Tue | Nov 26, 2024

Grounation returns for Reggae/Black History Month

Tackles constitutional reform

Published:Thursday | February 1, 2024 | 12:09 AM
Director/Curator of JaMM, Herbie Miller (right), stands with (from left) Paul Burke, Simon Crosskill, Pat Chin, Michael Witter and Wayne Chen at the 11th staging of Grounation in February 2023.
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Director/Curator of JaMM, Herbie Miller (right), stands with (from left) Paul Burke, Simon Crosskill, Pat Chin, Michael Witter and Wayne Chen at the 11th staging of Grounation in February 2023.

The Reggae and Black History Month staple of the Jamaica Music Museum (JaMM), Grounation, is back to tackle the theme ‘Music and Reasoning in Working-Class Culture: Implications for Governance and Constitutional Reform’.

The cultural heritage series, which is in its 12th staging, is famous for presenting analyses of complex and poignant sociocultural and political discourse, blended with entertaining and evocative music. Making its debut in 2012, Grounation now serves as the JaMM’s flagship educational outreach programme and a mainstay on Jamaica’s cultural calendar.

The free event will be presented at the Institute of Jamaica’s Lecture Hall each Sunday in February at 2 p.m., and will feature contemporary artistes, as well as presenters and speakers, including Earl Moxom, Dionne Jackson Miller, Ka’Bu Ma’at Kheru, Mutabaruka and panellists Professor Rosalea Hamilton, Sylbourne Sydial, Dr Michael Witter, Professor Clinton Hutton, and others.

Curator/Director of JaMM Herbie Miller notes the importance of this year’s presentation, highlighting that each week the symposium will “explore how the masses use collective reasoning and aesthetics – sound and music – to enable cultural discovery, artistic innovation, and constitutional awareness within a rapidly transforming, sociopolitically diverse, yet polarised society.”

Miller further stated, “The current discussion regarding constitutional reform in Jamaica requires community dialogues and cultural involvement, especially at the youth and working-class levels. This is important because a new constitution must impact the present and be relevant to the future development of Jamaica. Without community dialogue, interpretation of the complicated and fixed intentions of governance and constitutional reform is lost on the people.”

Accompanying each week’s scintillating discussion will be the Jamaica Music Museum Orchestra and invited guest artistes.

The Jamaica Music Museum is a division of the Institute of Jamaica, an agency of the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport.