RIP Brother Valentino (7 Jul 1941 - 20 Oct 2026). “The People’s Calypsonian” whose songs made a forceful case for equality, Black identity and the concerns of ordinary people. Born Emrold Anthony Phillip in Cherry Hill, #Grenada, he moved to #Trinidad as a youngster. #TrinidadandTobago #Caribbean #Calypso guardian.co.tt/news/brother-…

Desmond Allen, #Jamaican journalist, editor and author, born 72 years ago today on 22 Oct 1954. Best known as the founding editor of the Jamaica Observer newspaper. Allen attended Cornwall College in Montego Bay and, on October 1, 1973, just before his nineteenth birthday, joined The Gleaner newsroom to begin his career in journalism. He went on to the Jamaica Daily News. He received the Press Association of Jamaica's News Story of the Year award in 1981 and 1983. Allen was the first employee of the Observer when it was established January 1993, with the first issue published on March 7, 1993. He was close to its founder, Gordon "Butch" Stewart, whom he described as his mentor. By 2012 he served as executive editor for operations. His best-known work is the personality-profile series The Desmond Allen Interviews, which won the Jamaica Broilers Fairplay Award in 2005. He has written over seventy interviews for the paper, including the Families in Business series. He also wrote The Spike, a column on training and self-criticism for journalists. Allen served as president of the Press Association of Jamaica and as General Secretary of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers. He was conferred with the Order of Distinction (Officer Class) in 2014. Cornwall College later honoured him with its "Men of Might" Award. In October 2023, marking fifty years in journalism, he published Desmond Allen's Greatest Hits: Wondrous Tales of Extraordinary Jamaicans. The 394-page book collects twenty interviews first published in the Observer between 2004 and 2022. #Jamaica #Caribbean