EVERYBODY’S, the 45-year-old Caribbean-American magazine, Person of the Year for 2022 is Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell.
Although most EVERYBODY’S subscribers across the U.S. may have received the Person of the Year/2023 Global Caribbean edition (Dec issue), the official announcement was made on December 21 at City Hall in New York, NY when the 2021 Person of the Year Award was formally presented to Mayor Eric Adams. His Honour extended congratulations to Prime Minister, Hon. Dickon Mitchell.
In 1978 to commemorate the 1st anniversary of EVERYBODY’S, Helen Beatrice Lucas, born in Carriacou, Grenada, who passed in 2021 at age 104, suggested that the magazine honour a man and woman each year. Caribbean-New Yorkers such as Simeon Simmonds of St. Vincent, Jacqueline Cornelius of Trinidad & Tobago, Dr. Benjamin Watkins of Barbados, Lola Simon-Assanh of Guyana joined her committee supported by Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, Dr. Muriel Petioni Malcolm X’s physician, and Manhattan Borough President Percy Sutton. By 1985, honorees such as Nobel Laureate Sir Arthur Lewis, Prime Minister Tom Adams of
Barbados, Prime Minister Eugenia Charles of Dominica, and labour leader Peter Ottley attended the magazine’s dinners with proceeds going to charitable organizations such as Marcus Garvey Nursing Home in NY and US$30,000 to charitable institutions in Grenada and Dominica. In 1989, the magazine ended its Person of the Year elegant dinner/dance in favour of presenting Oliver Samuels’s plays from Jamaica and calypso concerts in venues such as Madison Square Garden and Lincoln Center. Beginning in 2023, the magazine will honor its Person of the Year at a public event.
Should Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell accept the magazine’s invitation, he will be honored in September at the Kings Theater or Claire Tow-Whitman Hall in New York or the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC in September/23.
EVERYBODY’S subscribers play a crucial role in selecting the Person of the Year. The editorial team discusses the six to seven nominees who amassed the most votes with a cross section of people in the Caribbean diaspora before selecting one of the top contenders. This year’s top contenders in alphabetical order were:
Sir Hilary Beckles, Vice Chancellor, UWI, Barbados
Letitia James, NY State Attorney General
Dickon Mitchell, Prime Minister, Grenada
Machel Montano, Soca Artist, Trinidad & Tobago
Wes Moore, Governor-Elect and Jamaican-American, Maryland
Mia Mottley, Prime Minister, Barbados (EBM 2021 PoY)
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Olympian, Jamaica (EBM 2019 PoY)
Martin F. Felix, EVERYBODY’S contributing editor and co-editor of BIG DRUM NATION, introduces Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell. The article is in our December – PoY/2023 Global Caribbean Calendar edition. Allan’s Bakery of Brooklyn has presented the calendar for 43 years.
