Four to Receive Dennis Brown Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award

The Dennis Brown Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award will be presented to four persons whose contributions best reflect the ideals of the late reggae recording star.
They are Hon. Dr. Una S.T. Clarke, community leader/politician; Winston ‘Merritone’ Blake, musicologist; Tony Ryan, Entrepreneur/musicologist and Ken Williams, Entrepreneur/broadcaster.
The awards will be presented at the Dennis Brown Memorial Organization’s Third Annual Scholarship & Awards Dinner at the Ramada Adria Hotel & Conference Centre in Bayside, New York, on Saturday, February 2, beginning at 8:00 p.m.
Robert ‘Bob’ DeSouza, Chief Executive Officer of Trans-Continental Express Shippers and a member of the event’s planning committee, told JIS News that the awardees will be recognized for “their pioneering initiatives that have contributed to the development, acceptance and preservation of our popular culture overseas.”
The annual event seeks to honour the legacy of the acclaimed ‘Crown Prince of Reggae’, by recognizing those persons and organizations that influenced the development of the late singer in one form or another.
Alongside the lifetime achievement award, the organization will present a one year academic scholarship to one deserving student of Jamaican heritage, enrolled in a recognized tertiary institution.
This year’s scholar is 18 year-old LaVonna Shettlesworth of Long Island, a first year student at Syracuse University in Upstate New York.
President of the organization, Junior Ewart, told JIS News that this year’s event would provide patrons with another opportunity to reminisce on the outstanding career of the late singer who died on July 1, 1999.
“Dennis Brown gave reggae music a presence on the international stage and for that we are grateful. His legacy will forever warm our musical consciousness,” Mr. Ewart said.