Jamaica Brew Festival: A historic day for Garvey legacy

As Dr Julius Garvey settled into his seat for the second annual Jamaica Brew Festival’s ‘The Life and Legacy of Marcus Garvey’ panel on Saturday, January 18, Bob Marley’s ‘Africa Unite’ pulsated through the Miramar Cultural Center theatre sound system.

The Jamaica Brew Festival joined the numerous venues where, since 1987, Dr Garvey advocated for the pardon of his father, Marcus Mosiah Garvey, Jamaica’s first national hero, a Pan-African giant who created a historic ‘Back to Africa’ campaign.

Few, if any, however, could have predicted that this fledgling festival, designed to celebrate the best of Jamaica in literature, film, and coffee, would become indelibly linked to the Garvey story.

During the panel, Dr Garvey, still looking spry at 91, explained the ongoing pardon process and hinted at upcoming news from the US White House. This discussion can be viewed on the Jamaica Brew Festival website, jamaicabrewfestival.com. The day after the panel — which featured Jamaica’s Consul General to the Southern US Oliver Mair, authors Geoffrey Philp and Lynda R. Edwards, and me — President Joe Biden granted Marcus Mosiah Garvey a posthumous pardon.

As such, the 2025 Jamaica Brew Festival, which boasted a who’s who in Jamaican storytelling and film — including Kwame McPherson, the first Jamaican to win the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, Ian Randle, Judith Falloon-Reid, Dr Aza Weir Soley, Malachi Smith, Susan Lycet Davis, and Natalie Corthésy — became the final stop on Dr Garvey’s world-travelled ‘Pardon Marcus Garvey’ campaign.

That it happened in Miramar, a city known for its vibrant Jamaican community in Broward County, Florida — which boasts the largest Jamaican diaspora population in the US – seemed only fitting.

The seeds for Jamaica Brew Festival were planted two years ago when Consul General Oliver Mair and Dale Mahfood, author of When Trees Fall, shared a vision to celebrate and promote Jamaica’s outstanding authors, poets, film-makers, and world-class coffee from both Jamaica and its diaspora. Mair and Mahfood were able to pull some of the biggest literary names, which established the festival’s credibility. The event moved to a bigger venue for the second annual staging, and patrons were treated to nostalgic theatre productions, which undoubtedly would have made Miss Lou proud.

Norman Grant, CEO and managing director of Mavis Bank Coffee Factory and coffee sommelier, highlighted Blue Mountain coffee’s significance to Jamaica’s economy and its growing US market. Festival-goers sampled the premium brew at Grant’s tasting station, where he shared his expertise about Jamaica’s most celebrated coffee export.

One of the standout performances was Aunty Nadine (Nadine Brady-Taylor) and Friends wowing the audience with Donkey Seh: A Performance Folktale.

Meanwhile, the Jamaican Folk Repetoire performed its signature musical and dance selections, including Hill & Gully Rider, Hol’ him Joe, Mi Caffee, and Bob Marley’s One Love, drawing a hearty round of applause.

In the poetry showcase, award-winning playwright, actress and author Judith Falloon-Reid recited Little Black Girl from her hit poetry collection, I Am No Poet.

On a day filled with a slew of memorable performances, Dr Julius Garvey was the biggest star on the Jamaica Brew Festival marquee.

As expected, his arrival caused quite the buzz, with well-wishers flocking to him to take pictures and purchase a signed copy of his book, Justice for Marcus Garvey.

And the affection for Dr Garvey didn’t end there.

The panel audience gave Dr Garvey a standing ovation as the festival awarded him a Lifetime Achievement award, and Mark Cameron, a Florida-based multidimensional artist, gifted Dr Garvey a painting of his father in full regalia.

Lynda Edwards, who wrote a chapter in Justice for Marcus Garvey, spoke of her great-granduncle, the late attorney Lewis Ashenheim, striking up a friendship with Marcus Garvey during Ashenheim’s successful appeal of a Jamaican Supreme Court ruling against Garvey in 1929 and the bond which exists to this day between the two families.

“I find myself reflecting on an important question,” Edwards said. “Where would the world be without the global conversation Marcus Garvey ignited about racial equality? What would have become of leaders like Martin Luther King Jr, Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela, or even Barack Obama and Kamala Harris, had Garvey’s groundbreaking work not laid the foundation for their ascension to the highest seats of power in the United States?”

I asked if he needed a hand with the painting. ‘Thank you, but I should be okay,’ Garvey answered with a smile.

But of course he is.

After juggling a family, a career as a medical professor and cardiothoracic surgeon, and running the Justice4Garvey movement, all the while travelling the globe to try to clear his father’s name, Dr Garvey’s mission is at long last accomplished.

Fabian Lyon is journalist with Miami Herald journalist. He founded the Game Changers Teen Summit and hosts the ‘Game Changers’ podcast. Send feedback to gchangersfl@gmail.com.