GREAT BAY, St. Martin (May 6, 2003) — House of Nehesi Publishers is scheduled to launch 1963 – A Landmark Year in St. Martin by Daniella Jeffry on June 7, 2003, said Lasana M. Sekou, the foundation’s projects director.
The 206-page book is a retrospective look at 1963 as the beginning of modern St. Martin. Using the Windward Islands Opinion newspaper as her database along with other official and popular sources, Jeffry has catalogued a unique set of social, political, business and infrastructural developments on both parts of the island.
In the wake of the island’s two carnivals, planners and lovers of that grand fête might have missed celebrating 2003 as the apparent 40th anniversary year of carnival’s modern beginnings in Marigot and Great Bay. The fact-based evidence, the role of French Quarter, the planning committee reported on in October 1963, the pre-1960s Mardi Gras held at private homes, and the moko jumbie all come together in a fascinating slice of reading about the beginnings of St. Martin’s modern carnival tradition.
In 1963 – A Landmark Year in St. Martin, Jeffry, a leading educator/historian, has also encapsulated key features of the St. Martin identity in the chapter called “Old St. Martin.” With some 100 photos dating between 1901 and 1963, other chapters are “People & Places in 1963” and “Changes in 1963.” The book includes a French translation (1963 – Année Charnière à Saint-Martin) and should be in bookstores by the end of May 2003.