Mon | Oct 13, 2025

The Gleaner recognised on World Poetry Day

Published:Sunday | March 27, 2022 | 12:09 AM
From left: Dudley McLean II, Delphine Williams-Young, Nickesha Gaynor – Elliott and Stacy Ann Gunter. Absent, Monique Castle at the virtual presentation of the Moods! World’s Poetry Day certificate to The Gleaner.
Contributed
From left: Dudley McLean II, Delphine Williams-Young, Nickesha Gaynor – Elliott and Stacy Ann Gunter. Absent, Monique Castle at the virtual presentation of the Moods! World’s Poetry Day certificate to The Gleaner.

The Gleaner newspaper is the first recipient of the Moods! World’s Poetry Day certificate for contribution to empowerment of persons and a gift to education; the certificate was awarded by the Moods! Committee at Church Teachers’ College, Mandeville (CTC).

In a citation read by Nickesha Gaynor-Elliott, a member of the committee and lecturer from the School of Languages and Literatures, The Gleaner was lauded for providing “Jamaicans from home and abroad, as well as anyone who has the capacity of expressing oneself, whether in defiance of oppression and death or exploring the platonic world of love and the mystery of human relations, a place in print at The Gleaner.”

Moods! is the creative arts publication of poems written by students and staff members at CTC since 1966. During the 2016 – 2017 academic year, it was modernised to include at its annual publication Moods! Poet Laureate. The first recipient was former lecturer Ferdinand Boyd, whose poems were printed in The Gleaner. Other awardees were schoolteacher Orrett Burke (2018), Dub poet Yasus Afari (2019) and entrepreneur and owner of Tanya’s Body Care, Tanya Powell-Edwards (2020-2021). A requirement for the awarding of the Moods! Poet laureate is to have their work published, whether in book form or print media. A new Moods! Poet laureate will be announced at the end of March.

The editor of the Arts and Education, Amitabh Sharma, also was recognised for his contribution to The Gleaner with a Certificate of Appreciation by the Moods! Committee.

Editor-in-Chief of The Gleaner Kaymar Jordan accepted the awards virtually on behalf of The Gleaner. In her expression of appreciation, she reaffirmed the newspaper’s commitment in supporting human creativity and education, especially expressions such as poetry.

Delphine Williams Young from the School of Languages and Literatures accepted the awards on behalf of The Gleaner while the presentation ceremony was chaired by Dudley McLean II, a member of the Moods! Committee and coordinator of alumni affairs.

Other members present at the presentation ceremony were Stacy-Ann Gunter and Monique Castle.