The National Finals of the Jamaica Gospel Song Competition will be held on Sunday, July 27 at 7:00 p.m., at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre, under the theme: ‘Moving Forward’. Subject Specialist for Gospel and Church Services at the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC), Leighton Jones, said final preparations for the show are in high gear. “We’re doing well, the...

The Minister of Youth and Culture, the Hon. Lisa Hanna, MP has received a Jamaican ‘cyas’ drum used in the Kumina religion, which had been in the United States for a quarter of a century. The drum which belonged to the late Kumina leader Imogene ‘Queenie’ Kennedy had been in the possession of the Smithsonian Institute’s Director of Cultural Heritage...

The electronic version of ‘Gold Anthology’, a collection of gold medal winning short stories from the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) Festival was launched on July 22. This collection, which was launched in book format in November last year, features top entries from 1999 and 2006, with contributions from Dionne Jackson Miller, Rudolph Wallace, Michael Record and Carroll Edwards, among...

The Minister of Youth and Culture, the Honourable Lisa Hanna, MP has appointed a committee to review the operations of children’s homes in light of the unauthorised implementation of sexual education programmes in six privately-operated residential care facilities by the group Jamaicans for Justice. The Review Committee will be led by Chair of the Child Development Agency Advisory Board, Mrs...

The National Youth Service (NYS) has partnered with several entities to begin a book drive, which involves the collection and donation of books to libraries and reading rooms in children’s homes. Persons are being encouraged to participate in the project by donating new and gently used books suitable for children between 3 and 18 years of age. The books should...

The Office of the Children’s Registry (OCR) is urging  parents and caregivers to ensure that adequate arrangements are in place for their children to have proper adult supervision at all times. The OCR also wishes to remind parents that the under the law a child is anyone under eighteen years old. The warning comes amidst reports of three children being...

The Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) was founded on July 20, 1914 when Marcus Garvey recruited its first member, Miss Amy Ashwood, and held the organization’s first meeting at 121 Orange Street in Kingston. A month later the UNIA began holding weekly public meetings at the Collegiate Hall on Church Street and by 1920 the UNIA was the largest pan...