Rebel Salute 2017 makes US foray

Tony Rebel and his team, with the support of the Jamaica Tourist Board (JTB), for the first time brought a taste of Rebel Salute to New York City recently. The Milk River Restaurant and Lounge hosted the short but informative programme, at which there were greetings by newly installed Jamaican Consul General to New York Trudy Deans.

Staying true to its roots of community development, Maxsalia Salmon, secretary of the Rebel Salute Foundation, highlighted Rebel Salute's commitment to education with its partnership with the Marcus Garvey Technical High School in St Ann. Full scholarships are provided to two students each year in order to facilitate their educational aspirations. Beyond that, the foundation's aim is to assist with musical education for several schools in St Ann and the Corporate Area.

Tony Rebel's daughter and Rebel Salute director, attorney-at-law Jahyudah Barrett, spoke about the event's inception in 1994 at Fayor's Entertainment Complex in Mandeville as her father's birthday celebration with a difference to a two-day festival on the verge of celebrating its 24th consecutive staging. She spoke passionately about Rebel Salute features, such as the numerous food options, arts village camping and the new star feature, the Herb Curb.

"It isn't just a question of New York. we have launched in Florida for the past three years. Our numbers shows that over 30 per cent of our patrons are from overseas and we would like to increase that number. So by showcasing our piece of Brand Jamaica, it is our hope that the message of safe, good and clean 'edutainment' will translate to the diaspora as well as music lovers on a whole. We take seriously our position in the marketplace as well as our mantra, the preservation of Reggae," explained Jahyudah.

Adding to the excitement, there were performances by Ras Shiloh, Bushman and Patrick 'Tony Rebel' Barrett, giving a sneak peek of what will take place at Grizzlys Plantation Cove come January 13th and 14th.

In a separate event, Queen Ifrica gave a preview of her album, Climb.

As an extension of the first annual One World Ska and Rocksteady Festival, the Jamaica Music Museum - Institute of Jamaica, in association with the Department of Government, UWI, and the Sound & Pressure Foundation, will host a Culture and Creative Arts Symposium on Sunday, November 27, at the Institute of Jamaica Lecture Hall, starting at 2:00 p.m.

The symposium will focus on culture and the creative arts as a strategy for the development of Kingston and is a pre-conference event to launch Imagining Kingston: A Conference on the Restoration of Kingston.

The day begins with a bus trip to historic cultural sites, including Studio One and Randy's Recording Studio, dancehalls from the 1950s and the world famous Prince Buster Shack. Visitors are encouraged to experience free guided tours of the Jamaica Music Museum's current exhibition Curating Music Building a National Collection between noon and 2 p.m.

The Culture and Creative Arts Symposium will explore topics such as museums, festivals, concerts, architecture, iconising spaces and development in Kingston, culture and the creative arts, the visual arts and the development of urban spaces, drama/street theatre, youth entrepreneurship and employment.

Director Brad Klein's critically acclaimed award-winning documentary Legends of Ska will close the symposium.

Dr Nandi Bhatia, leading scholar of postcolonial theatre, will deliver the 10th Edward Baugh Distinguished Lecture on Sunday November 27th, 2016 at 11:00 a.m. in the Neville Hall Lecture Theatre (N1) at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona. The event will be hosted by the Department of Literatures in English and the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures. Bhatia has titled her talk 'Dramatic Contests and Colonial Contexts on the Indian Stage'.

Bhatia is a professor in the Department of English and associate dean of research and graduate studies in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada.

Her groundbreaking research has directed long-overdue attention to the crucial role of theatre and performance practice in bringing political struggles to the public sphere in colonial and postcolonial India. Intervening in a field dominated by discussions of the postcolonial novel, her research established theatre as a vital site of resistance to colonial authority, class structures and patriarchy. In addition to historically grounded and richly particularised studies of theatrical performance in India, Bhatia's research extends to the South Asian diaspora, exploring theatre in global and transcultural contexts.

Recognised for her contribution to the fields of postcolonial performance and feminist studies, her research has been supported by major grants from the governments of Canada and India, as well as Western University.

She is the author of two books, Performing Women/Performing Womanhood: Theatre, Politics and Dissent in North India (Oxford University Press, 2010) and Acts of Authority/Acts of Resistance: Theatre and Politics in Colonial and Postcolonial India (University of Michigan Press and Oxford University Press, 2004). Her third book, in progress, is titled Local Themes, Transnational Concerns: Theatres of the South Asian Diaspora in Canada.

The Edward Baugh Distinguished Lecture is an annual event in honour of Edward Baugh, acclaimed poet and scholar of anglophone Caribbean poetry, and Professor Emeritus of English at the UWI, Mona.

Members of the public are invited to attend. For more information, please contact the Department of Literatures in English at 927-2177 or e-mail litsengmona@gmail.com.

The Department of Literatures in English, UWI Mona, will host the launch of Monica Minott's poetry collection, Kumina Queen (Peepal Press), on Monday November 28, at 6:30 p.m. at the Undercroft, Senate Building, on the Mona Campus.

Kumina Queen is Minott's debut collection of poems. Exploring the continued presence of cultural history in Jamaica, the collection offers new perspectives on a range of subjects, including female figures in Afro-Jamaican history and legend, classical myth and contemporary foreign cities.

Praising Minott for "her subtle use of folk beliefs and idiom", Baugh writes of Kumina Queen "this is an accomplished and pleasing first collection. Poem after poem make us sit up and think."

Considerable attention

Minott's poetry has garnered considerable attention in recent years. She was a featured poet in the anthology Coming Up Hot: Eight New Caribbean Poets from the Caribbean (Peekash Press, 2015) and in Small Axe, Vol 32 (2010). She has contributed poems and short stories to numerous anthologies and journals, including The Caribbean Writer, BIM, and SX Salon.

She was awarded first prize in the Small Axe Poetry Competition of 2009, and has received two awards for book-length collections in the Jamaica National Book Development Council's literary competition of 2004.

Minott is the chief organiser of Katalyxt Writers Workshop (2013) and founder and artistic director of Artistic Expressions Season of Music and Poetry (1996-1998). A graduate of the University of the West Indies, Minott is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in Writing at Bennington College (Vermont, USA).

The launch will include readings by Minott, Professor Edward Baugh, Shara McCallum, Maureen Denton, and Barbara Mitchell, as well as the launch talk by Mervyn Morris, professor Emeritus in the Department of Literatures in English, UWI Mona, and Jamaica's Poet Laureate. The public is invited to attend.