CUPECOY–Leading St. Martin painter Roland Richardson is the new recipient of the President’s Award from the St. Martin Book Fair. Richardson accepted the award at the closing ceremony of the festival’s 15th anniversary on June 3, and said that he was even more touched to be honoured by a St. Maarten/St. Martin organisation.
Richardson was awarded the ebony statute for his 30 plus years of “uplifting the people and cultural life of the island nation,” said President of House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP) Jacqueline A. Sample.
President of Conscious Lyrics Foundation (CLF) Shujah Reiph, and Sample presented the award to the artist at the American University of the Caribbean (AUC).
The audience included Richardson’s family and authors and artists from different parts of the world. The lecture hall venue was sponsored by AUC, said Reiph, who is also the Book Fair co-founder and coordinator.
“Roland Richardson’s artwork is iconic for its sheer beauty and perhaps its unmatched volume for a St. Martin artist; and also, for archiving rapidly changing landscapes and capturing as patrimony the dignity and varied elegance of the St. Martin people,” said author and co-founder of the St. Martin Book Fair Lasana M. Sekou.
“Roland’s environmental activism of the mid-1980s to early 1990s, coupled with his brief writings on St. Martin history and culture in Discover as the magazine’s editor, also had much to do with why he was selected for the President’s Award in a year with ‘Art’ as the Book Fair theme,” said Sekou.
Previous recipients of what The Daily Herald has called a “prestigious award,” include George Lamming (Barbados), Casa de las Americas (Cuba), Benny Wenda (West Papua), Bankie Banx (Anguilla), Derek Walcott (St. Lucia), and Quince Duncan (Costa Rica).
Source: The Daily Herald https://www.thedailyherald.sx/islands/66765-roland-richardson-receives-book-fair-s-president-s-award
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