July 22, 2008

The backstory on the People's Festival
By ROBIN BROWN
The News Journal

Gates open at 2 p.m. Saturday at Tubman-Garrett Park in Wilmington for the 14th Annual People's Festival and Bob Marley Tribute.

Admission is $20, reduced to $15 for people who get there before 4 p.m. and bring donations of school supplies that festival founder Genny Pitts plans to take to The Cedella Marley School in the parish of Nine Mile in Jamaica. Bob Marley's mother, Cedella Marley Booker, who lived many years in Delaware, started the school to help children of the impoverished area. Nine Mile also is "where Bob was born, raised and lies to rest, now along side his dear mother," Pitts said.

The festival, "drawing worldwide attention to his connection to the City of Wilmington," is designed not only to honor his legacy and local link, but "to celebrate Bob's message of unity, one love, equal rights and justice for all," organizers said. This year's festival pays special tribute to his mother, "Momma B," who died on April 8.

The festival is to include a Children's Village of activities, Vendors Alley with more than 30 vendors offering international arts and crafts, a food court with global flavors, and a Budweiser beer garden. The Bamboo Rain Hut will give guests an opportunity to cool off and the Hidden View Farm Healing Garden will offer massage and other services "for bringing education and awareness to a holistic way of life," Pitts said.

This year's performers' line-up includes the Universal African Drum and Dance Ensemble, the Philadelphia band Natty Rebel, St. Martin's reggae "artist of the year" Junior Lion, and Soca & Calypso Kings: The Image Band, The Blast Master - KRS-1, and Meta & the Cornerstones.

There is no specific goal of donations set for the festival's drive to help The Cedella Marley School, Pitts said, "but we’re going in October and we hope that we’ll have lots of things to take."

The festival, created with Booker's endorsement and support, continues to win praise from the Marley family. The official Web site of the Marley family and Bob Marley Foundation calls the event "a perfect setting in which to promote the message of peace, positivity and ideals of Rastafari that Bob still stands for."

The festival is presented by World Music and La Paz Inc., with support from the City of Wilmington.

"This is the official tribute to Bob Marley in this area," Pitts told The News Journal before the festival a few years ago. "It is being run by people who knew and loved him," she said. "It belongs in Wilmington."

For more information, go to

A special tribute to the late "Momma B"

Bob Marley's mother, Cedella Marley Booker, several times attended the People's Festival and Bob Marley Tribute in Wilmington, where she lived for many years. "She loved joining us as we celebrated Bob's memory," said Genny Pitts, who founded the event with her husband, Ibis, and Booker's blessing Because of her death on April 8, 2008, this year's festival celebrates her as well as her son.

Festival guests are asked to bring donations of school supplies that are desperately needed by the school Marley's mother founded in the impoverished Jamaican parish of Nine Mile, where they lived and are buried, Pitts said.

This year’s festival also pays tribute to "Momma B" with a separate tribute program before the festival.

That event is 6:30 to 9:30 p.m Wednesday at Theatre N at 1007 N. Orange St., Wilmington. The program, with food and music, will include a screening of the film “Africa Unite,” followed by a discussion. Admission is $5 but free to those who bring school supplies or art supplies for donation to the Cedella Marley Academy.

But don't expect the tribute to Momma B to be too somber. The event date, July 23, was Booker's birthday, so organizers are calling the Theatre N event a birthday party celebration.

Bob Marley's time in Delaware found its way into a song

Genny Pitts, a friend of the Marley family and co-founder with her husband, Ibis, of the People's Festival and Bob Marley Tribute -- being presented for its 14th year, 2-10 p.m. Saturday at Tubman-Garrett Park in Wilmington -- told The News Journal that one of the jobs Bob Marley had while living in Delaware inspired his song, "Night Shift."

Marley's main job during his longest stretch living in Delaware was operating a forklift on the night shift in the parts warehouse of the Chrysler Newark Assembly Plant, she said, adding that the song even mentions the forklift. The song appeared on the Bob Marley & The Wailers album, "Rastaman Vibration."

NIGHT SHIFT

The sun shall not smite I by day,
Nor the moon by night;
And everything that I do
Shall be upfull and right.
And if it's all night,
It got to be all right!
If it's all night,
Got to be all right!

Your mamma won't lose this one;
You're the lucky one under the sun.
If you make me move,
Then you know you got the groove:
All night, it's all right!
All night, yeah! It's all right!

Working on a forklift
In the night shift;
Working on a night shift,
With the forklift,
from A.M. (Did you say that? Why did you say that?)
to P.M. (Working all night!)
Working on a night shift, yeah!
(Did you say that? Why did you say that? Upfull and right!)
Well, if it's (all night!) - if it's (all right!)
all night (all night!) -

Warehouse (all right!),
You're empty, yeah!
Go around the corner,
Bring your goods!
Go around the other corner,
Bring your suitcases. (All night!)
By the sweat of my brow, (All right!)
Eat your bread! (All night!)
By the sweat of my brow, (All right!)
Eat your bread!

All night (all night)! All right (all right)!
All night (all night)! All right (all right)!
Oh, yeah! (moon by night)
Why did you say that? Oh, yeah! (Upfull and right!)
Working on a night shift
With the forklift. (Moon by night!)
Working on the night shift,
Oh, yeah! (Upfull and right!)

LINKS TO LEARN MORE

• target=new>BobMarley.com

• target=new>Bob Marley Foundation

• target=new>Official Bob Marley and Marley Family Online Store

• target=new>Bob Marley bio and timeline from the target=new>Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum.

• target=new>Bob Marley on RollingStone.com, see especially " target=new>The Life and Times of Bob Marley: How He Changed the World," by Mikal Gilmore.

• target=new>People's Festival