Joy Lawrence OH, Antiguan historian and poet has produced a 20-minute film showing the Parham plantations today and explains how the legacy of slavery in Antigua continues. The film includes an interview with a man who can recall a visit from a member of the Tudway family. One of the project’s partners, Agnes Meeker, from the Museum of Antigua and Barbuda also features in the film.
Joy Lawrence is an educator, a poet and an author of several books on the history and culture of Antigua and Barbuda including ‘The Footprints of Parham: the History of a Small Antiguan Town and its Influence’. She aims to pique young people’s interest in the nation’s history by focusing on their own villages and communities that emerged from the sugar estates after slavery. Her passion is to honour her ancestors by keeping Antigua’s culture alive by demonstrating through the spoken word and in writing the merits of local Creole, music, food and general way of life that is uniquely Caribbean or Afrocentric.
Miss Lawrence received awards for community development and outstanding literary contribution to Antigua & Barbuda from many institutions including UNESCO (2004). In 2019, she was among 264 candidates from 64 countries nominated for the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for young adults’ literature. Her work was featured in 2016 in A River of Stories – Tales and Poems from across the Commonwealth, published by the Commonwealth Education Trust. The Governor General, in 2017, conferred upon her the title of Officer of the Most Precious Order of Princely Heritage.
Her academic background includes a Master of Arts in Communications, Media and Public Relations (Merit) from the University of Leicester, UK. You can visit her website at joylawrence.com
