Joanne Kilgor Dowdy writes about her father who won the Bronze Medal in the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland By Essiba Small essiba.small@trinidadexpress.com
Story Created: Aug 20, 2013 at 10:49 PM ECT / Story Updated: Aug 20, 2013 at 10:49 PM ECT

KSU professor donates childrena€?s book to Kent State collection, Joanne Dowdy, a professor of adolescent and adult literacy, said that she donated her work, "Olympic Hero: Lennox Kilgour's Story," within the past few months because she wanted it in a safe location where others can enjoy it. via KentWired.com

 

When Joanne Kilgour Dowdy set out to write a childrena€?s book last year she didna€?t think she would be writing about her father, deceased Olympian Lennox Kilgour. She had already gathered information from writers and illustrators with experience in writing childrena€?s books and was ready to start when she got a strong feeling that the booka€?s focus should be on her famous father.

Fathered by his grateful daughter; a professor gives lessons on Olympics and weightlifting

In the Trinidad and Tobago of the 21st Century, parents burying children seems to be the new normal. The reality was different on Wednesday afternoon at Olympic House in Port-of-Spain. There, for almost three interesting but not enthralling hours, a child, Joanne Kilgour-Dowdy, disinterred her late athletic father and presented the Olympic bronze medallist to her audience as a multi-faceted hero worthy of emulation and adulation.

An Evening with Storytelling with a Conscience featuring Joanne Kilgour Dowdy

Celebrated Trinidad-born arts practitioner and educator Dr Joanne Kilgour Dowdy has written nine books, all of which helped raise the consciousness of her people. Dowdya€?s books often explore womena€?s issues, empowerment, and issues concerning Caribbean and pan-African people. Her newesta€”Artful Stories: The Teacher, the Student and the Musea€”however, tells the story of four arts practitioners from Trinidad and Tobagoa€”a lighting designer, a dancer, a jazz musician and a choreographera€”who have made a name for themselves internationally. The book is an exploration of the role of the artist as teacher and relationship that evolves between the teacher and the student in the creation of new work, whether it is lighting design, drama, dance, or music. Kilgour-Dowdy left Trinidad in the 80s to study drama at the Boston Conservatory of Music, Dance, and Drama with the support of Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott and then moved on to the Julliard School in New York. She continued her formal performance career which is carefully and poignantly documented in her photo autobiography In the Public Eye, which she also launched in Trinidad in 2010.

Her life in the public eye

Do you remember the time when there were two channels to choose from on local television? One station affectionately called TTT provided two channels, 2 for the east and 13 for the west and Tobago. You either watched what was on it or found something else to do because there was no cable and only a handful of people owned satellite dishes.

In the TV mix that offered much more foreign material than local there were some homegrown productions that secured airplay and enjoyed popularity. One of these was a 13-part series entitled Who the C.A.P. Fits featuring a young woman named Joanne Kilgour.