribbean-American Outreach Association USA’s 2008 “Dinner Dance, Fashion Show and Awards Ceremony,” will be held Saturday, November 8 at Glen Terrace, 1513 Avenue N (between 53rd and 54th Streets), Brooklyn, honoring six outstanding individuals and a Caribbean-American medical association.
Proceeds from the event will help purchase medication for the international Mustard Seed Community’s “Dare to Care HIV/AIDS Program” and benefit the association’s scholarship fund. Donation is $100 per person for the black-tie affair. Call 917-770-7983, 718-690-3451 or 215-681-5487 for tickets and information.
Smith in zip mode
The slogan of political pundit Verna Smith’s blog is “Putting the zip in politics!” And with the significant presidential bid of Hillary Clinton and the momentous showdown between Barack Obama and John McCain in its final days, politics for Smith could not be zippier.
“I’ve never seen a time like this. For me this has been an exciting political time,” said Smith, who runs www.vernasmith.blogspot.com. She updates her site daily and is a contributor to the wide-ranging Manchester Square blog.
“I believe in different points of view,” said Smith, who also provides links to liberal and conservative Web sites and blogs.
Poet and author tour
Caribbean Cultural Theatre’s “Poets & Passion” series continues this week with a whirlwind of presentations around the city by Grenadian poet and novelist Merle Collins and author Beverly Manley of Jamaica, wife of the late Jamaican Prime Minister Michael Manley.
On Wednesday at noon, Manley who penned her autobiography “Manley Memoirs,” teams up with Collins, author of the politically inspired Caribbean poetry collection “Lady in a Boat,” for a reading and book signing in Manhattan at St. John’s University’s Manhattan campus, 101 Murray Street (between Greenwich and West Streets) Reservations are required. Call 718-990-1869.
That afternoon the duo will also be at St. John’s University’s Queens campus, 8000 Utopia Parkway, at 3:30 p.m. Reservations are required. Call 718-990-1869.
The next leg of the Manley-Collins tour will be held Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. in Brooklyn at St. Francis College’s Callahan Center, 182 Remsen Street (between Court and Clinton Streets). Call 718-783-8345 for information.
The Manley-Collins segment of the “Poets & Passion” series ends Thursday at the Brooklyn Public Library, Flatbush Branch, 22 Linden Blvd. (between Flatbush and Bedford Avenues) at 7 p.m. Call 718-287-8597 or 718-856-0813.
For more information on the Caribbean Cultural Theatre, call 718-783-8345
Ladies take the lead
The Gotham chapter of the Top Ladies of Distinction will present their Area II Leadership Conference on Thursday through next Sunday at the Hilton Long Island/Huntington Hotel in Melville, L.I.
“Strengthening Fundamental Pathways of Service and Leadership to Youth and Adults” is this year’s conference theme. For information, visit their web site: www.tlodinc.org.
Toys for Belize tots
Give to the annual Belize Toy for Tots Drive and take part a New York City Marathon Breakfast Brunch next Sunday, sponsored by Belway Inc. of Brooklyn.
A donation of a brand new toy or toys is required for the event, which will take place at Belway’s headquarters, 436 Fourth Avenue (between Eighth and Ninth Streets) along the New York City Marathon route. For information, call 718-768-8370.
Kompa concert and benefit
The famous kompa band Phantoms will be starring in an album launch party for their latest work “Oxygen” next Sunday, November 2 at the Rasputin nightclub, 2670 Coney Island Avenue in Brooklyn, from 7 p.m. to midnight.
A part of the event’s proceeds will benefit the Housing Works organization’s Women’s Health Center. Admission is $25 in advance. Call 646-326-6020 or 516-322-8200.
Out of Africa at Columbia
“The African Diplomatic Forum,” an annual conference of diplomats, academicians, activists and students gathering to examine the continent’s role in international affairs, will be held Thursday, November 6 at Columbia University, from noon to 5 p.m. For information, send e-mail to Sachin Gathani at sg2553@columbia.edu.
This column is reprinted from the October 26 Sunday editions of The New York Daily News. If you have items suitable for this column please e-mail them to jmccallister@nydailynews.com.
