Several elected officials kicked off National Caribbean American Heritage Month with a celebration of nine people of Caribbean heritage at the Our Caribbean Heritage Celebration last weekend at the Celeste Bartos Forum, New York Public Library in Manhattan, hosted by City Council Member Andy King.

Among this years honorees were City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito; United Nations Ambassador to Dominica the Hon. Bannis-Roberts; Gabriel J. Christian, Esq.; Henry A. Garrido, DC 37 executive director; Ambassador Curtis Ward, former ambassador of Jamaica to the United Nations; the Hon. Dr. Irving W. Andr, Superior Court of Justice, Dominica; Crispin Gregoire, United Nations Development Programs chief of the Caribbean Strategic Monitoring and Support Unit of the Regional Bureau of Latin America and the Caribbean; and Dr. Clayton Shillingford, former president of the Dominica Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Supporters of Our Caribbean Heritage Celebration include Congress members Gregory Meeks and Eliot Engel; borough presidents Ruben Diaz Jr, Bronx and Eric Adams, Brooklyn; state senators Jamaal Bailey and Kevin Parker; State Assembly members Latrice Walker, Rodneyse Bichotte, Victor Pichardo, Diana Richardson and N. Nick Perry; and City Council members Bill Perkins, Fernando Cabrera, Rory Lancman, Rosie Mendez, Mark Levine, Rafael Espinal, Laurie Cumbo, Corey Johnson, Vanessa Gibson and Jumaane Williams.

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National Caribbean Heritage Month kicks off - Amsterdam News