Pomona Rewind

Singer, songwriter, actor and rights activist, New York born Harry Belafonte was more than just a versatile entertainer. He was a leader and role model for civil rights and humanitarian activists around the world and was admired for taking strong positions on race relations, Apartheid, poverty, education and health issues. As a singer, he dabbled in folk music, calypso, gospel music, African, Jewish and Irish music, the blues and showtunes. But he also helped raise awareness of other talented artists from across the world. As an actor, he would work on Broadway and on movies even in his nineties, rubbing shoulders over the years with the likes of Otto Preminger, James Mason, Joan Fontaine, Joan Collins, Robert Wise, Sidney Poitier, John Travolta, Robert Altman, Emilio Estevez and Spike Lee. Born in Harlem in 1927, his parents hailed from Jamaica and were of Scottish and Dutch Jewish ancestry. For a while, Harry was raised from the age of five by his grandmother in Jamaica,  returning t