Departing South Florida on Friday, July 18, a workforce of fifty: 24 performers from the Jamaica Revue and the Tallawah Mento Band and patrons of relations, and mates, will journey to Ghana for the PANAFEST and Emancipation celebrations to showcase how the heritage has been preserved.
On stage in Ghana on the Pan African Pageant of Arts and Tradition (PANAFEST) will probably be what was colourfully premiered in June on the Lauderhill Performing Arts Centre, by the Revue and Tallawah (celebrating its 21st anniversary this 12 months), cultural ambassadors for Jamaica within the US.
Musical odyssey of what unfolded in Jamaica pre and publish emancipation, the shifting theatric enactment of those landmark occurrences highlighted Enslavement (1500s – 1800s), Plantation / Pre-Emancipation Suite (1700s – 1800s with the primary piece Augus Mawnin), the Put up-Emancipation / Market Suite (1830s – Thirties with Linstead and Solos Market among the many items), Pocomania Revival Songs (1920 – 1970), Life and Love Suite (1940 – 1970), Pan African Suite (1970 – 1990, that includes Nationwide Hero Marcus Garvey and icons Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Jimmy Cliff) and the /African and Kumina Suiter (1800s – present, that highlighted kumina drumming with lead drummer Gabu Wedderburn and Steve Golding taking part in catta-tick, and the kumina dancing ritual by Jenese ‘Meme’ Lewis from the St Thomas Kumina Group.
The venerable Colin Smith, director of the Revue and Tallawah, and a current Individuals Profile Innovator Awardee for his appreciable cultural contribution, remarked that what was premiered at Lauderhill was ‘a historical past of Africans on Jamaican soil, the presents of character and cultural resolve that they introduced…and the way nicely these presents have been nurtured and preserved. That is what we’re taking again to Ghana,’ he stated.
Acclaimed dub poet Malachi Smith, penning specific poems for the historic occasion, may also be a member of the performing get together.
They may first carry out on Wednesday, July 23, on the Nationwide Theatre, Accra, on the PANAFEST Cultural Explosion and on the PANAFEST Village on Monday, July 28, Cape Coast.
Midnight on July 31, on the break of Emancipation Day, they are going to take the stage on the Cape Coast Fort on what’s billed as Reverential Night time. It’s a crowning second of what’s culturally and spiritually bonded and rooted. ‘Emancipation songs have a particular connection,’ says Smith, ‘and present how music was used to deal with slavery whereas inspiring hope for a greater life.’
That’s heritage preserved.
