Kiwanis woman of excellence: Barbara Gloudon

THE Kiwanis Club of New Kingston last Wednesday hosted its annual awards luncheon dubbed Celebrating Excellence, honouring five women who have made an invaluable contribution both locally and internationally. The Digicel Foundation was applauded too, and received the ‘Because You Care’ award for their remarkable contribution to education, sports, culture and community development.

The citations read to the women — Professor Verene Shepherd, for excellence in education and Jamaican culture; journalist Barbara Gloudon, for excellence in media and the positive promotion of Jamaican culture; Jazz diva Myrna Hague-Bradshaw, for excellence in entertainment and Jamaica culture; attorney Jacqueline Samuels-Brown, for excellence in the field of law; and dermatologist Dr Patricia Yap, for excellence in medicine and philanthropy — will be printed in this space over the next several weeks, as All Woman helps to honour the women for their achievements.

Here’s Barbara Gloudon.

Barbara Gloudon is

A fighter

A tough, strong lady

An angel

With a sweet, soft voice

That can take on the roll

Of thunder brimstone and fire

If needs be.

Barbara Gloudon is all of these people

Any many, many more.

I tell you

Barbara Gloudon is a people

A whole heap of people.

These lines, with apologies to Easton Lee who penned them, speak to the phenomenal achievements for which the Kiwanis Club of New Kingston honours Dr the Honourable Barbara Gloudon, Order of Jamaica, Order of Distinction (Officer Class), Doctor of Letters honoris causa.

She is often introduced as a journalist, playwright and cultural activist, but she is all that and more, or as the poem says, “a whole heap a people”.

We do not often find persons saying thanks to a tyrant for giving them expert guidance in their career development but Mrs Gloudon does just that in giving credit to Theodore Sealy, former editor of the Gleaner, for his insistence on high standards in journalism a lesson she learned very well as she moved up the ranks to become the first female editor of the Star newspaper.

A proud St Andrew High School “old girl” who has served as president of the Old Girls Association, Barbara Gloudon consistently received high marks at school in English, Drama and anything to do with writing. She also received formal training at the University of Iowa.

When she became features editor of the Gleaner with responsibility for arts and entertainment, she met Greta Fowler of the Little Theatre Movement who encouraged her to try her hand at writing scripts.

Thus began Mrs Gloudon’s long association with the Little Theatre Movement. Having written over 20 National Pantomimes so far, her name has become synonymous with the annual production as she is involved not only with the script but with all aspects of the production as well.

Nelson Mandela has said, “A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination but when you add to that a literate tongue or pen, then you have something very special.”

Mrs Gloudon’s passionate and unrelenting advocacy for Jamaican culture is demonstrated in her pantomimes. These works, while upholding the traditional values of rural life, especially the sense of neighbourliness that is rapidly disappearing from the urban areas, also impart lessons that all those, especially the children, who attend each year, will learn. Furthermore, the pantomimes entertain without any hint of violence or vulgarity.

Mrs Gloudon credits being able to speak with such authority about rural life with spending summer holidays and many special family occasions at Harvey River, home of her maternal grandparents in Hanover. Although she moved to Kingston as a child and began her schooling at St George’s Elementary, rural life holds a special place in her heart. Mr Vivian Crawford insists that the Lucea yam has something to do with her fondness for Hanover.

She heads a special team of persons including Grub Cooper and Brian Heap who continue to give of themselves for six months of each year to ensure the success of the pantomime. Other notable members of the team were the Honourable Louise Bennett Coverley and Mrs Lois Kelly Miller with whom Mrs Gloudon enjoyed a close friendship and who also influenced her writing. The highly satirical Stella Seh was the first newspaper column in local history to use the Jamaican Creole and despite the naysayers, Mrs Gloudon’s facility with both standard English and Jamaican creole is testimony to the fact that both can co-exist.

Mrs Gloudon has a special quality of holding up the follies of modern Jamaican life to intense scrutiny but doing so in a hilarious way. Her radio serial, Wrong Move which featured real Jamaican situations had a long and successful run. Public order and high standards of behaviour in Jamaican life shine through her incisive social commentary via the popular RJR programme Hotline and her weekly column in the Daily Observer. She is able to address a variety of topics and her witty style makes her a favourite choice for speaking engagements in Jamaica and overseas.

Barbara Gloudon describes herself as an unrepentant Anglican and her deep spirituality permeates her relationships, both public and private. For many years she has served as the communications guru for the Anglican Diocese of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, editing the church’s official newsletter The Anglican and hosting the weekly radio programme, Think on These Things. She considers herself highly privileged to serve as a Lay Reader in her church, St Joseph’s the Grove in Gordon Town.

A member of the Council of the Institute of Jamaica and now the acting chairman, the first female to hold that post, Mrs Gloudon also chairs the Musgrave Committee which makes annual awards for achievements in the fields of Literature, Art and Science. She is, herself, a bronze medallist, which, she is quick to point out, is not a long s ervice award.

She has been married for 51 years to Ancile, one of the top 40 scientists in the Caribbean, and they are parents to Lisa, Jason and Anya. However, having eight siblings makes for very loud and interesting family gatherings, especially when all of them were brought up to be socially conscious.

Honourable Barbara Gloudon, in your concern for the human condition and your efforts to improve them through the use of various media, in your continuing efforts to preserve Jamaica’s cultural heritage, and in your service to the Anglican Church, you deserve the highest commendation and so we say, “nuff respect”. The Kiwanis Club of New Kingston is pleased to salute you as a Woman of Excellence.