Quickies

 

Musicians to honour Prince Buster

 

The Honourable Olivia Grange has announced that the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, in partnership with the family of the late Prince Buster, will host a special tribute to the ska icon at the Institute of Jamaica Auditorium on Saturday tomorrow, beginning at 4 p.m.

Among those confirmed to perform at the tribute are Ernie Smith, Ken Boothe, Derrick Morgan, StrangeJah Cole and Mystic Revelation of Rastafari as well as Lloyd Parks and We the People Band.

Grange said it is "important that the entertainment fraternity had this opportunity to say farewell to Prince Buster". She described Buster as "iconoclastic" and "a true stalwart in the development of Jamaican popular music."

"It will be a wonderful, Jamaican musical send-off to one of the greats by several of our outstanding performers, who are themselves legends of our music. And they will be performing Prince Buster's work," said Grange.

The tribute to Prince Buster will follow a funeral service at the Islamic Council of Jamaica, 24 Camp Road, Kingston, beginning at 2 p.m.. Interment will be at the May Pen Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions will be accepted in support of the Jamaica Association of Vintage Artistes (JAAVA).

Prince Buster, whose real name was Cecil Bustamante Campbell, passed away on Thursday, September 8, 2016, in Miami, Florida. He was 78 years old. 

 

Quilt to perform at Last Sundays

 

The National Gallery of Jamaica's Last Sundays programme for September 25 will feature a performance by the award-winning Quilt Performing Arts Company and guided tours of the Kingston - Part 1: The City and Art exhibition.

Kingston - Part 1: The City and Art examines how Jamaica's turbulent capital city has generated many of the circumstances and opportunities that have propelled the development of Jamaican art. This covers from the natural resources to the economic activities and institutions and the events, big and small, that have marked the city's history.

The exhibition features works of art that date from the late 17th century to the present day and portrays life in the city in all its diversity, seen through the eyes of artists such as Isaac Mendez Belisario, Sidney McLaren, David Pottinger, Osmond Watson, Carl Abrahams, Andy Jefferson, Edna Manley, Cecil Baugh, Kapo, Michael Lester and Roy Reid.

The exhibition also features the iconic Jamaican feature film The Harder They Come (1972, dir. Perry Henzell), which is in many ways also a portrait of Kingston and, particularly, a time capsule of life in the city in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The exhibition was curated by National Gallery assistant curator Monique Barnett-Davidson and continues until October 30, 2016.

Using Caribbean rhythms, merging poetry, dance and music, the Quilt performers have developed their own unique performance style and an evolving devised theatre technique. The performance at Last Sundays on September 25 will consist of Revolution (2016) and a new work that is yet to be titled. Revolution looks at hegemony and the 'zambification' of the human race. It travels through stage vignettes from the slave ships to the sound boxes of Kingston.

The National Gallery's doors will be open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and the Quilt performance will start at 1:30 pm. Admission and guided tours will be free, but contributions to the National Gallery's donations box will be gratefully accepted. 

 

Reading for Cervantes at Red Bones

 

As part of the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the death of Spanish writer Miguel De Cervantes the Embassy of Spain in Jamaica, in partnership with the Spanish-Jamaican Foundation and the Edna Manley School of Drama will present a dramatic play reading at Red Bones Blues CafÈ on Cervantes' birthday, Thursday, September 29, from 7 p.m. - 10 p.m.

Titled Cervantes Celebration, it will highlight the life and work of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, September 29, 1547 - April 22, 1616. He is one of the most significant figures in Spanish and world literature.

Cervantes has gone beyond the borders of Spain, embraced by many Latin American writers and is one of the most translated authors in the history of literature. Spanish language has been referred to as "the language of Cervantes". His master work Don Quixote is the second most translated, book after the Bible, including translation into some indigenous languages in Latin America like Guarani.

He has been able to reach children and adults, including people from different times and cultures. His works reveal and announce the mysteries of human souls - love, impossible dreams, lost causes, success and defeat.

The reading will be directed by the director of School of Drama at EMVPA, Pierre Lemaire, and features Michael 'String Bean' Nicholson, Jean Paul Menou and EMC drama students.

Admission is free, in keeping with Cervantes' belief that culture should be accessible to everyone. 

 

J'can authors attend Brooklyn Book Festival

 

A strong contingent of Jamaican writers and publishers went to New York City to participate in the 2016 Brooklyn Book Festival, armed with rum, reasonings and great reads. This year's contingent, included celebrated poet, novelist and short story writer Olive Senior. The festival, New York's largest independent bookfest, took place at Borough Hall on Sunday, September 18, and was preceded by a week of readings and panel discussions across the borough.

Senior participated in three separate events during the festival. As this year's winner of the OCM Bocas prize, Senior headlined the Bocas Fest panel along with fellow Jamaican author Jacqueline Bishop. Senior was part of the Rum and Reasonings 2016 panel curated by the Brooklyn based entity Caribbean Cultural Theatre, Jamaican book promoters Read Jamaica and the Kittitian publisher Caribbean Reads, hosted at the stylish South Oxford Space at 138 South Oxford Street.

The event featured six Caribbean authors from across the region discussing how writers shape society and how society impacts writers. The panel also featured Guyanese author Imam Baksh with his debut fantasy novel Children of the Spider, as well as acclaimed authors Bernice McFadden and Elizabeth Nunez. Author and publisher Carol Ottley-Mitchell rounded out the session.

Baksh is also representative of the Jamaican presence at the festival, as his publisher, Blouse and Skirt Books, is Jamaican. Like Senior, Baksh was also one of the featured authors at the festival.

The fair will feature several readings as well as hundreds of bookstores, publishers, authors, magazines and other literary entities.