 The panel, the discussion, an objective and impartial view of the issues of interest to you. Nation Beat is on now. Before we start, I want to remind everyone about their mobile phones or cell phones. And also, I would like to thank you all for coming. So, welcome to the Nobel Laureate Festival launch for 2023. I'm Delia De Law, and it's my pleasure to welcome you. Of course, in the NTN Studios, we have our chair, Her Excellency Dame Pallet-Louise, Governor-General Emeritus of St. Lucia. And we also have our sponsors, and we'll tell you more about our sponsors later, but I would like to thank you all from the outset, because without our sponsors, of course, we couldn't do all the wonderful things that we do. Now, today, of course, the coordinators of the events will be telling you about why you should come and outlining, but they will be outlining it briefly, all right? So, we know that time is a very special consideration, but we do want you to know as much as you can so that you can attend the events. The events, they're for everyone, they're for families, they're for people who are visiting St. Lucia, they're for your families abroad, and anyone who respects and welcomes, of course, our two Nobel Laureates. Every year, we have a new sub-theme for our festival, and this year, of course, we always have celebrated excellence because that is what we do. And we have our sub-theme, which is nurturing our creativity, consolidating our legacy. So, the best person who can address this and explain why this is the chosen theme for this year, of course, is our Chair, Her Excellency, Dane Palette-Louisey. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for coming. 30 years ago, in January 1993, we, the people of St. Lucia, celebrated what was and perhaps still is one of the most amazing accomplishments of the 20th century. That is the receipt of a Nobel Prize by a second national of a small island state measuring 238 square miles with a population of about 150,000. And as if that was not of itself enough, both of these illustrious sons were born on January 23rd. Surely, we could not be faltered for saying that St. Lucia had outdone itself. Once again, our Helen of the West, the face that launched fleets of ships, had shown its metal and proved its worth. And so, we proudly and unapologetically declared January 23rd, Nobel Laureate Day. I do not recall whether or not we sought the permission of the Nobel Prize Committee in Sweden to make that declaration, but we felt it was our decision to make. And perhaps the next thing we could do was to invite the United Nations to join us in celebrating January 23rd as Nobel Laureate Day. It is therefore with pride and a well-earned sense of accomplishment that we celebrate this year, the 30th anniversary of Nobel Laureate Day, which over the years grew from a day to a week and now to a festival as our confidence and our ambitions grew. So Arthur and Sir Derek have definitely been trailblazers of excellence in their respective fields, in economics and in literature. Their life's work has ended and they have gone to the rest. It is for us now to take up the torch and light of the way ahead, building on the legacy of excellence that they have bequeathed us, breaking down barriers, breaching new frontiers, shattering glass ceilings, embracing new opportunities, creating new ideas, discovering new ways of doing and seeing things. This is what the Nobel Laureate Festival is all about. Our theme for this 30th anniversary celebration is creating excellence, nurturing our creativity and consolidating our legacy. And rightly so. The Nobel Laureate Festival must go beyond celebrating the achievements of Sir Arthur and Sir Derek alone. This is what they would have wanted, that just as they built on the achievements of those who came before them, we too should build on what they have given us. They have made us proud, but we cannot sit back, bask in their glow, boast of their achievements, sit on their laurels, not even ours, sit on their laurels and not add to what they and others have left us. We need to consolidate that legacy. We should not be inhibited by constraints of smallness. We are a smaller island, we are a small country, or our perceived lack of resources. It all depends on what you think resources can be. Sir Derek himself reminded us of what we have to do to counter these constraints. In an interview which he gave in 1985, he articulated the Caribbean and therefore the St. Lucian perspective in these words, and I quote him, I come, and that should be very, you know, familiar and popular, we probably should learn it, I come from a place that likes grandeur. It likes large gestures. It is not inhibited by flourish. It is a rhetorical society. It is a society of style. It isn't a modest society, not at all. Indeed, as he said, it is better to be large and make huge gestures than to be modest and do tiptoeing types of presentations of oneself. So, what are we waiting for? What's keeping us back from these large, huge gestures? Let's go for it. Let's celebrate. Over the past 30 years, we have been inviting the general public to see this festival, not just as something for a few, for a few academics, intellectuals, but something that the whole nation should embrace and claim. I know we will get there eventually as we did with our Ginec Royale initiative. It took us about 30 years for people to get excited about Ginec Royale, but time is moving on and we should not tarry much longer. This is why I am pleased this year to welcome the participation of the constituencies of Grosile, Babunot and Canaries in our festival. They are joining a library in organizing their own events, and I invite their communities to give the organizers their fullest support. I look forward to the participation of all the other constituencies in our 2024 festival. I look forward to the return of the Dennery Development Foundation, that has been with us for such a long time, and as well to the Chamber of Commerce with its once-popular business awards. So on my own behalf, and on behalf of the Festival Committee, I express sincere thanks to the government of St. Lucia, the Bank of St. Lucia, and the Library Cooperative Credit Union for their support over the years. We welcome this year, Flo, and the St. Lucia Tourism Authority, who will be partnering with us to celebrate our countries and our people's achievements as we forge ahead always in our determined pursuit of excellence. Thirty years, ladies and gentlemen, event coordinators, people listening to me, here and everywhere else. Thirty years is no mean achievement for a committee such as ours. Any voluntary. So I invite all to join in celebrating ourselves, celebrating our own, celebrating our achievements, our accomplishments, our creativity. Let's all work on consolidating our legacy so that those who come behind us will find us faithful and be inspired and motivated to proudly pass on the battle of excellence which our two laureates and so many more of St. Lucia's sons and daughters have placed in our capable and I hope, willing hands. With these few words, I thank you and we look forward to a celebration of ourselves, of our country, of our laureates, noble, noble, and otherwise. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, Chair of the Noble Laureate Festival, Her Excellency Dame Pelle Luisi. Now the word that stands out for me the most in our theme is consolidate because when we think of consolidate, we think of financial terms and we always think of putting everything together so it makes life easier. And I'd like to think with our theme our hidden treasures, all the creative, beautiful things, all the things that we are aware of in St. Lucia but of course we have to get them not just in St. Lucia but everywhere so that they not only know that we have two noble laureates but they know that we do celebrate them and that they are more than welcome to come to the island and join us in their celebrations. Now talking about consolidating of course it also as I said means finances so we do need the finances that are going. So whether you are a business organization an independent person I'm sure you're proud of what the festival is trying to do and I believe that we are doing our best and we can see every year the festival just grows from strength to strength but we still need you. And saying that I'd like to welcome one of our first sponsors and our Chair said earlier that without them we couldn't be here today. So Mr. Lucia Zalovic from the Library Co-operative Credit Union I would like you to take the podium. Thank you. Members of the Noble Laureate Festival Planning Committee in particular our Chairperson Her Excellency Dim Pallet-Louise Library Credit Union is pleased to be associated with the Noble Laureate Festival Committee. As the committee hosts this year's 2023 Noble Laureate Festival at Library Credit Union we believe that excellence is not simply a skills-based phenomenon but rather behavioral and attitudinal. We believe that excellence is a mindset a habit that inspires us to always do our best. This mindset also reminds us that there's always room at the top and so our efforts should be focused on reaching the top. In an era where to be born and to live on an economically challenged small island state is meant to be as unrable wall cut would have put it a precocious resignation to fate. Where there is that general ethos which seems to promote individualism as opposed to collectivism and thus undermine the ability of our nation to maintain social cohesion. Where we talk of economic growth and yet the people suffer. Where we are living through a series of socio-economic processes which divides our people into conflicting economic interest groups and thereby eroding the spirits of community and togetherness. The quest to address those issues and nurture the spirit of excellence in our people is the cause for which the Nobel Laureate Festival Committee thrives or rather strives. The committee has put together a multifaceted program of activities celebrating excellence in our people and their communities. We look forward to participating in all the activities and in particular paint the village with Jonathan Glading in library. And so unrable wall cut you ask why waste lines on ashill a mesh shade on the sea floor so we waste lines on ashill because the Nobel Laureate Festival Committee and Library Credit Union believe that strong as self healing coral a quiet culture of excellence is emerging is branching out from our people is branching out from our community organizations deeper than it seems on the surface slowly but sure that culture of excellence will change us with the fluent sculpture of time with apologies to unrable wall cut and Omerus all participates in the activities of normal Laureate Festival 2023 and may the model and may we model the values of excellence in our daily lives missy madame merci. Thank you very much Mr.Elevec the general manager of the library cooperative credit union and if we had to do as he suggests and attend all the events we really need to have to start to drink all our tonic water but thank you so much for encouraging everyone to at least take a look at the program and you can do that visiting our facebook page Saint Lucia Nobel Laureate Festival or you can text us on 284 4111 and we will send you the program of events of course we have another sponsor who of course be talking about consolidating and expanding I'd like to invite Mr.Charles to the podium to on behalf of the bank of Saint Lucia Thank you for making mention of consolidating I always believe that consolidating is important especially for us banks be impolite Louisie chair of the Nobel Laureate Festival committee committee members and ladies and gentlemen I bid you a pleasant good morning Bank of Saint Lucia has been sponsoring this festival for almost a decade and today is no exception we will continue to sponsor this festival and we are going to lend our support to the tune of $5,000 particularly to the Arthur Louis Memorial lecture I don't hear anyone clapping for that thank you right we are humbled to be afforded this opportunity to once again partner on an initiative which honors the legacy of two of the most distinguished sons of the soil so William Arthur Louis and Derek Alton Walcott and we as an indigenous institution whose roots are entrenched in the soil we see it fitting to always be a partner especially on initiatives like this where we can celebrate the essence of this festival and celebrate our people who we are and most importantly a recognition of the tremendous potential that lies within us the achievements of our Nobel laureates are a clear testament of our own potential and showcasing their work as we are doing through this commendable initiative of the Nobel laureate festival committee goes a long way in building the confidence of our young population it shows them that they too can aspire to the highest level of their respective fields of endeavor may this observance continue to inspire and ignite academic creative and artistic pursuits of our young people and that is why we'll be looking forward to these activities in this year and we will remain committed as a partner to supporting in the years to come. Thank you Thank you very much Mr Charles if you would like to remain we would like to have our check presentation now so Mr Elevick and Mr Charles would like to present the checks to our chair and just a reminder that the Library Co-operative Credit Union are sponsors of the Sideric Walkout Memorial Lecture so can we start with Mr the big check you have your check go ahead I think Mr Elevick if you would like to thank you thank you very much and now Mr Charles with your big check thank you very much as mentioned earlier we welcome two new sponsors to the Nobel Laureate Festival and both of them are going to help us to spread the news and so to speak one of them does a lot of talking so let's see how they are going to help with the talk to spread with the flow Mr Ansel Mathren from Flow Chair of the Nobel Laureate Festival Committee High Accent Lansing other distinguished members of the committee I'd like to recognize the presence of two greats in our opinion my old literature teacher Mr Ken Delipolet and of course Dr Adrian Ogier both literary giants in their own rights the achievements of Sir Arthur and Sir Derrick we feel in their contribution to our national identity we see them as part of the key pillars of our posterity and as such we have always been as a company and now Flow committed to the cause by some 20 plus years ago you guys don't remember what phone cards are but we had a phone card series featuring the two Nobel Laureates as well as gracing the cover of the annual directory by the way her excellency is also on our cover but they woke up the Nobel Laureate Festival committee we think that we have to acknowledge it as well it's not a small accomplishment 30 years strong and the accomplishments and what they actually do to help grant and support partnerships promotion recognition development and of course promotion to legacy we think that it's time that they get their recognition and that you support our support is far more ubiquitous than cash because of the nature of our business but I think it's safe to say that going forward you can expect more from us it will be remiss of me as I close to forget the work of kidscompton former longstanding member of our company who was a big supporter of the cause for a number of years and our current general manager Chris Williams who I must tell you every international presentation we have he starts off with that slide of the highest per capita concentration Nobel Laureates in the world so he's a big fan as well but with that said we want to express our support even outside of what was pledged for the next week month and years going forward for us to be more invested in the cause and assisting the committee specifically with the work that they've done we salute you and we wish you a very very successful Nobel Laureates week Thank you very much Mr. Manthra and you know I'm going to be watching and I know that you're a man of your word so we are expecting that people will see the SMS messages regarding the Nobel Laureate week and again if you would like to get the program please send us a text on 284-4111 Our fourth sponsor and also one of our newest sponsor has a task of in a way supplementing what Mr. Manthra has said in terms of helping us to expose our Nobel Laureates to more than just St. Lucia of course and not only just St. Lucia's at home and abroad so I would like to invite Mrs. Lorraine Charles St. Jules of the St. Lucia Tourism Authority to welcome us. Thank you. Chair of the Nobel Laureate Festival Committee Daimpolet Luisi members of the committee distinguished guests Ladies and gentlemen Good morning Here I see myself as the fourth person in the relay in the race carrying anchoring the baton this morning and I sat there and I realized I had no prepared texts now I'm supposed to run the fastest because I'm anchoring and also I guess provide perhaps the meat which also I don't have I also notice I don't have my branded material here today and those of you who know us very well the tourism authority we are always quite visible out there but today I feel at home I feel in a community I'm privileged to represent St. Lucia I'm privileged to lead an organization that represents you that represents every St. Lucia that represents our two notable I would say most notable for when our team goes out globally because our main mandate is to promote the destination to promote the citizens to promote the products to promote you to promote what we offer when we go out there we feel quite privileged because we know that our product stands apart when people ask us what's our USP what's our unique selling proposition among what we have done over the past 30 years is remind them that my colleague said that we are the only island with two Nobel laureates per capita with the smallest island so when people talk about small islands and small economies we remind them how important St. Lucia is because of this precious USP that we have no other island where you could find two Nobel laureates for only 180,000 people so this we are really proud to stand and share with you today and to honor our Nobel laureates and to be part of this festival so when we were contacted we thought it was easy for us to be part of the 30th celebration today so our role would be to continue to share that message and to proudly share that we are part of this festival and what we are going to do is we have committed to all our global international markets to remind them of this product and we today will launch officially a giveaway a prize where a lucky couple or two people will win a trip to St. Lucia so for the year round we are going to be promoting ourselves our Nobel laureates this prestigious festival and I was happy that DIMM said that it was 30 years it took 30 years for people to recognize I'm sorry that we came on board so late but later never and we will proudly share with our audience out there our community is what St. Lucia has to offer and we will provide a lucky winner with an all-inclusive trip for two from wherever destination that they come from wherever country, continent and they will come to St. Lucia what we believe is our excellence with our arts with our culture with our two Nobel laureates honorees so this is our pledge and we will continue to work with the festival and I just want to say thank you for including us and we look forward to and congratulations on your 30th anniversary and we look forward to working with you thank you so much thank you, thank you very much Mrs Charles St. Jules now it is only advantageous for us to always know what's happening within the festival so if you want to know more about this nice giveaway don't forget to look at this initial tourist authority website and also the Nobel Facebook page all the information will be there and I'm hoping although it wasn't stated but I'm hoping that those winners will be attending the next Nobel laureate festival so that they can go back home and tell everyone what a wonderful festival we have so they can encourage their friends and family to return saying this I would also like to invite our chair again to speak to our sponsors contributions by the sponsors taking a photograph over here well yes I jumped the gun and thanked people before they actually delivered so it is just again to express my own thanks and thanks of the committee for the support that the government of St. Lucia through the ministry of finance they are our biggest sponsors for the yearly budget allocation then bank of St. Lucia have been with us for quite a while thank you so much Labry Cooperative Credit Union came in three years ago and we embraced them I'm sure there are others who are now itching and hoping to have known this thing before otherwise you know I'm sure they must be feeling left out right now thank you so very much you know all day long you had on your phone so people would be hearing I hope and seeing messages reminding them of what's happening today what's happening tomorrow so that to encourage people to attend and to support and St. Lucia Tourism Authority well yes our arms are wide we want to embrace the world and we've tried in our small way we're now on social media Facebook Instagram Facebook WhatsApp perhaps hmm so that was our way and then we were going for two over the last two years mainly because we were forced to do so by the pandemic but with the involvement of the St. Lucia Tourism Authority we are now a brand so thank you so much Mrs. St. Jules I was about to say St. Jules Lauren Charles I know us and sometimes I feel proud to say they were either my students or I know them and I look around and I see so many people who are doing so many good things and I say you know I had a hand in it so thank you thank you so very much and let's enjoy and celebrate this 30th anniversary thank you so much so we're just taking a photograph here so that we can spread it around the world these are the organizations and companies that have supported the the Nobel Laureate Festival and of course we have given continuous thanks and we will continue to do so and as expressed earlier it's not just about the financial output of course we need but any other support that will help us to grow our festival and show the excellence that we have not only in our two Nobel but of course St. Lucia so thank you very much for that now I am aware the time is getting on and we have some event coordinators who want to tell you about their events I want to quickly tell you about a few events that we have we have in collaboration with St. Lucia's High Commission in the UK the High Commissioner, His Excellency Mr. Anthony Severin will visit Manchester University and the Arthur Lewis Building on Wednesday the 18th of January this is a collaboration with the Nobel Laureate Festival here and my company DD Media Relations and we are working in the UK to ensure that other events are going to be happening in the UK so this is all happening at the start at Manchester University where His Excellency will be meeting with St. Lucia students there we also have a St. Lucia who distills rum in Donbarton, Scotland I'm not sure if anyone was aware of that and he is the only person actually distilling rum in Scotland he was originally from Viewfort and he will be talking to me on my radio show metaphorically speaking on the South Bank and he talks about why he created his distillery and it's a legacy he has for his father which unfortunately there's a very sad story about that but he wanted to grow his father's legacy so we talk about that that is available it's very early in the morning so I don't expect anyone to listen to it there but there is also a podcast that it starts from next week on the 18th of January and that's available on all major streaming platforms it's called metaphorically speaking and we are also repeating an interview I did with Robert Lee for metaphorically speaking last year because so many people were just so enthralled about him talking about using St. Lucia as a metaphor it's a poem that he wrote for Cedric Walcott and he speaks to that and we thought that we should repeat that it was one of the most favorite shows for the year 2022 so the radio station wanted to repeat that so we're going to be doing that as well and that's already available on the podcast which again is available Spotify, Apple, Amazon wherever it is that you listen to your podcast and now I invite the Nobel Laureate Festival committee and their event organisers to tell us briefly about the event so I will start of course with our blessing we have a mass and to lead that is our our committee member Kiran Centrose Good morning all before I start I would like to say thank you to Dave Perlet for chairing the committee for 24 years out of the 30 years okay a Nobel Laureate Festival committee church service breakfast and a school's video competition the committee will hold its annual church service on January 8th at 745 at the Abbey of Our Lady of the Assumption Mount of Pre Kubari which also marks the beginning of our weeks of activities breakfast follows the church service and it will be held at the villa Santa Maria Mount of Pre Kubari and the price is $40 per person now the school's video project which I am involved with is done in collaboration with the curriculum materials development unit called KAMDO which is also of the ministry of education the aim of the project is to familiarize young with the legacy of our sons and daughters who have excelled in their chosen fields and who serve as an inspiration for them to follow in their footsteps the target group we are targeting students from primary and secondary schools age 10 to 15 they are to create a short video either a song a poem presentation of Sir Arthur Lewis Nobel Laureate for Economics 1979 Sir Derek Walcott Nobel Laureate for Literature 1992 and last but least Dame Kalioka Pearlet-Louise Governor-General of Centusia 1997 to 2 to 2017 and is also chair of the Nobel Laureate Festival Committee from 1999 to present the resource material will be taken from the following booklets Do You Know Sir Arthur Glimpses of Sir Derek Walcott and Dame Pearlet-Louise First Governor-General of Centusia 19 what one yes sorry First Female Governor-General of Centusia 1997 to 2017 now the videos are to be submitted to Kamdo on the 20th of January judging will be done and prices will be given to the first second and third prices will be given sorry to the first second and third who will be the best for the best presentations trophies will also be given to the schools that produce the best presentations and a trophy will also be given to the schools submitting the most videos every of the videos a date has not been selected because we are awaiting the videos from the principals as soon as this is done it will be aired I am also asking anybody interested in attending the breakfast please see me after the lunch thank you Our Chair, Dame Pearlet-Louise partners, sponsors as coordinator of the community events it gives me great pleasure to introduce our community members for our 40th anniversary we now have the Babono Nobel laureate committee Kanyu's Nobel laureate committee and the Grozile Nobel laureate committee so we invite Grozile Hello everybody so my name is Linda Charles Ambrose and I represent Grozile so we have been rubbed into hostivities for Nobel laureates and we are very happy to be part of this Nobel activity so Grozile as you know is the most vibrant dynamic an exciting community in St. Lucia and this is why Sir Derek Walcott made Grozile his home and he gave juices flowed in Grozile like nowhere else so I would like to acknowledge the presence of Dame Pearlet-Louise the chair of the National Nobel laureate committee so in Grozile we have a very exciting program and we are going to begin on the 8th which is Sunday so we are going to launch our festival and as part of that launch we are also going to open an exhibition which features all the artists from the Grozile community so it will be pictorial, it will be visual there will be books and there will be sculpture on display so if anyone wants to be part of this activity please see me at the end of this venture so the feature address will be delivered by a son of the Grozile Mr. Vladimir Lucien he is a writer, a critic an actor from Grozile he attended St. Mary's College where he discovered that he had a knack for acting he has also written collections of poetry several awards for his work and a theater has been named after him in Grozile so there is the Human Resource Development Center and within that center is the Vladimir Lucien Theater and all our activity is really held there at the Vladimir Lucien Theater in Grozile now another activity on January 27th is a performance titled Street Party One Friday Night and as you know Grozile is the host to the world-renowned Friday Night Street Party if you all haven't been please mark it on your calendar and we have a very young choreographer right here Mr. Richard Ambrose is highly qualified he was trained in the Caribbean and he has also received several awards for his work and he continues what he is doing nowadays he holds the accolade of Voice of St. Lucia Mail to the St. Lucia Tourism Authority so we have Richard Ambrose who will come up to the podium right now to give you a synopsis of Street Party One Friday Night Good day Madam Chair Your Excellency just a little bit nervous other members of the Nobel Laureate Committee Street Party One Friday Night I was with my dad in Florida debating what's the point of coming back home things don't seem to be working and I got a message saying we're going to have Nobel Laureate Week in Grosley and we want a dance everything seemed to spark and another call of destiny so to speak was Kendall and Jane King Hippolyte asking me to come to the house for a little while to house it as a choreographer, as an artist the best thing to say to tell is who you are and where you're from are people in Grosley that I grew up watching that I thought were remarkably strange there was the irony of a street party with people with drinks and coolers that continued regardless of rain, storm whatever there was the rhythm of the people who were not from St. Lucia how they moved and I thought it a little bit curious having studied now dance its forms, its techniques I think I understand a little bit better and on the 27th when you come I hope to give you an experience that you've never had before a high level of theater dance, technique and a mirror in which you will see yourself in ways that you haven't before okay another activity for Grosley is the launch of a book entitled The Caring Entrepreneur a strategy for sustainable community based tourism and the author is Sylvester Closel and those of you who have no idea who Closel is he has worked on various tourism sustainable projects throughout the Caribbean he is highly qualified in this discipline as well and if you want to know more about this come to Grosley Vladimir Lucian Theatre January 31st and last but not least we have Mr. Kendall Hippolyte he is an author of several books of poetry including Fault Lines, Night Vision and Birthright and Mr. Kendall Hippolyte has an evening of poetry and spoken word and this will be held on Tuesday 24th January at the Vladimir Lucian Theatre all our activities begin at 7pm except on Sunday for the launch which is at 4 o'clock in the afternoon so Dempelet Luisi spoke about us having to be huge and large with our gestures well if you want huge and large gestures metaphorically and literally Kendall Hippolyte has them so after an introduction I'll make sure I keep my hands in my pockets for what I have to say protocol has been established I just want to say blessings to all I'm very very glad to be here what we'll be doing on the 24th is presenting we've got a remarkable tradition of poetry of literature on hold but of poetry in St. Lucia and what we'll be doing is presenting 13 poets male, female spanning generations going back to McDonnell Dixon who is the closest in the line so to speak to Derrick and coming down to Khadija Halliday who I think electrified persons fairly recently as spoken word artists so 13 poets presenting work both in English and in Quayol we will begin with an excerpt of a poem by Derrick Walcott and then we go into the work and I will be emceeing it and in between I will be doing a running commentary on the tradition here and taking some of my substance from the poems that are being presented and we will end with a choral presentation a chorally arranged presentation of one of Derrick Walcott's poems and so all the 13 poets and we will be joined by Sigrid Nama the decades long life companion of Derrick she will be joining us for the final presentation of the the choral arranged poem and yeah so we want to keep things very very tight to wrap it up in two hours and then it's open afterwards if people want to you know stay and chat whatever meet poets etc so we look forward to look forward to seeing you there it's an admission fee of $20 so spread the word bring yourselves bring your enthusiasm bring your friends and let's come and celebrate our tradition thank you see I told you we got the gestures so ladies and gentlemen this is Grusley for you in a nutshell thank you very much good thank you good morning everybody I would like to adopt protocol that has already been established thank you we are starting with in Babono we are trying to go as large as we possibly can with excellence we are starting off with our exhibition at the Babono multiple centre where we'll be having some young artists we have a graphic artist by the name of Carlisle Dawes and we also have Athalie Williams one who can do your portrait right there on scene for you so we are starting off with also we have a published author Alice Mada and we have Alicia Valas Polius who is also a writer these two ladies are teachers at the Babono secondary school and we also have Latoya Murray who was a participant of the Commonwealth essay competition she did not win but she was awarded a prize and she will also be featuring those persons there Levi or Mr. St. Marie Radder who is the PRO for the Babono Lobel Laureate committee will come briefly to tell you about what we have the national skills development program good morning everybody Madam Dean Pallet-Louise chair committee members it's an honour to speak on a national skills competition and the remarkable benefits to gain from such initiative this project was going to be harnessing the use our young use the creative arts and to develop their talent whether it be culinary arts technology the arts and drama but it actually is going to focus and bring them together and whereby they can become entrepreneurship and also boosting our economic development this initiative will be collaborated by the Ministry of Education Innovation and Ministry of Economics thank you very much okay so our launching for Nobel Laureate the Nobel Laureate committee will be on the 18th of January that is Wednesday the 18th of January and we will begin at 6.30pm the purpose of this activity is to recognize our Nobel Laureates Sir Arthur Lewis and Sir Derek Walcott and also it is a time when our parliamentary representative I'm sorry our parliamentary representative Dr Virginia Albert will be unveiling her plans for Babono we'll be going grand and we'll be doing some excellent presentations on that night we'll also be featuring our solo artists we'll also be looking at our steel pan Babono is home for the steel pan so we'll also be having steel pan presentation on that night and if you want more information you can contact myself, Florencia Popo or our PRO Mr. St. Murray on the 20th we have our literary night and this will be done at the Babono Secondary School and it will be hosted by Mr. Wayne Benty with the vice principal Babono Secondary School so we are looking out to attaining excellence in all that we put out hoping that we will be able to have your full participation and cooperation as we go out on having our first Nobel Laureate in Babono, thank you very much Canvas will be presenting by Zoom so next year hopefully 2024 we'll have all 10 districts thank you everybody so as the namesake of the first recipient of the Nobel Prize the South Alois Community College continues to play a pivotal role in the national events on the calendar of activities for the Nobel Laureate Festival beginning first with the traditional South Alois Memorial Lecture which this year will be held on Thursday the 19th of January from 7.30pm at the Finance Administrative Center and the college is very proud that this year the presenter is none other than Dr. June Sumer who is an alumna of the Teachers College formerly named and also served on the board of the South Alois Community College and her topic this year is Sir Arthur Lewis and racism growing inequality and the right to development destruction of civilization so we look forward to Dr. Sumer's presentation I think many signatures would know of her name and it would be great to see her in this role as the lecturer for the South Alois Memorial Lecture so that again is this data 19th of January the second activity that will be held that is a staple on the calendar of our national activities is the wreath laying ceremony as you know after Sir Derek passed there is a stone's throw away on the extended campus of the South Alois Community College so the wreath laying ceremony is for both laureates it's a memorial service where we lay wreaths at the gravesites of the two laureates and we also have presentations to immortalize the works of Sir Derek and Sir Arthur we also do have a keynote speaker for the memorial service and that is delivered this year by Mr. Ember Charles who is also an alumnus of the college I think the A level college at the time and of course you know he's the current chairman of the Folk Research Center and we expect that the family members of both laureates will be present as well as members of the community who will participate in this ceremony so these are our two staple activities but the college always goes beyond given that we are the National Tissue Institution we are named after I said the Nobel Laureate and now Sir Derek Walcott is buried not too far on our grounds so one of the activities that we will host is an open house for the newly established Derek Walcott Library so a couple years ago those of you who don't know we opened the Derek Walcott Library which is separate from our resident Hunter J. Faswa Library and we are gifted with the works of Sir Derek by his partner Ms. Nama and we are very honored to do so the library has not been officially opened it will be though on the 23rd of January which is the both dates of both laureates but on Friday the 20th of January immediately following the Wreath Lane ceremony the Hunter J. Faswa Library will hold an open house for the Derek Walcott Library to provide an opportunity for visitors and patrons to tour the library and also to sign up for membership and during the open house Walcott's legacy will be celebrated with literary and creative performances by students and poetry readings by friends, family and colleagues of Sir Derek so we are pleased to inform that the library will officially be opened on the 23rd but we invite you to our open house on the 20th to consolidate the legacy of the laureates you must have your youth involved and we are the Tissue Institution so our students will also take the forefront as part of activities on the campus so our debate society will be having a student debate on Wednesday the 25th of January and I won't let out the topic just now but it will be interesting for many of you to view it we will try to live stream and we will have a live audience as well so we will be focusing on the importance possibly of preserving traditions or whether we need to move to newer traditions so we are going to invite you to the college student debate that takes place on Wednesday the 25th of January we are also going to be partnering with Head Funk to host a poetry event our library, our Hunter J. Faswa Library has spearheaded an event that is called Word Up that encourages the writing of poetry so Head Funk will be collaborating with the college to put on a poetry event on Thursday the 26th of January and that will be held on our campus another staple for us at the college has been a dramatic theatrical presentation and this year the group will be putting on the creative and performing arts group will be putting on a full length play that was actually written by our award winning Kendall Hippolit who is with us here this morning Cash Pandora the play will be directed by Mr. Kennedy Booth Samuel who is currently a lecturer in our theater department at the college and this year in addition to our students participating Mr. Samuel has also brought in staff and other members of the community to be part of the production so we are going to have that event at the national cultural center on February 7th with just a small fee of $20 to help us offset expenses as you know to put on a theatrical production would cost us so on the 7th of February we will be having the production at the national cultural center from 7.30pm and we will also try to do a matinee for the students as that too is very important to engage them and our final activity that we will have is a road really just pre the pandemic I think we had a race to the moon which was a walk from one laureate to the other and we have renamed it laureate to laureate road really and we will be providing details on that at the soonest so these are the activities from the south of Lewis community college as usual we are very honored that we are included and we will continue to do our part to ensure that the legacy of our two laureates live on the impolite louisie and everybody else who are here and we will be celebrating our Nobel laureate festival once again we have met to launch our Nobel laureate festival and for those of us who continue to be an integral part of the festival committee we refer to this orally I refer to this as the season of inspiration we are overjoyed to share with you from the national archives our offerings for 2023 by the way Mr. I want to inform you that the phone books you referred to we have copies at the archives and the phone card you will get it there so we are doing our job now the national archives authority of St. Lucia will mount an exhibition as its contribution to Nobel laureate festival 2023 this exhibition will showcase the lives of our internationally acclaimed Lavoon Spencer and Darren Sammy it will focus on the rise of these two young people who both came from humble beginnings they were read in rural communities and through determination hard work and perseverance there was two prominence on the world stage in their chosen sports of high jump and cricket the theme for the exhibition is celebrating excellence fulfilling the destiny winning international acclaim we normally have our own theme sub sub theme for our activities and this activity will be held on Monday the 23rd of January 2023 and it will be declared open by our own chairperson at the activity Ms. Sigrid Nama will also donate a collection of Cedric Walcott's items to the National Archives something which he has done previously let me ask why the exhibition the exhibition is important we need to inspire our young people to aim high to succeed in their chosen fields despite the challenges that they face this is why our exhibition will run from the 23rd until the 31st of March it is to give each young person via their schools or other groups sporting groups etc an opportunity to come and find out for themselves about these two young people and we need your help and support push it in your communities I am happy to hear that did we say canaries library they are all coming on board and by next year we will have the whole of St. Lucia on board through their communities push it in your communities and help the young people to come to our activity coincidentally the 23rd above date of the Nobel laureates and at the archives our activities always go very well excellent and we shall be celebrating with cake and champagne you know at the archives are repeating we are an institution of Guazafe it's always a wonderful time when we have our activities so I am inviting you I am inviting other people and you can come with a bottle in case we don't have enough so once again Nobel laureate day the 23rd of January 10am National Archives they pull it will be there good morning chair good morning I think the first time I stood in front of 15 years ago playing matok in one of mcdonald dixon's play called tin day it's a privilege to stand here today to present as a writer producer and found the director of drama cantalent house our play and to be affiliated of the festival so thank you very much and good morning everyone my name is daniel dubois director of drama cantalent house the theatrical production the gopel rehabilitation center produced by drama cantalent house has grown into a household name over the past two years and we are excited to conclude this theatrical series as part of the 2023 Nobel laureate festival this is not our first collaboration with the Nobel laureate committee last year and the year before gopel 2 and 1 was broadcast live on the government information service and across five local television stations due to the restrictions of the COVID-19 pandemic although our hands slightly tied we managed to complete a theatrical production, celebrate excellence and bring authentic St. Lucian stories to the screens of St. Lucian's at home and in the diaspora this year and today we are delighted to announce the live performance of the gopel rehabilitation center part three the finale happening Friday 27th and Saturday 28th January 2023 at the national cultural center tickets cost $50 the show starts promptly at 8 o'clock on both nights with a matinee show at 11 o'clock on the Friday and for students the fee is $25 this daytime showing will serve as an opportunity for c-sex theater art students to witness and critique a play which forms part of the SBA requirements for the successful completion of the subject drama can is happy to provide this unique educational niche for students and falls in line with our capacity building mandate as we aspire to meet industry with students giving them a real-life example and engagement of what creative pursuits and the carrying the creative field of theater can look like gopel the play captures the stories of patients admitted into the glorified emotional window center and the people who work there the themes wrap around love, betrayal, healing and emotional wellness and bringing light to toxic workspace and outdated ways of thinking set in modern day Saint Lucia the center captures everyday people just trying to figure out this thing called life the play was written by Australia and it will be directed by Leona Sandeford theater teacher out of the denry of here secondary school. Saint Lucia can expect to see new roles and new faces in this comedic drama created to shine a light on issues and happenings that affect us all be sure to follow drama can talent house on social media to get real time updates as we are committed to documenting and sharing the journey to production night on behalf of drama can I must say thank you to the committee for the opportunity to support and of course the platform and we hope we can continue to be a yearly staple on your calendar of events as we continue to celebrate excellence and the contribution of our two Nobel laureates. So once again thank you very much January 27th and 28th National Cultural Center $50 long live drama Hello everyone tell me tell me tell me I actually said it they put it easy and the members of the committee thank you so much this is almost like a dream to me at the power quail I think is the only event that is totally quail and the Nobel laureates festival it is a spoken word event that takes place on the 28th of January at heroes park and for those of you who do not know where heroes park is that absolutely beautiful serene little cove right next to the San Susi bridge it should have been developed by now many many many years ago there were plans to put in a monument there that had been commissioned from the sentomas but that has not happened I keep dreaming that one day I will actually walk past there and see some form of activity happening there that speaks to the park actually being heroes park it will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. we are hoping to present 10 spoken word artists presenting in quail only and so for us quail is a spoken language as most of us know we know we speak it it has become the language that we identify Saint Lucia by when we leave our shores but when we are home we don't appreciate it so much but quail is a language and because it is a language anti-power quail is actually a competition that speaks to that we look at not just performance but how well we can actually write quail so all of the artists who will be taking part in the anti-power quail will actually also be presenting their written work for judging as well as presenting as doing their performance on that afternoon it is a free event so we hoping that you will actually be able to come and sit around if you want to bring a towel and lay on the grass you can do that as well because it is a nice grass area enjoy the ambience of the place and enjoy our little little little event but we are really appreciative that the Nobel laureates committee has agreed to keep our quail language alive and one of the things that we want to do at Kai quail is really to push the use of our quail language we lean on it a little bit but sometimes we we think that it is something to be ashamed of and it really isn't and Dame I want to thank you so much for holding my hands through this anti-power quail actually came out when I was asked to organize for the first time Chateau quail which is a national quail song competition I was feeling so lost and Dame Paulette Luisi was one of those people who helped me through that little period of time there so thank you so much when you said earlier on that you have held so many of our hands I sat there and I thought I'm one of those thank you very much and thank you so much to the committee for giving us this opportunity we hope that everybody will like I said it's a free event so please join us on the 28th of January from four to six p.m. at the heroes park for anti-power quail thank you very much Karen and everyone who presented here I actually attended Karen's event last year and it was wonderful and you don't have to have a hundred percent understanding of quail to enjoy it because I'm one of those I put my hands up I understand practically everything but don't ask me to speak it but I understood what they were saying and it was such a wonderful event so please come out and support these young people who are keeping the tradition alive. Before we go to our coordinators live on Zoom courtesy of the St. Lucia Bureau of Standards thank you for supplying the link I'd like to tell you about the video series Celebrating Excellence which we have a few seasons now and everyone always says when who are you going to talk to next time well the next time is now this time and I'm going to be talking with Dr. Adrian OJ who is here thank you so much for being here with us of course Dr. Anderson Reynolds he's also here thank you so much these two gentlemen have so many wonderful things to say you must not miss it also Dr. Clarence Henry and we also have Drenia Frederick they're going to be talking about the relevance and some of the excellence that our Nobel laureates have given us at home and of course on the international scene the videos are only approximately 45 minutes so if you hear video think oh this is going to be long it's not it's a very short video and it's very engaging so ensure that you watch them it's going to be available on the Nobel laureate festival facebook page and also on hot 7 TV all the earrings and the schedules will be on our Nobel laureate facebook page and also with the videos which we are going to share with you right now and then we're going to go across to our coordinators on the Zoom if you hear the video please tell everyone about the Celebrating Excellence series of videos Celebrating Excellence a series of videos that highlights the importance of St. Lucia's Nobel laureates Sir Arthur Lewis and Sir Eric Walcott is back my guests are Dr. Adrian Oje Dr. Clarence Henry Drenia Frederick and Dr. Anderson Reynolds watch before the evening news on Hot 7 TV and on our facebook page Nobel Laureate Festival St Lucia from the 8th of January 2023 right we're going to go across to our coordinators on Zoom and they're going to tell us about their events I do know that we have Mr. Jonathan Gadding of course he is part of the Lab We Promotions event of Paint the Village if you haven't been please try and go there it's going to be a wonderful day this is the 7th year of our player painting event in Lab which we call Paint the Village the subject this year is on vanishing women buildings along with being a physical part of the landscape they also represent a way of life in St. Lucia which like the buildings is slowly vanishing perhaps so when making paintings of some of these buildings we hope to celebrate and preserve this aspect of culture of creating an opportunity for artists around the island to get together and paint in the open air in the warm welcoming community of Lab a local expert will be on hand to give some background on these buildings how they were built and the function they serve persons of all ages and skill levels are invited and encouraged to come down to Lab with whatever supplies you would like to use pencils, paints, crayons tablets, cameras, whatever we did a square in Labric at 9.30 a.m. on Saturday January 14 and we will paint to around lunchtime so our thanks to the Nobel Laureate Festival Committee the Emperor of Lucia and our generous sponsors looking forward to seeing you a week from Saturday thank you Good morning everyone and with the process of all this already being established I would like to see a pleasant good morning also to those who are watching on the theater social media channels my name is Michelle Samuel and I am the head of the Lucia Queen Commonwealth Essay awards committee and with Sla Terra and I will be providing some information with regard to our upcoming event so Sla Terra will join several organizations as you already heard and celebrating excellence nurturing our creativity consolidating our legacy we in partnership with Soul Tree will mark the 2023 Saint-Michel Nobel Laureate Festival from January 8 to the first hosted by the fifth annual hosting sorry the fifth annual Saint-Michel Queen Commonwealth Essay awards as part of the 2023 Saint-Michel Nobel Laureate Festival the Queen Commonwealth Essay competition is the world's all best Essay competition launching in the 1880s and it actually helps to schools and as it is delivered by the Royal Commonwealth Society since 1883 it has been delivered in her majesty the Queen's name since 2015 in recognition of the pearl late majesty the Queen's selfless commitment to the Commonwealth and in the past decade alone the competition has indeed over 100,000 young people over 5000 schools and around 1000 volunteer judges the QCEC introduced young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and underrepresented demographics and remote communities to the idea of writing for fun developing key literacy skills and working to increase academic attainment through its promotion of literacy and writing skills the QCEC contributes to the U.S. the sustainable development goal for quality education for 60 countries and territories and the society aims to reach even more young people throughout the Commonwealth in the coming years through the digital literacy initiative the year 2022 saw the theme our Commonwealth and 10 of our young students participated in this competition to recognize them we will have the Commonwealth Essay Awards to take place at the finance and administrative center fifth law conference room located at Windsor, Newcastle on Wednesday, January 11th from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. admission is completely free but the person must RSVP to gain entry RSVP link can be found on our Facebook page as well as the Lucia Queen's Commonwealth Essay Writers page the SLQCA the SLQCA is an annual event held in my month of January during the Simpsons Millillary Festival there are four things that this award ceremony does it announces that the 10 students who participated in last year's competition it will celebrate the four students who earned gold silver and bronze it will acknowledge the hardest hand sponsors who have supported and are still supporting this event and debate and will recognize a former participant writer who due to her age is no longer able to participate all students will receive a platform in which their entries can be heard publicly and they will also receive a frame certificate and those who emerge as national gold finalists, gold, silver and bronze winners will receive tokens and prizes from various partners and supporters I would like to invite anyone and everyone who is a supporter and fan of the literary arts to attend this event to find out who our 10 young Simpsons writers are so that we can celebrate with them thank you very much we are grateful to the National Community and for encouraging the Commission to hand this come see she didn't mean that I have to be presenting by as well this is the first time that we are hosting the literary activities and that it is the first so many years to come we have formed the activities at the community level to item the women's awareness on the importance of celebrating excellence as existed in our two galleries and to inspire community members to the same level of excellence the committee members are as follows I am the chairperson of the CBM chair this is Sheena Fuguesa this is Gregory Tumil this is Alain Joseph and this is Samuel Liner our members of the community the first activity that we are planning to host is the launch of the literary movement which is on Sunday January 8th that is this Sunday from 7 p.m we will have an open-air presentation at the market at least a very popular piece in the community presentations from various churches in the community and theatrical performances as well as poetry from members of the community on Saturday January 21st from 7 p.m. as well we will acknowledge the community's excellence as well as the community there are so many young persons and even more of your adults who are still in various areas and so we would like to highlight their creative geniuses and to show some appreciation for their contributions to the arts on Saturday February 11th we will all wait until the internet has a release activity so on Saturday February 11th from 7 p.m. we will host an independent piece as well from February 21st from 6 p.m. and this is that we are engaging all members of the community to participate in this piece through knowledge of the island and knowledge of art to know memories we want to thank you once again for making this piece again for encouraging us to be a part of this activities and the hope that we will continue to make our contributions and inspire young people in the community of families to aspire to greatness thank you so much final person to address us today is Drenia Frederick we are just waiting for her to come on board and of course she always has something very interesting to tell us also about the lectures so hopefully Drenia is with us now everything that you can do word of mouth to let everyone know that this festival is for everyone Drenia I hope that you are with us and if not I will just proceed so I will give her a few seconds and see whether she is able to meet us alright I believe we have another member so we will take that other member if we are experiencing more online difficulties we will just proceed to the close the 7th annual Patricia is mandatory workshop set to be on Friday 27 January 2023 the workshop is dedicated to the 2nd iPhone and also the new lecture Dr. Patricia is one in whose name a scholarship for solution students said that BN in 2030 as the new open campus initiative site has been established to date 3 students have benefited from this scholarship which was generously provided by Patricia Ms. Heather Isman Dr. Isman was an island caller, you will learn and mature as the university of the West Indies and a leading authority on the workforce to their work. Last year under the theme of appreciating and assessing the power of poetic and dramatic texts the workshop was tailored to be set in the community and the art teachers from various secondary schools on island while the first week workshop was facilitated by Dr. Antonio Manzano this year the facilitation will be met other than Mr. Kenneth Ippolet who is in studio right now Mr. Ippolet is an alumnus also used he is a poet, a playwright and director he is the recipient of a number of awards and honors in literature directing and other areas Mr. Ippolet also received a signature medal of merit for his service in the art in the years 2000 Mr. Ippolet for theater art and literature at the University College for 15 years Mr. Ippolet was also receded with the sixth alumnus Patricia Isman literary workshop in 2022 where he addressed the elements that influenced the choices of dramatic and poetic techniques in the creation of Mr. Wook the seventh annual Patricia Isman literary workshop will take place at the UWE open campus of the University of Paris located at Montfort Unicast Street, Tennessee on Friday 27th January 2023 from 9am to 3pm thank you important information you want to know about of course our lecture series so Drenia let's see if we can hear you this time all right so Drenia was going to tell you about the Cedric Walcott Memorial Lecture and I will continue if she comes across then I'll leave over to her it's going to be delivered by the Honorable Hazel Simmons McDonald and the title of the presentation is Walcott's plays a creative exploration of St. Lucian culture and identity I know that she had a wonderful presentation to give you and unfortunately we can't do it at this point so we will put it on our Nobel Art Facebook page so you'll be able to see it there the the lecture is going to be taking place at 7.30pm at the Finance Administrative Center on the 17th of January so that's Tuesday the 17th of January 7.30pm at the Finance Administrative Center and of course this is an event that many people adventure to come out where we have lectures where it just all comes to play when we hear our lectures explain why things are the way they are the way through their eyes and of course there are opportunities to ask questions as well so that takes us to the end of some of the events that will be available to everyone and don't forget that you can also text us, SMS us and let us know what the program was I think earlier I might have said that the number is 4111 but it's actually 2842111 okay so that is 2842111 that's the number and if you just say program that's all you need to do we will send you the program of events so it's been a long morning and I hope that we have said something that will interest you to come to one of the events I'd like to thank our sponsors of course we have the Elaborate Cooperative Credit Union the Bank of St Lucia Flow and the St Lucia Tourism Authority on behalf of the chair of our festival committee for 2023 and of course I need to thank our coordinators and all those people who took part in the events whether they were interviewed whether they gave their time or their areas of expertise and advice we thank you all so what can I say but again just encourage you all to please spread the word go on to the NoBullarite Facebook page and send us an SMS SMS 284 2111 I'm Dee Lidlore thank you for being with us goodbye