Emancipation Jubilee to Celebrate Rich Culture and Heritage
Jamaica’s rich culture and heritage will be celebrated during the 21st staging of the Emancipation Jubilee at the Seville Heritage Park in St. Ann.
The annual event, under the theme ‘Emancipation Jubilee: The Genesis’, will be held from July 31 into Emancipation Day on August 1.
It is being organised by the Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) under the distinguished patronage of Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Hon. Olivia Grange.
Emancipation Jubilee will honour the contribution of the African ancestors through song, dance, drumming, drama, food and fashion.
Activities begin at 10:00 a.m. and will feature a farmers’ market, craft village, and food court offering traditional Jamaican cuisine.
The highlight of the day will be the signature cultural concert beginning at 8:00 p.m. with the midnight reading of the 1838 Emancipation Proclamation, which granted freedom to slaves on the island.
Executive Director of the JNHT, Dorrick Gray, said the concert will feature an exciting line-up of acts, including 2018 Jamaica Festival Song Winner, Nazzle Man; the Charles Town Maroons; Port Morant Kumina Group; Jamaica Cultural Development Commission (JCDC) gold medal winners in speech, drama and dance, among others.
“We want it to be a big celebration in remembrance of our ancestors and the struggles they endured for our freedom… . We have a wide array of cultural groups that will highlight that message of the genesis and who we are as Jamaicans in the 21st century,” he said.
Also on July 31, the JNHT will be hosting an Emancipation Jubilee Lecture at the St. Ann Parish Library commencing at 2:00 p.m.
The lecture will be delivered by the Executive Director of the African-Caribbean Institute of Jamaica/Jamaica Memory Bank, Bernard Jankee.
The JNHT, on Wednesday (July 25), opened an exhibition in tribute to the African ancestors at the St. Ann Parish Library, which will run until August 9.
source: www.jis.gov.jm
Photo: JIS Photographer
