AS this is the last weekend in Bermuda's annual celebration of Heritage Month, I thought I would focus on an aspect of Bermudian life that rarely gets any attention. I am speaking of the role played in the community by Bermudian writers and poets.

While the Harlem Renaissance is well known in America, older Bermudians will probably recall those times when we witnessed a cultural flowering in Bermuda. There was a resurgence of interest in the arts and literature, music and intellectual activity which centred on the state of race relations and its impact on the black community.

But, by and large, younger Bermudians will have forgotten ? or never known ? that Bermuda's own black community enjoyed its own cultural renaissance of sorts.

At first the Bermudian version of a cultural renaissance did not challenge the white image of the black community as did the Africa-American version ? it was not widely enough known among Bermudian whites and, in any event, black intellectuals held the British colonial presence in Bermuda in generally high esteem.

But that, of course, was before the advent of Marcus Garvey and his Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) in the 1920s.

The "Back to Africa" movement championed by Garvey influenced millions of black people around the world including Bermuda's own black population. The UNIA members in Bermuda joined with the AME Church and The Church of God (with its early West Indian influence), the country's leading black school, The Berkeley Institute, and the Teachers Union that had just been set up to form a crucible of intellectual activity in the post-World War One island.

Out of this mix of black social, community and educational organisations there arose a rich bounty of writers, journalists, poets, musicians, dancers, actors and artisans drawn from all over the black community.

During that time the black community was able to boast no fewer than four newspapers ? (published by Margaret R. Seon-Green), , (published by the Victory Printery on Angle Street) and (which was actually printed in St. Kitts. The newspaper was taken from a school of the same name, whose students wrote and edited the paper. They were taught by a teacher who would soon make her mark in Bermuda, Mrs. Millie Neverson).

was the other newspaper printed at that time and the only one to survive late into the 20th century. Of course, Bermuda's black community had published two other newspapers in the 18th century, and the latter which was published by the Parker sisters, probably the only paper in Bermuda's history to be owned by women.

In fact, it was women who led the early 20th-century cultural renaissance in Bermuda. They not only wrote for newspapers but were leading authors who wrote poems, plays and many other works in that era where literary expression became far more highly valued in Bermuda than is the case today.

Two famous women authors were Mrs. Geraldine Johnson and Henrietta Ingham who wrote plays, poems and short stories for children.

Johnson was a poet/playwright and educator whose book of verse for children was written and published between 1938 and 1940. Her most popular children's poems are and ; two other well-known poems are and

Unfortunately most, if not all of these early women literary pioneers are no longer with us, but recently I was able to sit down with a lady of that era and glean some important aspects of that time.

Cecile Norma Smith was the founder of the Bermuda Writers Club and has had an extraordinary impact on Bermuda's literary scene.

Mrs. Smith was born at the beginning of World War One and she credits what she calls her "fighting spirit" to this tumultuous period in world history. But I rather think her literary ability was probably always latent in her genes.

Her father was Henry G. Musson, who was himself a well-known poet who wrote for the then-. His subjects ranged from love and death to murder and politics. It was thought at the time that Mr. Musson should have been made Bermuda's Poet Laureate.

Mrs. Smith's own impact on the literary scene is so vast that I could not possibly list all of her accomplishments in this .

The number of awards and honours bestowed upon her alone would probably take up an entire column. But to summarise some of the more important highlights of her life, she was was educated in the overseas departments of Cambridge University as well as at Queen's University in Canada, the American International College, the University of Maryland and the Bermuda College.

Her first book was a collection of thoughts in poetic form called . It was described as a remarkable book with some 700 copies being bought by Bermudians. In 1942 it was reprinted and sold for the benefit of the Royal Air Force War fund.

It would not be the last time she would have an association with an air force. Near the end of World War Two she worked as a clerk for the Royal Canadian Air Force, a post she held for a year.

As I said, Mrs. Smith has won numerous awards including honours from Italy, which bestowed a medal of honour on her from the Centre Studi e Scambi International. The decoration in recognition of her efforts to promote the creative arts and in praise of a poem she wrote in Rome about the ancient city.

In addition she has had poems published in Canada, the UK and in the West Indies. Her writing career has seen her work as a freelance journalist for no fewer than four publications ? theand

Mrs. Smith is also known as the founder of the Smith Commercial School. She introduced typing and shorthand to students at the Sandys Secondary School at the invitation of headmaster Winton Williams at a time when such courses were not offered in Government schools.

She also taught the same subject at YHED for pregnant girls and even taught key boarding skills to the staff of the Bermuda Industrial Union when computers were first introduced.

Even with this heavy load of activity, Mrs. Smith still found time to be a Brownie leader. One poem she particularly remembers is the one she wrote in honour of the young Czech Jan Pallach, who burned himself to death to protest the brutal 1968 Soviet invasion of his native country. She called it .

she ever considered going into politics since she was so well-known? Her answer was that she had been approached by the then three political parties in the run-up to the elections in 1968 (the Progressive Labour Party, the United Bermuda Party and the now-defunct Bermuda Democratic Party) but ended up turning all three down. She preferred to make her contributions to the island through her writings and through her social activities.

Mrs. Smith has led an extraordinary literary life that has stretched beyond the normal confines of just being a writer. They include being an archivist, activist, author, educator, elocutionist and poet.

She also played significant roles in secretarial, women's, civic and political associations and represented Bermuda in international congresses and conventions in educational and cultural realms.

In addition, she has served in such areas as tourism, social welfare board and juvenile, domestic and family special courts as well as being the publisher of the , which used to summarise happenings in education, Parliament, clubs, religion, sports and other community happenings for students abroad.