The Caribbean American Legislative Forum is an annual event that educates Caribbean-Americans on policy issues that affect the Caribbean American community. Attendees hear from elected officials and are given an opportunity to network with business leaders, policymakers, and advocates. It includes a roundtable as well as short presentations. The event is free and open to the public but pre-registration is required.

In 1999, under the patronage of Congresswoman Donna Christensen (D-V.I.), the Institute of Caribbean Studies hosted the first annual US-Caribbean Legislative Forum at the Rayburn House Office Building of the U.S. Congress. The goal of the Forum is to explore legislative and policy issues of importance to the Caribbean American community, with the goal of affecting policy that considers our perspectives. 

Congresswoman Christensen and Ambassador Kingsley Layne opened the 1999 forum, setting the perfect tone for the discussions by highlighting the issues affecting the U.S.-Caribbean relationships. Participants consisted of U.S. officials and policy makers and Caribbean American scholars and community leaders. Panelists included Congressman Phil Crane (R-IL), Chairman of the Trade Subcommittee and sponsor of the Caribbean and Central America Relief and Economic Stabilization Act; Congressman Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY), a member of the Committee on International Relations; and Patrick McDuffie, Director of Caribbean Affairs, US Agency for International Development.

The importance of the forum is to forge a working relationship between the U.S. and the Caribbean, a point that was underscored by the attendance of a representative from Vice-President Gore's office, Lisa Mallory. Over the years, speakers have included Ambassador Richard L. Bernal, Chair of the Small Economies Working Group of Free Trade Area of the America; Dr. Eddie Green, Assistant Secretary General of CARICOM; Lael Brainard, Deputy Assistant to the President for Economic policy; Congressman Major Owens and Dr. Bilali Camara of the Caribbean Epidemiology Center. The tradition continued with the 2003 Forum being attended by six US Representatives including Congressman Charles Rangel, Tiffany Watkins from the White House and Meg Gilroy, Director for the Caribbean at the U.S. State Department.

Dancer, choreographer and actor Geoffrey Holder was born on August 1, 1930, in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, into a middle-class family. One of four children, he was taught painting and dancing by his older brother Boscoe Holder, whose dance troupe, the Holder Dance Company, the young Geoffrey joined when he was seven years old. Geoffrey assumed direction of the company in the late 1940s after Boscoe moved to London.

Holder moved to the United States in 1954, two years after being "discovered" by Agnes de Mille, the choreographer daughter of director-producer Cecil B. DeMille, who saw the Holder Dance Company perform in St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands. Holder, a talented painter, sold a score of his paintings to raise the funds to bring the Holder Dance Company to New York City in 1954 (in 1957 Holder won a Guggenheim Fellowship to study painting). He would appear with his dance company, now titled Geoffrey Holder and Company, in New York through 1960.

On December 30, 1954, Holder made his Broadway debut (as did Diahann Carroll) at the Alvin Theatre in the Caribbean-themed original musical "House of Flowers," with music by Harold Arlen, who also co-wrote the book with Truman Capote. The show ran for 165 total performances but, more importantly, Holder met and married fellow cast member Carmen DeLavallade, a dancer.

Holder played the role of Lucky in a revival of Samuel Beckett's "Waiting for Godot" directed by Herbert Berghof on Broadway in January 1957. The show only lasted six performances, but it established Holder as an actor, and he made his film debut four years later in All Night Long (1962), a modern gloss on William Shakespeare's "Othello." His most famous role was as the heavy "Baron Samedi" in the James Bond movie Live and Let Die (1973), Roger Moore's first turn as 007.

Holder won the 1975 Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical for his staging of the Broadway musical "The Wiz" (1975), the all-African American retelling of "The Wizard of Oz." He also won the Tony for best costume design (he would be nominated again for a Tony for best costume design for the original 1978 Broadway musical "Timbuktu!", which he also directed and choreographed). As a choreographer,

he has created dance pieces for many companies, including the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

 

Source: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0390305/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm