The Mona campus of The University of the West Indies (UWI) is hosting several activities over the next few months to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birthday of late cultural icon Louise Bennett Coverley, popularly known as ‘Miss Lou’.

The activities, under the theme ‘Miss Lou 100’, include a debate titled ‘Louise Bennett for National Icon’; a poetry clash; an exhibition celebrating Miss Lou’s centennial; public consultations on the issue of language rights in Jamaica; and a Walter Rodney lecture dedicated to Miss Lou.

Director of the UWI’s Institute for Gender and Development Studies Professor Opal Palmer Adisa, who is spearheading the activities, said that several departments were brought together to organise the tribute to the cultural icon. These include the Department of Literatures in English; the Jamaican Language Unit; the Institute for Gender and Development Studies, the Regional Coordinating Office; the Main Library; the Institute for Caribbean Studies; the Faculties of Humanities and Education; and other stakeholders.

“I brought the various departments together because I wanted it to be a university-wide function,” she said.

Adisa said that a Regional Day would be held on October 7 at the Regional Headquarters, while a Miss Lou symposium focused on gender-based violence would take place on November 25.