What’s brewing?

A number of stirring features are to be showcased at this year’s 3rd annual Jamaica Brew Literary and Film Festival being presented by the Consulate of Jamaica, Miami, at the Broward South West Regional Library, Pembroke Pines on Saturday, January 31.

It’s all that’s being brewed at the event that’s opening at 9 a.m. with complimentary Blue Mountain coffee and the signing and sales of books by a talented range of authors and poets. Throughout the day there are special presentations with the curtains being drawn at 5pm following two hours of short films being shown.

The event, in recognition of Jamaica Blue Mountain Coffee Day on January 9, was also created, says Consul General Oliver Mair, ‘to celebrate our creative industries, specifically our writers and filmmakers.’ ‘It’s an event, ‘he says, ‘that’s a platform to tell our stories to the world – about our worth and who we are as a people.’

New, will be a Children’s Corner of adopted Ring-Ding game and cultural activities of revered icon, the late Louise Bennett Coverley, Miss Lou with children also being taught to make movies by film writer, director and producer Cleon A James. The Children’s Corner will be staged in an area that will also highlight exhibitions by upcoming artists. A day, as always, of festive poetry and prose, there will be the usual topical panel discussions. Among the special presentations, however, will be the theatre-like production unveiling of the acronym BREW, each letter with the accompanying words highlighting what’s brewing at the event at the very start of the presentations at 10am.

Between the segments there will be video features of accounts of resilience – Jamaica rebounding from Hurricane Melissa – all that’s stirringly shared of people putting the pieces back together again, with the story of author and farmer Keith Wedderburn being told from his latest book Give Thanks For Life – Surviving Hurricane Melissa. Leading the conversation on stage on the topic of resilience in the devastation of Hurricane Melissa, will be acclaimed dub poet Malachi Smith. Founder of the Jamaica Poets Nomadic College and School Tour, he will share stories of the 8th annual tour to Jamaica last December (after the tour was first postponed in November) to a number of schools in the hardest-hit areas across the island.

Given that the event will serve as curtain raiser to Black History Month, and the accompanying cultural reflections, special presentations will also mark a closer look at Alexander Bedward and his efforts at forming the Jamaica Native free Baptist Church. It challenged the colonial order and the established churches which were losing their membership to Bedwardism. In an effort to dismiss him, Bedward was portrayed and eventually certified as a madman who thought he could fly. The Talawah Mento Band and Jamaican Folk Revue will be performing pieces from their upcoming musical Bedward as part of a closer look at these intriguing developments. The short film two-hour segment, with another highlight on making movies, will also celebrate the life of the legendary Jimmy Cliff.

The festival will feature a range of multifaceted authors and poets, including Sharon Gordon – author, actress, producer and media personality. The winner of the 2025 4th annual storytelling competition What’s Your Story Jamaica, her self-narrated audio book Sheribaby has achieved the milestone of being the first audiobook in Jamaican dialect to receive Grammy consideration. Among those also appearing at the 2026 Jamaica Brew are Kacy Garvey, Richard Blackford, Simone Russell, multilingual storyteller Raul ‘Blaze’ Davis, attorney Kaysia Earley, journalist and marketer Curtis Myrie, Oberlene Smith Whyte, Dr Aza Weir-Soley and leading communications specialist Gail Abrahams with her first publication, Heels, Hustle, HEART – Claiming your

seat without losing yourself…a powerful and honest guide for women navigating the corporate life while staying true to themselves.

Admission is free to the public, but registration is required at jamaicabrew2026.eventbrite.com.