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Jan Carew

Gentle Revolutionary:A Celebration of his works

Two Jan CarewsIn the Caribbean, Europe and Canada:•Artist, writer, broadcaster, activist

In the US:•Academician and one of the founders of Black Studies in the US

Two Jan CarewsIn the Caribbean, Europe and Canada:

•Author of numerous novels, children’s books, essay collections, histories, stories and newspaper articles

•Actor with Sir Laurence Olivier

•Anti-colonial activist on multiple continents

In the US:

•Developer of programs for first generations of Black students entering Princeton, Rutgers, and Northwestern U. •Emeritus Professor of African American Studies of NU

•Nurturer of younger scholars of Black Studies

WriterBlack Midas, 1958 … 2009

Black Midas

BBC radio: “Caribbean Voices” programwith Henry Swanzy, George Lamming, Andrew Salkey,

and Sam Selvon

PlaywrightDay of the Fox (TV play) , England (1961)• Show page from

magazine, Sammy Davis Jr.

Behind God’s Back (TV play) Canada (1969)

• First West Indian play ever screened on the Canadian Broadcasting Co.

• Hired a young Cecily Tyson for the female lead

Pan-Africanist

Advisor to:•Cheddi Jagan of Guyana, early 1960s •Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, mid-1960s •and Michael Manley of Jamaica, 1970s

Last Meeting with Cheddi Jagan, (1994)

Free Robeson and Du Bois campaignslate 1950s

Actively engaged in the campaign to free the Pan-AfricanChampions, late 1950s •Paul Robeson•W.E.B. Du Bois

With Malcolm X at Magnet launchearly 1965

With Malcolm X in London

Nkrumah’s Ghana (1965-1966)

Carew and Black Power: Canada and US

• Moved to Canada in 1966, worked as writer, journalist, playwright

• Arrived in US in 1968 to do CBC program on culture and the Black Power revolution

• Invited to teach at Princeton and Rutgers, remaining 1969-1973

• 1973, accepted Chair position in the new African American Studies Department at Northwestern University

• Retired Emeritus Professor of African American Studies in 1987

Jan Carew Legacy: The MemoirsPotaro Dreams: My Youth in Guyana (volume I, Hansib 2014)

Episodes in My Life (volume II, Peepal Tree 2015)

Jan Carew Legacy: The Poetry

Cuban Missiles Crisis (1962)

reporting for the London Observer, the only Western reporter in Cuba at the time…

“Raiders: We will Sink the British Ship” “Havana Angry at Russian ‘Circus’” “Like the Yankees…”

20th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution

• 1979 – invited to contribute to celebration of 20th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution…

• Joined some of the greatest West Indian and South American poets to produce a landmark recording of poems

Jan Carew with Claudia Jones and friends, London