Boston Bay - The view from Great Huts Eco Resort, Portland (more on Great Huts later...)
I was in Portland over the weekend hanging out with friends and family.
Portland, mainly in and around Port Antonio, is one of my favourite spots for a “getaway from Kingston” weekend as many who read this blog regularly will already know.
Here are some of the reasons why…
Great Huts beach, it's rocky but cool still- photo by Steve Urchin
After reading this great article here about Jamaican album covers, I thought I would add my bit to the classic reggae discussion.
Although I am not going to dive too deeply into an explanation of dub, let me start with a simple definition. By dub, I mean the uniquely Jamaican style of remixing music in which the vocals are largely stripped out, healthy measures of reverb and delay (echo) are applied to the drums (especially the hi-hats and snares) and rhythm and lead instruments, random sound effects are introduced, and overall the song is made to sound like an outer-space Guiness and high-grade influenced psychedelic interpretation where someone accidentally turned the bass to +10. Read more
For some time now I thought JamDeal, the online auction marketplace of Jamaica, was mostly about people selling their cars. I’m not sure why I thought that. I think I was interested in buying a car once and someone said I should look there. Read more
Recently I joined a few friends to go on an organized gallery hopping trip throughout Kingston. This “Art Trek” was organized by Jamaica Cultural Enterprises, a new company formed this year to develop and market cultural tours and related activities in Jamaica. Read more
We started the day at Emancipation Park at 10 am where we received our orientation for the day, learned about the history of the park and about Laura Facey’s provocative sculpture (shown above). This statue, for those of you who don’t know, sparked much controversy in Jamaica when it was unveiled due to its supposedly sexual nature.
Jackie Guy, second from left, was presented with a lifetime achievement award at Association of Dance of the African Diaspora in collaboration with IRIE! Dance Theatre
Jackie Guy, a Jamaican-born dancer, choreographer, teacher, lecturer, and performer, was honoured by the Association of Dance of the African Diaspora in collaboration with IRIE! Dance Theatre earlier in October of this year.
The award presentation followed a Master Class hosted by Jackie at the Moonshot Centre, New Cross, south London.
In accepting the award, presented to him by Jamaica’s Deputy High Commissioner to the UK, Mrs Joan Edwards, Guy said he felt honoured to have been recognised by his peers and said that in his 30-year career, he had always hoped to produce “top class” work reflective of African and Caribbean cultural history.
Before moving to England, Guy was best know for being part of the internationally renowned National Dance Theatre Company of Jamaica (NDTC), working with some of Jamaica’s best performers including the late Professor Rex Nettleford.
He came to the UK in the mid 1980s and was Artistic Director of Kokuma Dance Company in Birmingham. In 1998 he made a significant contribution to the development of IRIE! Dance Theatre’s groundbreaking Dance Diploma in African and Caribbean Dance.
Guy choreographed the hit Jamaican musical The Harder They Come, which started life at the Theatre Royal Stratford East in 2006.
