Dear Mailbase,
Gloria Escoffery b. 1923 Gayle, Jamaica, d. Brown's Town Jamaica, 24th April 2002
Gloria Escoffery was a painter, writer and teacher with a fierce attachment to her native Jamaica. She was greatly influenced by the nationalism inspired for her generation by the Manleys. During the 1950s, she was one of a few female contributors to the BBC's Caribbean Voices. She was poet and critic who contributed to Bim and other literary journals. Her poems appear in several journals and in 1988 a collection of her work, Loggerhead revived interest in her poetry. During her long and productive lifetime she worked as a regular columnist for the Jamaica Gleaner and was art critic for the Jamaica Journal. She continued to write and paint with vigour and in 2000, privately published a wonderful long illustrated poem entitled Rootsman. Today, I received the very sad news from her friend Elizabeth Holcrow that Gloria Escoffery died on the 24th April. Elizabeth writes that she died at her beloved home and studio in Brown's Town and that she was alert until a few days before her death. The Society for Caribbean Studies has a particular affection for Gloria's work and will remember her generosity in allowing us to reproduce her painting: 'Banana Plantation Workers' on our conference poster. A copy of the painting and more information on her work is posted on the SCS website. She and her letters will be greatly missed by so many people. Her memory will live on in a significant body of original work and in her contributions to Jamaican art and literary criticism.
Sandra Courtman
Chair of the Society for Caribbean Studies
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