As Caribbean American Heritage Month draws to a close, the Brooklyn Museum and caribBEING presents the last screenings of the Heritage Film Series this afternoon. [See previous posts New York Closes Caribbean-American Heritage Month at the Brooklyn Museum with PAN! And Brooklyn Borough President Kicks Off Caribbean Heritage Month.] The final screenings will also mark the end of the month-long Closer Encounters: The Caribpolitan Experience Series. TODAY, join the celebration as Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams will also declare June 28 as Steel Pan Day in Brooklyn.

Events will takes place at the Brooklyn Museum Auditorium today, June 28, at 2:00pm. Screenings will be followed by talkbacks and live musical performance by Casym.

Screenings Include:

Doubles with Slight Pepper (Director Ian Harnarine, 2011, 16 min.) Doubles with Slight Pepper tells the story of Dhani, a young street-food vendor, as he reunites with his estranged father on Christmas.

PAN! Our Music Odyssey

A review by Holly Bass for The New York Times.

In the American historical imagination, the North (even beyond our borders into Canada) symbolizes freedom, individual expression and progress, while the South conjures a mix of hospitality, religious fervor and persistent racial prejudice. It’s a cultural civil war that in some ways enables us to sidestep the more complicated realities of our national identity.

Two recent exhibition catalogs ably situate the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat within these potent cultural poles. Each monograph speaks to the impact of place on both the creation of work and the viewing of said work. In this case, the French influences in New Orleans and Toronto’s remarkable ethnic diversity echo the artist’s own culturally hybrid background.

A comparatively slim volume, “Basquiat and the Bayou” draws from an exhibition at the Ogden Museum of Southern Art presented during the Prospect Biennial under the artistic direction…

An editorial from Jamaica’s Observer on the occasion of Lester Holt being named host of NBC Nightly News in the USA.

As we reflected last month during World Press Freedom Day celebrations, it is safe to say that journalists are universally accepted as indispensable to the democracy and development of every country. Thankfully, that has been the prevailing view in Jamaica, where media professionals are recognised for their work.

At the risk of sounding incestuous, we believe that Jamaican journalists, in the main, have produced credible and sometimes outstanding work both in Jamaica and in countries where they ply their trade overseas. Many of our top journalists worked overseas after starting in Jamaica, and many who achieved success abroad returned to give service in Jamaica.

Several of them broke the colour barrier in foreign media. Among the earliest was Una Marson, who worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) during…

Tens of thousands of Haitians born in the Dominican Republic are at risk of expulsion, TeleSur reports.

Haitian immigrants crowding the streets in front of the country’s immigration registry office were met with repression by Dominican Republic police authorities on Monday, according to local media reports. Haitian immigrants living in the Dominican Republic face possible deportation on Thursday if they fail to register with the country’s immigration department before the government imposed deadline.

As the deadline approached, many applicants have complained of long wait times at registration centers, preventing them from registering. Nevertheless, Dominican Foreign Affairs minister Andres Navarro issued a statement on Monday saying that fears of mass deportations of Haitians living illegally in Dominican territory are unfounded.

In recent days, undocumented Haitians have held demonstrations denouncing inaction by both the Haitian and Dominican governments to provide them with required documents so they can register with the National Plan…

Julian Marley is working on his fourth album which is expected to be out early next year. According to the 40-year-old singer, it will display his artistic maturity. Jamaica Observer reports:

“A lot of creativity will be on the album. Creativity is something that flows each day and everyday life is an experience. I have matured and progressed a lot since my last album,” said Marley.

Marley worked mainly with producers at Ghetto Youths International on the project. He is co-owner of that label along with his brothers Stephen and Damian, who produced his current single, Lemme Go. The song is on the Corner ‘riddim’ and addresses recent moves to decriminalise ganja in Jamaica.

“It’s great to see the herb getting free-up in Jamaica an’ around the world. Reggae music an’ the herb have enjoyed a good mix over the years and the hemp industry has been around for a…

A euphoric celebration of Puerto Rican heritage along Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue Sunday reflected the island’s strong sense of pride and identity, Newsday reports.

It also was a statement of Puerto Rico’s massive footprint in New York City.

The National Puerto Rican Day Parade was a six-hour, 35-block party complete with dancers wearing traditional costumes with full, flowing skirts; trucks blasting salsa, reggaeton and pop music; sports cars bearing beauty queens; and elaborately decorated, brilliantly colored floats.

Spectators formed a mass of fluttering blue, red and white flags, and airhorns sounded continuously. Organizers of the 58th annual march were expecting 2 million people to attend.

“We love our island,” Sonia Rodriguez, 54, of Copiague, said of why such massive crowds gather each year.

Her sentiment spanned three generations. Rodriguez’s daughter and granddaughter — Jennifer Lopez, 27, and Adamaris Velazquez, 8, both also of Copiague — stood alongside her, cheering.

“I love…

The government of Jamaica announced Friday that the country’s first national film festival will take place in Kingston from July 7-11.

The event will screen 12 Jamaican productions at various venues in the capital city with the aim of giving the island’s filmmakers a chance to showcase their work.

The festival will have workshops and conferences focused on creating business opportunities for people in the film industry and on promoting content for export.

“We have the talent, we have the brand and I believe a set of policy mixes that we are coming with,” Industry, Investment and Commerce Minister Anthony Hylton said.

Another feature of the festival will be a music day, featuring a reggae concert at the Tuff Gong International Recording Studios, founded by Bob Marley in 1965.

caribBEING presents the Heritage Film Series, starting tomorrow, June 13 at 2:00pm at the Brooklyn Museum Auditorium [3rd Floor]. Films being featured in the series include: Missing Melodie (Dir. Monique Cambell), Price of Memory (Dir. Karen Marks Mafundikwa), Doubles with Slight Pepper (Dir. Ian Harnarine), and PAN! Our Music Odyssey (Dir. Jérôme Guiot). All screenings are FREE with admission to Brooklyn Museum.See more information below:

Sunday, June 13 | 2pm | Brooklyn Museum Auditorium [3rd Floor]

Description: Brooklyn-based boutique non-profit, caribBEING presents Heritage Film Series as part of it’s Close(r) Encounters: The Caribpolitan Experience. In celebration of Caribbean Heritage Month, the series will include several award-winning films written and produced by Caribbean filmmakers. The series celebrates contemporary Caribbean cinema including special talk backs with note-worthy filmmakers from New York City, Puerto Rico, Trinidad + Tobago, and Jamaica. (See descriptions below.)

Caribbean-American Heritage Month recognizes the contributions people of Caribbean…