Newly appointed Poet Laureate of Jamaica, Olive Senior, will be promoting environmental awareness with poetry. Ms. Senior tells JIS News that she will be using poetry to sensitise the public about nature and environmental issues under a three-year project, titled, ‘I see my land’. The title is based on the late Michael Garfield Smith’s patriotic poem ‘I Saw My Land...

Gender-based violence (GBV) remains a sensitive topic in society, despite the devastating effects on the lives of victims. This stirred the creative response of young communication practitioner at the Jamaica Information Service (JIS), Twila Wheelan, who won a Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) Award for her efforts in raising awareness on the issue. Miss Wheelan, working on the national ‘No...

Winning the Photography Category of the Jamaica information Service (JIS) 2020 Heritage Competition, was very thrilling for Olivia Gordon-Davis, who is pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Language and Literature at The Mico University College, in Kingston. “I have never won a trophy in my life. With this competition, I won my first trophy and I won my first public competition....

The Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts (EMCVPA) is the sole tertiary institution in the English-speaking Caribbean offering specialized training in an array of programmes in the visual and performing Arts. The College’s School of Continuing Education and Allied Programmes (SCEAP), through its range of short courses, provides viable options for persons to upgrade their skills and...

Late reggae singer and cultural icon, Frederick ‘Toots’ Hibbert, joins a select list of distinguished Jamaicans who have been laid to rest within the hallowed walls of the National Heroes Park in Kingston. He died at the University Hospital of the West Indies (UHWI) in St Andrew on September 11 at age 77, after a bout of illness. On hand...

Storytelling, one of the world’s oldest art forms and a rich part of Jamaica’s diverse culture, remains largely an untapped and underused resource in the country. It has enjoyed moments of highlight, especially during the country’s Emancipation and Independence celebrations, when the spotlight is thrown on the different aspects of the island’s fascinating culture. However, it is the view of...

Jamaica’s culture, arguably, ranks among the most fascinating in the world. It is one encompassing music, a variety of dances and food, folklore, language, norms and values, and customs and beliefs, which underlie an ethnically diverse society. However, on the occasion of the nation’s 58th Independence Anniversary, several champions of the country’s rich culture, while concurring that Jamaica has fared...

Last evening, the lawns of Jamaica House came alive with the pulsating sounds of authentic reggae music, with the staging of the Prime Minister’s Reggae Month Reception. The venue was transformed into the centerpiece for a live stage show, which culminated Reggae Month celebrations in February. The setting was replete with the customary trappings of a popular stage show, including...

With a singing and recording career spanning over five decades, Eric Donaldson, affectionately called ‘Mr. Festival’, continues to be a major force in the reggae industry. Mr. Donaldson, who won the popular Jamaica Festival Song Contest for an unmatched seven times, will launch his new album, I Am In Love, in April and will also enter the Festival Contest later...