{"id":501,"date":"2014-05-21T13:42:08","date_gmt":"2014-05-21T13:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/?p=501"},"modified":"2015-04-27T13:43:59","modified_gmt":"2015-04-27T13:43:59","slug":"st-maarten-drum-band-and-pre-book-fair-reading-for-nations-children","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/2014\/05\/21\/st-maarten-drum-band-and-pre-book-fair-reading-for-nations-children\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Maarten drum band and pre-Book Fair reading for nation\u2019s children"},"content":{"rendered":"

GREAT BAY, St. Martin (May 21, 2014<\/strong>)\u2014<\/span>Chester York is the island\u2019s senior panman and steel pan maker, \u201cGassy\u201d Richardson was a champion bicycle rider, and \u201cMr. Bibi\u201d Gumbs designed modern and affordable houses for 25 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese men should be known for their perseverance from a humble start in life, discipline in studying and practicing their fields, excelling in their pioneer work, and contributing to our island,\u201d said Urmain Dormoy, leader of the 30-member Generation New Status St. Maarten drum band (GNSSTM).<\/p>\n

The St. Martin Book Fair, scheduled for June 5-7, 2014, recently gave the Generation New Status band 90 booklets, profiling the life and pioneering work of George \u201cGassy\u201d Gaston Richardson, Chester York, and Alexis \u201cBibi\u201d Guillaume [Duzant] Gumbs. The current members of Generation New Status range from five to 16 years of age, and make up one of the island\u2019s busiest youth music groups. Each member of GNSSTM will receive one booklet about each pioneer nation-builder, said Dormoy.<\/p>\n

The pioneerseries booklets are entitled\u00a0Gassy York \u2013 Champion Cyclist, Chester York \u2013 Making of a panman,\u00a0<\/i>and\u00a0Mr. Bibi \u2013 Pioneer in House Drawing & Design<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting these booklets in the hands and homes of children and teens is part of HNP\u2019s reading motivation, creative writing, and literacy building activities that involve the St. Martin Book Fair,\u201d said Jacqueline Sample of House of Nehesi Publishers (HNP), the book fair co-organizer that published the mini-biographies.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so happy to receive the booklets for Generation New Status STM members. This is a way for the boys and girls, and for some of their parents, to know more about our island, our people, and our culture, which they are all part of,\u201d said Dormoy.<\/p>\n

The pre-Book Fair presentation was made to Dormoy last week by HNP. \u201cUrmain in turn presented GNSSTM\u2019s archival copy of each title to Princess Beatrix on Tuesday during the Dutch royal\u2019s visit to the territory this week,\u201d said Sample.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to get these books for the youngsters for about two years but we couldn\u2019t get a sponsor just for that, so I\u2019m happy that the Book Fair is making this contribution,\u201d said Dormoy, himself a well-known musician.<\/p>\n

Over the years, Dormoy has brought the VKS to the band\u2019s practice to train the members in forms of marching discipline; he has led the performing group in the Boardwalk Mas, and in the US city of Orlando at Sea World. Last Sunday, Generation New Status was one of the youth groups performing at the St. Louis\/Freetown f\u00eate, which was made famous island-wide by the late folklorist \u201cYaya\u201d Richards.<\/p>\n

Dormoy said that he and co-principal Jennifer Thomas are always looking out for extra cultural and educational activities to creatively help band members \u201cto know our island better; to do their school work and homework better; to be more helpful to their parents at home; and to take pride in their neighborhoods.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conscious Lyrics Foundation and HNP are the organizers of the upcoming book festival, in collaboration with St. Maarten Tourist Bureau, University of St. Martin, LCF Foundation, and St. Martin Tourist Office.\u00a0The SXM Airport and SOS Radio are also sponsors of the St. Martin Book Fair 2014.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

GREAT BAY, St. Martin (May 21, 2014)\u2014Chester York is the island\u2019s senior panman and steel pan maker, \u201cGassy\u201d Richardson was a champion bicycle rider, and \u201cMr. Bibi\u201d Gumbs designed modern and affordable houses for 25 years. \u201cThese men should be known for their perseverance from a humble start in life, discipline in studying and practicing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-fair-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":503,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501\/revisions\/503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/houseofnehesipublish.com\/sxm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}