Students Urged to use Culture Passports for Black History and Reggae Month

Primary and secondary school students, who are registered under the Culture Passport Programme, can participate in activities at reduced rates during Black History and Reggae Month observances in February.

The programme, an initiative of the Ministry of Youth and Culture, allows holders of culture passports free or reduced cost access to several heritage sites, museums and cultural performances islandwide.

It is part of the Ministry’s ongoing efforts to promote the programme and allow young people to experience Jamaica’s culture and heritage.

Principal Director of Culture, Dr. Janice Lindsay, said the Ministry is seeking to have as many students as possible benefit from events being hosted by culture agencies and selected cultural communities during February. As such, she said, the Ministry is collaborating with various entities to garner their support for the programme.

“This does not mean that the collaboration will end in February, but it is really an opportunity for us to engage the various proprietors of heritage sites and managers of the various institutions, such as museums and galleries, to have them buy into the programme on a long-term basis,” she told JIS News during an interview.

Students will be able to visit the Seville Heritage Park in St. Ann’s Bay as well as a number of cultural communities.

“Beginning this month, passport holders will be able to access the Moore Town Maroon community in Port Antonio and Accompong in St. Elizabeth at reduced rates,” Dr. Lindsay said, noting that they will also “participate in some of the intangible cultural heritage experiences that can be had, such as drumming and partake in the traditional cuisine unique to the communities.”

Dr. Lindsay is inviting students to attend a lecture and exhibition scheduled to take place on February 22 at the National Museum Jamaica titled: ‘Uprising: Morant Bay, 1865 and its Afterlives’.

Other lectures are slated to take place on April 14 and May 8 with presenters from the University of the West Indies, Mona, and other tertiary institutions.

“Once passport holders attend the lectures, they will be able to view the exhibition and, by extension, enjoy the other offerings of the museum,” she said.

She informed that Director of the National Museum Jamaica, Dr. Jonathan Greenland, has committed the museum’s full and long-term support of the programme.

In addition, she said that students can also benefit from all activities being hosted by other departments of the Institute of Jamaica, such as the Jamaica Music Museum, the Natural History Division, Liberty Hall and the National Gallery of Jamaica.

The Principal Director of Culture is also encouraging students to visit the exhibition, titled ‘The Blue and John Crow Mountains…Jamaica’s First World Heritage Site’, hosted by the African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica.

Students can access culture passports by becoming members of their school’s Culture Club programme which currently operates in over 200 primary and high schools islandwide. The Culture Club programme was developed by the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission which manages the programme on behalf of the Ministry.