20th Annual 9 Mile Music Festival

WHO: Nine Mile Entertainment Group

WHAT: The 20th Annual 9 Mile Music Festival. Special guest and entertainers to include both hiphop and reggae artist such as 2 Chainz, Future, Patrice Roberts, Konshens, Mavado, Capleton, Machel Montano, and the legendary Marley brothers Julian, Stephen and Damian Marley. Proceeds from the festival will be donated to Curly’s House, Inc.

WHEN: Saturday, March 2nd, 2013

WHERE: The Historic Virginia Key Beach Park (4020 Virginia Beach Drive Miami, FL 33149)

More updates to come on the 20th Annual 9 Mile Music Festival. For more information and updates visit www.9milemusicfestival.com or call (305) 655.5579. Media Credentials and inquiries contact Krystle Coleman, 786.797.4217, Krystle@midoristarmediagroup.com

Click here for more details and to preview the posters available for auction.

The silent auction at Strawberry Hill will benefit Alpha Boys School, a residential vocational school for at risk boys in Kingston, Jamaica run by the Sisters of Mercy since 1890. In addition to tailoring, agriculture and woodworking, Alpha’s music training program has launched the careers of an all-star list of ska, rocksteady, dub and reggae stars including Don Drummond, Leroy ‘Horsemouth’ Wallace and Leroy Smart. Today, the government of Jamaica provides about half Alpha’s operating budget. The balance is made up from self-help projects, donations and volunteers. The International Reggae Poster Contest and Strawberry Hill are pleased to honor Alpha’s past while contributing to its future.

Entitled ‘Mel Cooke… Seh Sup’m: Live from Kingston’, the CD has 14 original  poems and nine tracks of audience interaction, in which Cooke gives context to the  upcoming poem. Together, they form a comprehensive, engaging presentation in  which he takes on a diverse range of issues as they impact on Jamaica. Those issues  include male homosexuality, political garrisons, concepts of manhood, the beauty of  Jamaican women, the aftermath of the Haitian earthquake and Jamaica’s development  since independence.

Among the poems are ‘Bad Man Pull Up’, which takes a caustic look at men showing  their underwear, ‘This is Jamaica’, a reworking of the National Anthem, ‘House  Cleaning’ – based on Mavado’s song of the same name and which challenges  stereotypes of manhood through personal experience – and the somewhat  raunchy ‘Schoolas’, which uses word play extensively.  The recording was done at the March 2010 staging of Seh Sup’m, held at the Village  Blues Bar, Barbican. The event was hosted by Clement ‘Izimi Clem’ Hamilton, who  introduces Cooke on the CD.

Significantly, the only accompaniment to Cooke’s voice is the audience’s response,  as he wants the words to stand on their own without music. “I have always wanted  to do a live CD, so over the years I have been doing a few readings I have collected  a number of recordings. I had intended to take compile poems from these recordings  to make a live album, but when Clement gave me a video recording of this particular  reading I felt it was strong and diverse enough to be edited for that purpose,” Cooke  said.

Audio from the original video recording, done by Jesse Golding, was edited by Sean  Mock Yen.  Cooke, whose debut poetry book ‘11/9’ was released by Blue Moon Publishing in  2008, is happy that his first CD launch will be at the Poetry Society’s fellowship. “It  was the first place at which I read poetry publicly in January 2000 and for so long the  Poetry Society has provided a free, stable space for persons interested in listening to  and developing the art form to gather. I feel as if I am going back home to report on  my progress since my first full reading as the Society’s featured poet at its November  2002 fellowship,” he said.

For more information contact soulofthelionmusic [at] gmail [dot] com.

The languages of Jamaican popular music, both literal and metaphorical, are first imitated in pursuit of an undeniable “originality”. Over time, as the music is indigenized, the Jamaican model loses its authority to varying degrees. The revolutionary ethos of reggae music is ranslated into local languages that articulate the particular politics of new cultural contexts. Echoes of the Jamaican source gradually fade. But new hybrid sounds return to their Jamaican origins, engendering polyvocal, cross-cultural dialogue.

From the inter/disciplinary perspectives of historical sociology, musicology, history, media studies, literature, anthropology, sociology, cultural studies, the creative/cultural industries and, above all, the metaphorical “life sciences”, the contributors to this definitive volume lucidly articulate a cultural politics that acknowledges the far-reaching creativity of small-islanders with ancestral memories of continents of origin.

The globalization of reggae music and its “wild child” dancehall is, indeed, an affirmation of the unquantifiable potential of the Jamaican people to reclaim identities and establish ties of  affiliation that are not circumscribed by the Caribbean Sea: To the world!

Co-published with the Prince Claus Fund.

Contributors: Kam-Au Amen, Peter Ashbourne, Erna Brodber, Louis Chude-Sokei, Brent Clough, Carolyn Cooper, Cheikh Ahmadou Dieng, Samuel Furé Davis, Teddy Isimat-Mirin, Ellen Koehlings, Pete Lilly, Amon Saba Saakana, Roger Steffens, Marvin D. Sterling, Michael Veal, Leonardo Vidigal, Klive Walker

Carolyn Cooper is Professor of Literary and Cultural Studies, University of the West Indies, Mona, Jamaica, and 1992, she initiated the establishment of the university’s International Reggae Studies Centre. Her publications include Sound Clash: Jamaican Dancehall Culture at Large and Noises in the Blood: Orality, Gender and the “Vulgar” Body of Jamaican Popular Culture.

COVER Design by Freestylee, artist without borders
BOOK Design by Maria Papaefstathiou

BUY from : http://www.uwipress.com/content/global-reggae

PAGES FROM INSIDE

On Saturday December 8, the Chancellor of the University of Technology, Jamaica, awarded the Jamaican Music Industry the prestigious Chancellor’s Medal for its contributions to Jamaica locally and abroad. At the height of the star-studded event featuring a who’s who of Jamaican music, Edward Seaga presented a cross section of music industry personalities from past and present with the Chancellor’s Medal, the equivalent of  an honorary degree from the university. The medal will be housed at the Jamaica Music Museum.

In addition to live performances by Tarrus Riley, Singing Melody, NoMaddz and Mr Vegas, the award ceremony included an exclusive art exhibition curated by the Jamaica Music Museum and co curated by Soul of the Lion. From vintage instruments to contemporary dancehall fashion, the exhibition covered the breadth and depth of the music industry at large. Many thanks to UTech Jamaica’s Office of the Registrar and BCAT communications program, the Jamaica Music Museum, Sweetland Photographics, White Skyy, Lazer Disc and the Jamaica Gleaner.

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William ‘Bunny Rugs’ Clark, leader singer of 10-time Grammy nominee Third World, was among a ‘who’s who’ of political leaders, entertainment pioneers, business entrepreneurs and education innovators honored at the Capital Hilton Hotel in Washington, DC last Friday November 16th. The Caribbean American Heritage Awards (CARAH) , an annual black-tie affair put on by The Institute of Caribbean Studies, celebrates the contributions that Caribbean people make in the United States of America. Bunny Rugs received an award for his ‘Outstanding Contribution to Reggae Music‘.

CLICK HERE FOR THE COMPLETE STORY

The Alpha Boys School and the International Reggae Poster Contest are very pleased to announce the auction of the top, limited edition posters from the contest, including special contributions from international poster artists, will be held on November 11 at the National Gallery of Jamaica in downtown Kingston. Douglas Reid of Grosvenor Galleries will conduct the auction and Bunny Rugs, lead singer of 10-time Grammy nominated act Third World, will serve as Celebrity Auctioneer. Music will be provided by DJ Afifa. Click here to view the posters online. 100% of the proceeds will benefit Alpha Boys School. Interested parties who cannot be present for the auction but are interested in bidding should contact Alpha Boys School at alphaboysschool@gmail.com.

From the simple to the sublime, the posters to be auctioned are currently the feature of a special exhibition entitled, “World A Reggae: the 100 Best Entries from the First International Reggae Poster Contest” which continues at the National Gallery of Jamaica until November 10. Comprised of the top 100 posters as well as original contributions from artists Luba Lukova, Juan Carlos Darias, Elmer Sosa, Roy Villalobos, Freestylee (the artist alter ego of contest founder Michael Thompson), and Maria Papaefstathiou (the contest co-founder), the posters represent a very special part of a world-wide conversation about Jamaican culture. A follow up exhibition is scheduled in Athens, Greece to open November 2012.

> click here for the full press release <