Friends/fans plan tribute to Beverly Smith Lopez

On Sunday, love and laughter will take centre stage at the Birds Isle in Belize City to honour the one and only Beverly Smith Lopez. Four years after the comedienne passed away from heart complications, her family, friends and fans are determined to celebrate her life.

Kendra Griffith, Reporting
In the forty-five years of her life, Beverly Smith Lopez was a busy woman … she appeared in ads, acted in plays, performed monologues, and emceed events … all in the name of art and culture.

Greg Vernon, Promoter, Bev Tribute
?She had a passion. She had a passion for culture, she had a passion for the arts, she had a way of working with people and you don?t find that today.?

This weekend that passion will bring musicians, poets, dancers and dramatists from all over the country to the Bird?s Isle to pay tribute to the beloved comedienne.

Greg Vernon
?It will be in two parts. One starts at three to seven p.m. and this is where three bands will be coming in. We have two bands from north, Lucio and the New Generation and Youth Connection. And we also have coming from the south, we have Danger Zone, who will be backing Super G and Lloyd and Reckless.?

?What we have in the evening at seven-thirty to nine is where we have people who have worked closely with Beverly, Myrna Manzanares, we have Jenny Lovell, Jackie Castillo, there are those coming from the theatre company, Belize Theatre Company and we have the Belize National Dance Company. We have the Ugundani Dance Company, so these are people who have been working alongside with Bev and the development of arts and culture.?

At the time of her death, Smith-Lopez held the title of Director of Culture and was a driving force behind creative efforts such as the Festival of Arts.

Greg Vernon
?Beverley was one of the leading and as you could see, the Belizean cultural icon. She has placed culture on this map and she has placed Belize on the world map. There is no part of the Caribbean you could go and if you deal with culture and you go into any theatre and you say Beverly Smith-Lopez they know who you?re talking about.?

?Once you have a person such as Miss Bev, you know that this is the person, or this is the person that will be able to pull this through and that is why we could have gotten so much accomplished within her term as director of culture and the copyright law, the culture policies, all these were under her direction.?

Promoter Greg Vernon is inviting all Belizeans to come out and enjoy the show.

Greg Vernon
?It?s all free, free, free. Come on out, bring your family, bring you picnic blanket, bring your food, bring your water, bring your drinks. We?ll be having food and drinks out here for sale, but we won?t be turning away anyone who would like to do a picnic.?

Vernon says there is still space available for anyone who wishes to come out and pay homage to Miss Bev.

Kendra Griffith reporting for News Five.

The tribute is being organized by Rudy Cruz, Gregory Vernon, Anita Hamilton, Brenda Stuart and Sandra Coye.