Category: Blog_Post

Covid-19 kicked me out my comfort zone

For years, I have been delving in the visual arts as a photographer, exploring and now specializing in multiple genres in the art of photography. At no point in time have I ever considered venturing into the world videography. While my camera is quite capable of recording video, I have never felt the urge or the need to explore the video features of the device.

Earlier this year, I lost my eldest aunt. As Covid-19 cases started to rise here in Jamaica, the government taking the needed steps to try and curb the import and spread of the virus, took the decision to close our borders. This meant that family members overseas would not be able to attend the funeral. Coupled with the restrictions on public gatherings, friends and family here would also miss the funeral.

With just about 3 weeks to go before the funeral I got the idea that I should try and learn to record and edit videos so I would be able to record the funeral and provide an avenue for closure for those who would be unavoidably absent. I hit up YouTube University and started consuming content around videography. Learning what shutter speeds I needed to record at, matching shutter speed with the particular frame rate per second of the final video, ensuring that I stuck to native ISOs. I even learned specific video features related to the camera I use and how to manually control audio levels to ensure consistent audio quality. Being informed that for good audio quality, the camera’s built-in microphone wasn’t going to cut it, my friend Christopher over at Learn Share Photo Video recommended a budget microphone, the TAKSTAR SGC-598. I quickly jumped over to Amazon and placed the order and I managed to get it a week before the funeral.

 

Time to test if I’ve learned anything

Armed with the knowledge I gathered in the short time and the new tool, I used the days of the grave digging to get my practice in for the main event. Things were making sense and just as I would execute on a photographic session, I adjusted to changing scenes and lighting conditions. I did encounter the challenge of keeping the camera perfectly level and avoiding jerky movements while operating the camera handheld, as well as manually racking focus on subjects, but I did my best to compensate.

On the day of the funeral, mentally I had a workflow down and ready to try and execute as best as I could considering my beginner status. However the day was not without newbie mistakes. Firstly, I ended up leaving the house without my tripod so I had to record the entire funeral hand-held. I think I gained some muscle at the end of the day, trying to hold the camera steady enough to simulate being on a tripod. My second newbie hiccup occurred close to the end where I missed a few minutes of footage. My camera has a time limit on a single recording of 20 minutes. On one instance the 20 minutes ran out and I was there in the motion recording and not realizing that recording had actually stopped *facepalm*. Luckily it wasn’t a critical moment or else I’d be so upset at myself.

 

Putting the piece all together

Now that I had the footage, it was time to learn how to piece it all together and make a final production. What software did I choose to edit the videos you might ask? I decided to try out version 16 of the non-linear editor (NLE) DaVinci Resolve. From what I gathered at the time it was the industry standard for cinematic color grading of video footage. Without getting too techie with it, as that’s a part of my other life, it’s a feature packed application offered by BlackMagic Design FREE of charge and rivals the likes of Adobe’s Premiere Pro and Apple’s Final Cut Pro. There are a few advanced features excluded from the free version that hardcore video editors would need. These are offered in the paid version of the product, DaVinci Resolve Studio.

I began learning how to review and cut footage, lining them up on a timeline, adding transitions between each cut and adding and syncing videos using their audio signatures. Producing video is really a time consuming task. While I can do a 1 hour shoot and cull through the session images and pick out the best ones that I will end up retouching in just a few minutes, it’s not the same with video. If you record 1 hour worth of video you will have to watch that 1 hour footage to determine what needs to be kept. Just imagine a full production. Imagine a wedding videographer or cinematographer who has covered a full wedding from getting ready to reception. That’s at least 8 hours of footage that they would need to review and post-produce. Whew! I had about 3 hours of footage that I had to review to make my final video.

All in all, it was a good experience and another level of growth for me. I have already enrolled in a course on lynda.com to get a better handle on DaVinci Resolve so I can become more proficient in using the application.

Did Covid-19 kick you out of your comfort zone too? What new thing(s) did you learn

Source: DWAYNE K. SMITH PHOTOGRAPHY

Author: Dwayne K. Smith

Dwayne is a multi-genre photographer who lives and exercises his craft in the beautiful island of Jamaica. His approach of being an explorer of the various photographic arts helps to mold his personal style. 

See more of Dwayne’s work in Portraiture, Events, Nature, Landscapes, Weddings, Astroscapes, Timelapses, Food Automobile Real Estates and Interiors by visiting Dwayne’s website to see more of his pictures : https://bit.ly/3zqEeuF

Blog Originally posted here: https://bit.ly/3ywJlIQ

 

 

 

 

DWAYNE K. SMITH PHOTOGRAPHY

Creative Tech Lab 2.0 Births Innovative Business Ideas from Jamaica

The Creative Technology Lab (CTL) 2023, an innovative initiative uniting creative minds and tech enthusiasts, has concluded its journey, marking the culmination of weeks filled with collaborative energy, hard work and creativity. Spanning across Jamaica and Honduras, and funded by the Inter American Development Bank (IDB), this event was a testament to the extraordinary potential of combining creativity and technology in the region and how nations can collaborate beyond the boundaries of borders and language.

Participants in Jamaica worked with the Kingston Creative team and in Honduras with the team at the Universidad Tecnologica de Honduras, while the overall programme was guided by Banj, a Haiti-based Tech Hub. Throughout the journey, the participants embarked on an enriching experience, delving deep into intensive learning sessions, gaining invaluable expertise, and engaging with regional industry experts. This immersive exploration not only honed their skills but also developed new business ideas.

The event closed with a Pitch Day hosted by the Kingston Creative Hub in Downtown Kingston. The participants unveiled their visionary projects before a panel of investors, industry experts and 500 online viewers on Facebook Live.

A distinctive feature of CTL 2023 was its hybrid approach, utilising cutting-edge technology to transcend geographical barriers between Jamaica, Haiti and Honduras. Through virtual collaboration tools and live streaming, participants and audiences were seamlessly linked, fostering collaboration and innovation despite the physical distance.

 

Two standout projects emerged from this talented cohort from Jamaica:

Eventide™: This cutting-edge software revolutionises event graphic design and marketing. Eventide™ offers intelligent templates, AI-driven design insights, cost estimation, collaboration tools, automated marketing, and performance analytics. By streamlining design processes, Eventide™ not only saves time and enhances creativity but also maximises budget efficiency, transforming event planning and marketing strategies.

Innersight: A Web Portal meticulously gathering qualitative text and voice data for creative arts program testimonials. Powered by transcriptors, this data fuels a dashboard showcasing social impact metrics. Innersight’s vision bridges the gap between creativity and social impact, providing a holistic view of the transformative power of the arts.

The conclusion of CTL 2023 marks not just the end of a regional hackathon event but the emergence of promising business ventures which can be incubated through Kingston Creatives Incubator, Accelerator, Best Pitch Forward, Business Registration and other programmes designed to empower creative entrepreneurs and drive growth in the Cultural and Creative Industries. Hackathons are essential features of the ecosystem, nurturing future innovators and fostering a culture of collaboration in the creative economies of Central America and the Caribbean. All the participants have received an exclusive invitation to use business services at the Hub and join the Kingston Creative Incubator Programme, which will further guide their projects and entrepreneurial pursuits.

 

Reclaiming physical space is resistance. Challenging the status quo is resistance.  Defining Arts and Culture as a driver of social and economic transformation is resistance.  Putting artists and cultural workers in a position of prominence and status in our society is resistance. Intentionally betting on what is most powerful about us as a country – OUR CULTURE – even though it arguably is created by who we consider to be from the working classes of society – is resistance.  Deciding to change our city, our economy and empower our most culturally vibrant communities – is resistance. Imagining a new future together, and taking action together from the ground up, not the top down to realize this new future – this is an act of resistance.

If you ask me on any given day whether I’m “into” politics, I, like many creatives, would say that I am not political.  Our politics is framed in a limiting way, as it forces us to think about development in choppy 4-year cycles instead of the 25- and 50-year strategic cycles that lead to real transformation and sustainable national development.  To be creative, one must be in a certain state of mind and often I find that it is necessary to block out the partisan chatter that we all too often find ourselves embroiled in as a society.

But “politics”, from the Greek word “politika”, is defined simply as “affairs of the cities”.  In a very literal sense, politics is just the set of activities associated with making decisions in groups and managing the power relations among individuals.  The Irish political scientist Michael Laver, put it this way:

“Politics is about the characteristic blend of conflict and co-operation that can be found so often in human interactions. Pure conflict is war. Pure co-operation is true love. Politics is a mixture of both. “

If I were to abide by the true definition of politics, then the work that we at Kingston Creative are engaged in is very political.  Artists and creatives are actively changing the affairs of the city with every mural, every film, every book and every cultural tour.

Kingston Creative is a movement that came into being 7 years ago almost to the day, so let me say first Happy 7^th Anniversary to the entire Kingston Creative family.  I vividly remember being upstairs in the attic in my home in London, making that call to my cofounder Allan Daisley who was in Miami.  My hand was shaking, and I was absolutely full of trepidation.  This vision was so big, and I just didn’t want to sound unhinged.  I didn’t even want to speak it out loud, but it was so urgent that I felt that I would burst if I didn’t.

Even as a possibility thinker and an eternal optimist, I know how the world works.  I am a dark-skinned black person, I am a woman, one with an unremarkable last name at that and no generational wealth to fund a massive vision, so who were we to think that we could really shift the affairs of the city?

But we stepped out in faith and developed our 10-year plan with David Mullings and Jennifer Bailey. I moved back home to Jamaica, and we took a small another step forward, first presenting the concept at UWI’s Imagine Kingston conference in 2017.  We formed a core team with Doris Gross and Dr. Kim Marie Spence.  Very rapidly, a group of 100 volunteers and creatives came on board, who all played a critical role in hosting Artwalk festivals and monthly meetups, painting murals and driving this vision forward.

We registered a nonprofit company in 2019, then a charity organization, and were able to raise money to fund operations.  This would not have happened without the support of who we term the First 50 Founders, individuals and companies that donate one million a year because they want to be a part of the transformation of Downtown and the economic growth that they believe creative entrepreneurs and the Orange Economy can deliver.

Since 2017, we have painted 101 murals, opened a Downtown coworking space, launched the Artwalk -a monthly public arts festival and created a cultural tourism destination in Water Lane that is now listed on Tripadvisor.  This street art pathway connects the Institute of Jamaica museums on East Street with the National Gallery of Jamaica on Orange Street, and the talent of these artists has brought many visitors into this part of the city.  Our main partners in these developments are the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF), Sherwin Williams, the KSAMC, the Development Bank of Jamaica (DBJ), the CB Facey Foundation, and the Kingston Restoration Company (KRC), but it is important to note that none of this would have started without the time and money contributed by ordinary Jamaicans, both here and in the Diaspora.

Ours is a vision of “people and place” and with partners including IDB Lab, DBJ, PIOJ, JAMPRO, HEART and Sagicor we invest heavily in developing creative people.  We have delivered over 5,500 free training opportunities, enabled 9 artists to go overseas on travel grants, developed an ecommerce platform called Kulcha Connect, developed an online directory of creatives called Caribbean Creative Network where the world can now find over 409 creatives – and hire them.  We have hosted four editions of Best Pitch forward, the first pitch competition exclusively for Jamaican creatives where $2.2 million in seed capital has been granted to creative entrepreneurs.

Formalization is critical to the development of the ecosystem, and Kingston Creative, with the support of IDB, JIPO and Companies Office of Jamaica, has helped 104 creative entrepreneurs to register their businesses and intellectual property.   We conceptualized a regional programme called CATAPULT (www.catapultsarts.org) which gave support and grants of $73 million JMD to 1,535 creatives from 27 Caribbean countries during the COVID-19 years, when artists around the region were at their most vulnerable.  This we accomplished with a tiny 4 person team and by partnering with Open Societies Foundation, American Friends of Jamaica and Barbados-based nonprofit, Fresh Milk.

We have engaged with 20 Downtown Communities and 8 Downtown Kingston community tourism locations have been supported by the tours that we offer.  Most of all, we have made a small dent in shifting the public perception of Downtown Kingston, along with our media partners the Jamaica Gleaner and the Jamaica Observer – both of whom are fully committed to turning around the old city and reducing the stigma.

If there are any secrets to our success, the first is, without question, people.  We have a committed, talented team, an amazing Board, and many advisors and truth tellers that keep us on the right track.  We also have visionary partners and advocates within the private and public sector and multilateral sphere, not least of all the Ministry of Culture and its agencies like the Institute of Jamaica and the Jamaica Music Museum – we are thankful for all the great people that work there.

Our second secret is imagination. We give ourselves the room to imagine a positive, creative future for Jamaica. We balance that big imagination with practicality and persistence.

Our third secret is small consistent action.  The movement is not known for flashy pronouncements and massive projects, but we come together to take tiny actions, sometimes imperceptible baby steps to get us closer to that future that we imagined.  We stay centred by never forgetting our mission of empowering creative people, so that they can succeed, gain access to global markets, and create wealth for themselves and their communities.   We hold as a beacon to inspire us, our vision of Kingston as the Creative Capital of the Caribbean.  We always know who we serve – a community of creatives and the beautiful old city of Downtown Kingston.

Often, I am asked, where did all this come from?  The story starts in Glasgow Scotland, where I was born to a Trinidadian mother and a Jamaican father in the era of Black power, surrounded by Caribbean people and some legendary parties where the music of Bob Marley played late into the night.   I lived with my grandparents there in the 80’s, who took me to bookstores, where I spent hours just sitting on the carpet luxuriating in books which are still my first love, with visual arts, drawing and painting as a very close second.  I grew up walking to school and roaming the streets freely in a safe city.  We frequented the art galleries and museums, and it was normal to see free public art in theatres, public spaces, parks and gardens, where friends played, families met and memories were made.

The second chapter of the story moves to the USA, where I became a licensed professional structural engineer working on multimillion dollar city redevelopment and historical preservation projects in Washington DC.  I worked my early years in Miami, in the Design District, on 2^nd Avenue, near Little Haiti, where now a famous Art District called Wynwood stands, and the change is incredible to have witnessed. There is also some valuable Jamaican public sector experience, the years when I was the Director of Technical Services in the Ministry of Water and Housing, responsible for over 90 joint-venture housing developments across the island and the squatter management programme, which took me into some very depressed communities in Montego Bay and of course Downtown Kingston.  I have worked in private sector corporations like Gracekennedy and Digicel, both Downtown-based companies, where skills in strategy, projects and managing multimillion dollar USD budgets were honed. Finally, I am an entrepreneur coming from a long line of entrepreneurs starting with my Grandma in Falmouth (Big up to Miss Richie!) and I started Bookophilia in 2008, a bookstore and café on Hope Road where I started to really understand the needs of the creative community and where Kei Miller, Marlon James and Anthony Winkler read, and where a young Protoje, Jah 9 and Kabaka Pyramid would have all performed.

The idea for Kingston Creative came from these diverse experiences, and it is fueled by the collective passion that every other single person in the movement has for this cause.  And now, in year 7, in abandoned spaces and the neglected back lanes of Downtown Kingston, we see a real Art District emerging.  Upstairs in Swiss Stores, above the F&B Downtown restaurant, we have building a creative hub coworking space – a Home for creative entrepreneurs, where they can have the space, training, investment, funding, recognition and the respect that they need to succeed.

The approach of using Art for Social and Economic transformation is not unique. Street artists have changed neighbourhoods and governments have invested in the Orange Economy and cultural tourism and reaped the benefits before.   Other cities have invested in building the infrastructure, supported placemaking projects and invested in revitalization.  This is nothing new – but it is a proven strategy that works.  If we can apply it here in Jamaica, it can have a number of critical benefits:

• It can uplift artists and artisans from inner city communities, not just in Downtown but in similar communities across the island.
• It can diversify our economy through growing the Cultural and Creative Industries like film, fashion, culinary arts, dance, literature, and music.
• It can make our tourism product more resilient – cultural tourism is a viable and lucrative addition to the offering of sun, sea and sand.
• It can instill new pride in the parts of ourselves and our capital city that we try to hide.
• It can employ young people, offering a viable alternative for them to gangs, violence and scamming.

Kingston Creative deals with issues of grassroots empowerment and use of public space, which is disruptive. It challenges colonial mindsets and notions of ownership and frankly speaking, these structures just aren’t challenged enough in our society.  In the Arts, gatekeeping was the norm, where a select few can determine which artist is worthy of accolades and which might be permitted entry into elite gallery spaces, and which might earn. But when the gallery becomes the street, young unknown artists are selected through an open call, and then these young artists are hired, just on the basis of their work, not the validation of gatekeepers – and they are paid millions for their talent.  This is resistance.

 In closing I want you to close your eyes and imagine with me for a second. Imagine if we had a legal and governance framework that really facilitated the success of our creative people, and that promoted the status of the artists, and the growth of the Orange Economy. Imagine that we had a policy, plan and funding for the development of cultural spaces across the island, rules that ensured that our built heritage can’t be knocked down by private interests, and that we encouraged the transformation of privately held, under-utilized spaces into viable creative spaces.

Imagine further that it was a national priority to build fit for purpose creative spaces, theatres, museums, new galleries and state of the art festival spaces. Imagine millions of people coming to our island to appreciate reggae and other cultural offerings. What if we provided the necessary makerspaces, studios and creative spaces for both the production and consumption of the arts?

What if we advocated for the access that creatives need; access to visas, ease of movement and travel, and challenged the geo-restrictions, so that our artists had full access to the technology and digital tools that they need to compete globally.

What if creative careers and creative education was a year-round priority and that pesky “A” in STEAM was consistently present, and the school kids that are the dancers, actors, singers, songwriters, musicians and poets, didn’t feel like outcasts.  Imagine if these talented kids knew that there was an ecosystem to ensure their success in Jamaica, just knew that they could… like anyone else… work hard at their craft, buy a house, educate their kids, have full retirement funds, health and life insurance and if god forbid, they did fall ill, that their family could deal with it in a dignified manner without handouts and charity.

Imagine or just a second, what would happen if our young artists, especially those from inner city communities, knew that they were valued and that there was a real place in society for them, that they didn’t have to migrate, and that we valued them and that as a country, we were strategically organized to promote their success.

I often ask myself, where would we be as a country if we really believed in ourselves and in our cultural supremacy (which is so obvious to the rest of the world) and not only believed, but followed through in a structured, practical way.  Where would we be today, if instead of simply singing along to “One Love”, we embedded the necessary guiding principles, policies and legal frameworks for development of the Cultural and Creative Industries and real transformation for us as a nation.

Thank you for imagining with me.  This small act of imagination and action – this is resistance.

History is a subject I never studied in high school, but I always appreciated. ‘Black History’ or African history were my favourite topics as a teenager. As my love for music grew and I started making it, its development over time, naturally, became an interest. Being a Jamaican, I was familiar with Mento, Ska, Rocksteady, Reggae, Dub and Dancehall, but I wanted to know the details of who did what, when, where, how and why. Strange to some, but not uncommon for many in my generation, my love for Hip Hop outweighed my appreciation of any other form, including Jamaica’s indigenous genres. If I ever had any doubt or reservation about my love for ‘foreign’ music, I was given assurance and confidence in knowing the culture’s forefathers and some of its greatest contributors were Jamaicans or the children of Jamaicans and other Caribbean people. This is why history is important.

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I know I envisioned it for myself in some form when I was younger, but I didn’t see myself being a part of history quite the way I am now. You may consider me to be ‘underground’ (a badge I wear proudly because that’s where art has to be authentic to thrive) and I am not a full-time working artist as I strive to be. However, somehow, I have found myself on stages overseas, in a recent national advertising campaign, mentioned in books and the subject of academic papers. Not bad, considering I used to be told that rapping in Jamaica would get me nowhere. All of my achievements have been without a record label, a manager, a publicist, a ‘producer’ (in the Jamaican sense where one is expected to invest in and ‘buss’ an artiste) or any major investor or sponsor. I cannot take credit for everything and say I have never received advice, help or support, but I am the quintessential example of an independent artiste, and, more precisely, a DIY (do-it-yourself) artiste. That often means playing all the previously mentioned roles, plus many more. I took control of my career and put the wheels in motion whereas I found that many Jamaican artistes had a mentality of waiting for things to happen or people to do things for them, and no concrete plan that they could execute for themselves. As a Hip Hop artiste in Jamaica, I quickly learned my artform wasn’t viewed the same way Dancehall or Reggae was, and the traditional avenues for music were not open and welcoming to my genre. It was not so much a case of people not liking Hip Hop or not liking me personally, or my music necessarily… they just did not believe in it. This includes other artistes, industry insiders and even friends. Hip Hop in Jamaica just did not appear to be a nice bandwagon to ride, and it still is not. Chances are if you are a Five Steez fan, it is because you genuinely appreciate my character and/or my work, and not because you think I am the biggest thing or the next superstar. I love these fans the most because human beings can be fickle. Some people ‘lose offa’ an artiste when they don’t become as successful or famous as they had hoped. For me, as a true fan of music, as long as the artiste’s work is good, I will still be listening and following. Getting support doing Hip Hop in Jamaica was not easy. Like many artistes have experienced, radio play seemed to be garnered mostly through connections and payola, if you were not already established or popular. In 2007, a series of live events catering to Hip Hop, or at least embracing artistes of the genre, emerged (I chronicle these events in this article on my website). By early 2009, my peers and I also discovered that while radio wasn’t an open field for us, local cable television was. One of the first music videos I appeared in was Get Down. It was then we began releasing visuals that were shown on Hype TV and RE TV, as well as the traditional TVJ and CVM. While we had some opportunities to perform, there was little community ownership of these events and the platforms eventually fizzled. The year 2010 was incredibly pivotal in my journey and that is when I stated making a name for myself as Five Steez. This is when I start my official story, although my closest peers will tell you I was first called Five Star and belonged to a group called The Bulletproof Army (The BP Army / BP). Nomad Carlos of The Council was a member and so was Simon the Writer (then Simo-B) who is now more recognised in the local creative scene as a poet and the main organiser of The Apollo Series. Many developments took place in 2010. Like many creatives have done or wish to do some day, I took a massive leap of faith and left the corporate world. I returned 3 years later, but what I was able to accomplish and learnt over the period is invaluable. I definitely lost out on income at the time, but I laid a foundation for the path I am on today. The time I had at my disposal and the passion within me led me to working as a part of the non-profit organisation Manifesto Jamaica (MJ). It was Simon the Writer that told me about this initiative for some time before I joined. I remember my first MJ meeting and it was the energy I heard expressed that made me feel I was around the right people. I was also interested in the organisation’s connection with Manifesto Community Projects in Toronto, which has been staging what is now the largest urban arts / Hip Hop festival in the Canadian city. I was Simon’s assistant for the Literary Umbrella. With Simon overseas that summer and MJ ramping up fundraising efforts, I found myself leading on the execution of the ART’ical Exposure series which was held at Bookophilia. These were the first art/music events I ever helped to organise and, interestingly enough, staging events has become a part of what I do now. Being a rapper, and being based at the now-non-existent Gambling House Recording Studio (which was regarded as the Mecca of Hip Hop in Kingston), I did my best to incorporate rappers I knew. When the final and third staging of ART’ical Exposure was held, it was a major moment for the local movement as dozens of rappers performed to a supportive crowd of hundreds and it received good press. The Gleaner article days after was my first media mention, highlighting my performance that night. Later in 2010, I released my first mixtape The Momentum: Volume One with New York city underground radio icon DJ Ready Cee. Although I had a project in 2008 which may be known to some familiar with the underground scene in Kingston at the time when I had the moniker Five Star, I consider this to be my first release. The journey continued with more mixtapes, performances and press, leading up to 2012, which was momentous due to the creation of Pay Attention, Kingston’s premier Hip Hop event which ran until 2015, and the release of my debut album War for Peace. Pay Attention was first held on April 21, 2012 at Heather’s Garden Restaurant, just a two-minute walk down the street from Gambling House Recording Studio, which was at 21 Haining Road (now, a car lot). It had four stagings there until it moved to Juggz Sports Bar and Grill (formerly Christopher’s), downstairs the Quad Nightclub, and then Funky Munky on Holborn Road, before settling at South Beach Café in March 2013. While the movement started before, it was there that the brand really took shape. The release of War for Peace was another proud achievement. It received great reviews locally and internationally. The one that stood out the most to me was the iTunes Editors’ Notes, not because it said anything particularly magnificent, but because of what it meant for an outlet like that to review an album from a ‘nobody’ like me, an independent artiste making a genre in a country with no industry for it (or its own genres for that matter… but let’s not go there now). The album was also featured on the front page for Hip Hop as New & Noteworthy. With War for Peace available, Nomad Carlos having Me Against the Grain out and Pay Attention in full swing, The Council (before we were The Council, but were just members of the Pay Attention Committee) came together to host The Takeover in December 2012. This stageshow paved the way for Pay Attention to take on a new life, The Council to be formed later and for my working relationship with Mordecai to begin. At this event, The Sickest Drama (TSD), Nomad Carlos and myself performed Kingston Invasion, a track we did on a Mordecai beat and released just days earlier. Me and Mordecai went on to release HeatRockz in 2016, Love N Art in 2019 and will release HeatRockz 2.0 this summer. One of the things I took from my experience with Manifesto Jamaica was how we could create our own platforms. I saw the need for the Hip Hop community to have its own space and that was a major motivation behind the foundation of Pay Attention. Always keen on the Jamaican Hip Hop identity, we helped to spread the term ‘First Coast’, which is essentially the idea that without Jamaica-born Godfather of Hip Hop DJ Kool Herc going to the Bronx, there may be no Hip Hop as we know it today. It is also a term we use for the local movement and even the island of Jamaica itself. For years, we shouted this term… TSD, especially, at the top of his lungs, as he hosted many stagings of Pay Attention, and The Apollo Series, in more recent times. Today, I am confident people will be embracing the term ‘First Coast’ a lot more. In March 2019, The Council gave the presentation ‘First Coast: The Jamaican and wider Caribbean involvement in Hip Hop’ at The Trinity International Hip Hop Festival at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut. We have also been accepted to do the same at the University of the West Indies’ (UWI) conference The Legacy of DJ Kool Herc: Celebrating the Jamaican Roots of Hip Hop, which has been postponed to October due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I am also discovering that my career and work is the subject of some of the submissions that have been accepted. I hope the event does take place, and I also hope UWI is exploring a virtual option in the event that it cannot happen physically due to the ongoing pandemic. In any event, we will be submitting a ‘First Coast’ paper for the conference’s anthology to be published. I may also do a similar presentation at another international forum to which I have been invited for November. Now, earlier this year, we could truly say Hip Hop came full circle when DJ Kool Herc himself returned to Jamaica for the first time in decades as a special guest of honour at the Jamaica Music Conference. I wrote this article ahead of his arrival to articulate what I believe this meant historically. I also had the distinct privilege of not just meeting and building with him and his sister Cindy, with whom he held Hip Hop’s first block parties, but also sitting with them at the conference’s media briefing to speak a little about what he means for Jamaica, Hip Hop and the local community. Of course, I explained the term ‘First Coast’ for the audience. That was definitely a surreal moment. It was almost like we spoke it into being. That was February. A lot has changed since then. Many plans are up in the air right now for creatives worldwide because of the new pandemic, myself included. Fortunately, my full-time job does not appear to be at risk at the moment and I am able to work from home. My efficient weekday time management and the lack of traffic (which took up 2-3 hours per day of my pre-COVID life) is giving me more time for myself. Add that to my crazy work ethic in general, my determination to make the most of this ‘downtime’ and my slight anxiety that I, too (and you!), could die during this pandemic so I need to do as much as possible (I’m feeling like Tupac on Death Row Records right now LOL)… I am getting a lot done! I am now at my peak of physical activity and creative output since I was around 18, and I am also improving my business and financial acumen, while tying up loose ends. This year started strong for me and I am not going to let this Coronavirus slow me down or discourage me at all. I intend to build on and leverage the familiarity that Jamaicans now have with my face and voice as a result of the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica’s What If advertisement, in which I am featured as a rapping teacher. Last year was excellent as I released two projects in one year. In addition to Love N Art, there was the Pantone EP with French beatmaker J-Zen in October. This year, I could do the same. By the time this is published, I should be close to releasing HeatRockz 2.0 and should have finished recording an album with Brazilian producer Sono TWS. I should also be at work on another project that will remain secret until the time is right. One of the next steps I’ve been exploring and researching is organising my own tour, or at least, more festival appearances. This is definitely where COVID-19 has wiped out much of what was possible for 2020. I am not deterred, however, as I will be using the time to learn the ins-and-outs of getting and being on the road, while creating and marketing online my brand better than before. My intention is to have new product, all my business in order and to be ready to take on the road by the time that travel and large gatherings resume. I am very hopeful that mankind will find a way to defeat this pandemic and simply make it a moment in history that we know will never return. It is just that we are very early in a fight against a new virus and we cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel as yet. We will get there, I’m sure.

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In these uncertain times, I know some of what I have in store, but there is so much we cannot predict. My journey as an artist will continue. That includes writing (like this) and (maybe not so much again now) organising events. One of the things I’ve learnt in my journey is that you don’t always know when you’re making history or being a part of it. I always tell artists to stick to their vision if they truly believe in it. If people don’t get it, find those who do. I have also found it important to tell your story and document the journey as I am doing here. As a Hip Hop artiste locally, I’m prone to being overlooked or my story being misrepresented so it is essential to me, from a marketing perspective, to control my own narrative and influence others’ perceptions. These articles I write at times about my artistic journey and/or Hip Hop in Jamaica are not journal entries, although they revolve around me and I try to be very conversational and open. These are, in fact, historical documents, for those who are interested in Hip Hop culture, as well as music in Jamaica. I can do only so much, however, and these writings are small fractions. It’s funny, I always loved history, and I tried my best to study whatever aspects of it were most relevant to me. That included history about race, ancestry, nationality, culture and music. Now, I find myself writing history. And who is more qualified to do so but the one that is actually on the frontlines making history too? The journey continues… First Coast -The Jamaican and wider Caribbean involvement in Hip Hop

The Journey from Reggae Music Mecca to Creative Economy Hub.

Jamaica has long been a cultural mecca, with over 4 million visitors per year coming to its shores to soak up the sun and experience the culture. This is the birthplace of Bob Marley, reggae music, and no less than five other major music genres, including dancehall, ska, rocksteady, dub, and mento. The creative talent isn’t just limited to music as Jamaica also has a creditable showing in dance, literature, film, visual arts, the culinary arts, and craft.

Poverty and crime, seen at its worst in the inner cities of Kingston, appears quite at odds with Jamaica’s cultural reputation. A common misconception is that Jamaica is doing well, having earned significant income from its reggae music industry. The reality, however, is that most of the economic activity (recording, publishing, distribution) that drives the Jamaican music industry is domiciled offshore.

Wikipedia’s list of international reggae festivals lists 136 events – all located outside of Jamaica. Jamaica does have two major reggae festivals, Sumfest and Rebel Salute, and by comparison, Italy has 16. While a few individual Jamaican artists may do well from touring overseas, most local creatives struggle to make a living. Over the years, the lion’s share of the earnings from Jamaica’s culture, accumulated in other countries, leaving Jamaica underdeveloped.

Globaleconomy.com reveals that Jamaica’s ranks second in the world for ‘human flight and brain drain’, out of 177 countries, achieving a rating of 9.5 out of 10 in 2023. As both the business and the audience are overseas, it is no surprise that artists of all types frequently migrate, contributing to the crippling brain drain experienced by the island and depleting the cultural sector of talent.

But all is not lost. Jamaica can still turn around its fortunes and it is betting on its cultural capital to take it there. Attention is being paid to developing creative entrepreneurs and aligning the policies needed to spur Creative Economy growth. Investments are being made to provide the funding and infrastructure that artists and creatives need to monetize their talent. The informality of the sector is also being challenged, as new programmes actively encourage creative entrepreneurs to register their businesses and their intellectual property, at no cost.

The recent developments augur well for the future of the cultural and creative industries; from a billion-dollar Film Fund to free creative training, creative coworking spaces, and a new Art District being developed in Downtown Kingston. The vibrant murals in Water Lane created by a young cadre of artists and animated by augmented reality, are spurring the rapid growth of cultural tourism in once desolate back streets.

Behind the scenes, this change is being driven from the bottom up, with a complex raft of multilateral, public, private and third sector partnerships as well as Jamaica’s extensive Diaspora lending support. It appears that the potential of the creative economy to deliver much needed growth is now being understood by the creatives themselves, as well as the policymakers. Concrete steps are being taken to ensure that the local ecosystem is improved, so that with the next wave of art and music emanating from Jamaica, the creators, artists and local communities hopefully will be the ones that benefit.

As a small island nation of only 2.8 million people, Jamaica’s musical and sporting icons have no business being global household names. The true power of Jamaican culture goes way beyond the entertainment value or even the possibility of culture delivering economic growth. Jamaica’s culture speaks to its people, its heritage, a turbulent history, a sense of fierce independence and social consciousness – powerful messages of “one love” that the world has embraced, and which Jamaica must do everything possible to preserve.

Author: Andrea Dempster Chung, March 2024
Photo Credits: Verrol Blake

 

Correspondence from the Continent: Jah9 on finding fulfillment amid the fiasco

Music is never disembodied from Jamaican culture and lifestyle. Since the onset of what we know as Jamaican life, it has been used for things like education, passing coded messages, commentary, and sometimes informal reporting. After the country’s independence in 1962, when political structures were being erected, Jamaican music began to breathe it’s first breath. While political structures were naturally aligned to policies, philosophies, sometimes even religion, music as an art form, likely due to its extremely democratic nature, has always been about people politics. The great advantage of  music, not that it can be properly compared to politics, is its fluidity. It became a way for the now independent citizens of Jamaica to say what they wanted, how they wanted it said(usually in their own language and without censorship), through the many elected minstrels that rose to calling. As with all industries, there are business facets that support the art form, allowing it to thrive. However, no matter how lucrative the industry becomes, most of the power in music still rests with the people. As much as people rely on music and art, musicians or creators rely on people a lot more. Jamaican music has such a high output pace in general, that whether or not people “cancel” an artist, they usually move on to the next new one within a few months. Move on, is by no means definitive. It doesn’t mean the older artist is discarded for good, but what it does indicate is that the pacing of the music creates a spotlight or two, that has a time limit. Within this time limit, the attention directed at the artist is high, and they have until that limit is reached, to break out into their own. This usually entails diversifying, gaining more exposure, and creating a lasting profile that will give the artist a guaranteed spot in the library, a listen on every release, or a purchase on every piece of merch or event ticket. The Jamaican audiences can be fickle but given the right motivation at the right time, they are also loyal to a fault. It is perhaps this essentially democratic nature of the artform which gives it this fluidity, because even with the risk of failure, comes the possibility of a reward that is even greater. Jah9, is an agent of Jamaican music, its democracy and its people politics. Awarded, and achieved wherever she chooses to set down roots, one cannot help but notice that she has always been involved in the science and politics of people, in one way or another. From her days at UWI, her long awaited return there this past february with a lecture series, her clandestine exploits at some of the country’s biggest corporate companies, and even her certification as a yogi, it’s evident 9 relishes being of service in areas that heavily involve the human element. Something that’s hard wired into her music as well. Early may 2019, we were two albums deep into her discography, when the official music video for her first single Heaven from her latest album hit youtube. With the promise of the new album and singles like Maat(Each Man),  and Highly(Get To Me) in between, Note To Self shook the music world when it finally dropped on March 13th. This marked her second time releasing an album in Kenya, which had become much like another home to her now. Set for a live celebration of her album the following day in Ethiopia, 9 was due to make her way to the UK for another later that month, when word reached her of the Covid-19 outbreak there. She decided to bunker down in Ethiopia, rather than risk being trapped in transit or being refused entry into other countries while trying to return home. Now situated in Tanzania for what will make 9 plus weeks on the continent, Jah9 is in good spirits when we get on the phone for this interview. Here, we have a candid conversation about her new album, life in Africa, creativity and the state of things.

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This is your third studio album, some people would describe your music as personal, but what makes this album different in that regard? Is it a specific type of personal for you or is it just delving deeper into the person? “The latter.” What’s your favorite part of the creative process? “I don’t really have a favorite part. It depends. I have a least favorite part.”  Which is? “My least favorite part is probably feedback from non creatives who I have to deal with in the industry. But my favorite part is probably, at different times, so like-” It changes? “It does, and it depends. So there are times when I really enjoy creating and writing in a space of solitude. I don’t really have a clique or a group of people that I’m vibing with; it’s usually a very private process. I like that part of it, but I also like when I’m creating with other people, which I seldom have that opportunity.So I do like creating because it is a meditative thing for me. I really go inside to find what it is I want to say. Hearing the words in my head, putting it on paper and hearing sounds, practicing and then revamping it. I really enjoy that part. I like being able to bring that forward now to other creatives when I’m creating the music.  There are different ways that I create. There are times when I’m creating from a spiritual, visual meditative space, and times when I’m creating with my brain. So it’s different types of songs too that come out different kinds of ways. For those who are really paying attention you can always tell which ones are more cerebral and which ones are more meditative.” The album speaks to a lot of feelings and themes like isolation, self study, things that are at a peak right now for people all around the world, and there are many who feel this album arrived at the perfect time. Do you feel it was divine timing, or is the music just timeless enough where it fits even with a disaster? “I think both of those things. It is always a matter of divine timing because I am inspired in a way where sometimes things will feel very urgent to me. Then because of my personality I don’t really follow industry protocols, and this is probably why the people at like my label who deal with the commercial aspect of music, they will struggle with me here. Because I am really going off what I’m inspired to do, or what is the recurring thing in my mind or in my dream, or this is the urgent thing. I may not even feel compelled to explain why but they just have to deal with the songs I have. I’m not gonna do a new song because we ask her to. So it really is this is just happening, because I create my music from a timeless place. You won’t hear trending things in my songs that people won’t understand what that means. I’m not writing from that space, I’m writing from a space where I want it to be clear. So clear that even if it seems like it’s too deep, but all it really requires is people just slowing things down to listen and usually people don’t have the time to do that. But this quote on quote disaster has given people the time to pace their listening. So more people feel like they understand what I’m saying now. I did kinda make an effort with this album to be more relatable, in terms of the themes. But it also depends on where you are, if you can sit and listen remember listening is an active process.” You’ve been to the continent before? How many times and which places did you visit? “I’ve been to the continent four times. First time was to South Africa.Roughly a decade ago.” What year? “I don’t even remember, roughly a decade ago.I went as a poet I didn’t even go as a singer. It was an invitation to a spoken word event. So there was that time and then my second time was in Kenya, I went there again on my third trip and then I came back this year for the release of the album, to Ethiopia and now in Tanzania.”  Repatriation is a very big part of the Rastafari message, but you seem to take an anti-fantasy approach to it. How do you think mindset affects the ability to manifest something like that? In what ways do you feel romanticizing the return, can prove more harmful than helpful? “We have to understand what manifestation means, it is an active thing. So there is a process you can follow to manifest things on the earth. It has to do with how your mind works, what you can visualize, what you are able to plan. Repatriation is a mental process too, and that is where it started for me, so I live in a world where I am african. So first thing I am african, that’s what Rastafari means to me.; that I am African. This is why if I were to look for a leader it would be the African king, his imperial Majesty Haile Selassie. His hopes and dreams for this space now, is where I have lived for the past- even before I came into rastafari because of my parents. They made Africa very attractive to me and so even in learning about Africa later on, there has always been a want to know , to come and see for myself. As I got older and started hearing about the importance of things like home ownership and investments, I was just looking and thinking; these are things I really  will require anywhere in the world I am.  So if I am thinking about Africa, I have to think about the places in Africa where I can do these things. So in my mind romanticizing means that you are maybe thinking about your life in a practical way but when you think about Africa, you think about it in an impractical way. Like how are your bills going to be paid, where you will live, all of that. You’re not looking at Africa in that way, and that’s where it can become harmful as well. Because you are not doing the practical thing, it’s like you have a lover and the only thing you think about is how beautiful they are, but you’re not thinking about how good they will be? How will they live? Do they leave the toilet seat up? The practical applications. Most people, even intelligent people romanticize the idea as if one day something is going to magically happen that will allow them to go. They will be like “I don’t have enough money but one day I want to go to Africa, but it’s when they do come that it really hits home. They get a culture shock because they don’t have any idea what it means to be here. What we need to see is people saving up a little money and take a trip. See some different places, don’t think that one day you’re gonna just save up enough money to leave and never come back. That’s a ridiculous idea.”  Describe your journey to Africa and your stay there so far. “So I left Jamaica, transited through New York and ended up in Kenya. In Kenya, I did a series of press events, we did a series of creative events as well. The first one was like a Garden party where some young creatives from Kenya were invited to just come and have an evening together. We set up a space where we did some yoga. I got to see and meet some really talented people, along with some industry players. It was a very nice intimate setting. I had such a great experience that I invited some of the young artists at the party to come and be apart of my live show that I had later on in Kenya. I worked with a Kenyan band which was challenging, but interesting. I got to an opportunity to do some really interesting interviews during that time as well, which was all facilitated by Anbessa productions, which is Black Lion international, or brother Malafi. He was able to facilitate a very productive trodd to Kenya. After that party and the live show and a very successful trip, I went forward to Lamu Yoga Festival. Which was with Away To Africa, the trip that initiated my whole vision of- let me do this again. Last Year I launched my album in Kenya and it was a great vibe as well so I thought, I could prepare for around that time. But the album got pushed back which actually facilitated me being able to launch it in Africa. So while I was there for press and doing other creative endeavors, I was also apart of the Away To Africa retreat. Which was the first in many to come, not necessarily always with Away to Africa, but it’s something I’ve wanted to do, retreats around the world. So being able to do that and connecting with brother Malafi who facilitates the Away To Africa Tours in Kenya, made it clear how easy it is to make a way for other people. Especially people from the diaspora. So After I left Kenya, I went to Lamu, which is really just off the coast of Kenya. That was an amazing experience, at the Lamu Yoga festival, which gave me an opportunity again to connect with the international yoga community. I was able to make a connection with those responsible for the festival to solidify future efforts to make a way for others to be able to be there. Very good connections were made in Lamu. After Lamu I went to Ethiopia, where we ended up launching the album. We did a good press run, a conference the day after I arrived. We had quite a few press engagements with Team Lubanja and Venture Addis. But that team worked to put together a nice set of events, and then I was able to host a Yoga on Dub there as well, and that was very good because people came out right about the time when Corona was just about to make it’s appearance. People still came out, so by the time it was time for actual show, Corona had hit the world. But the people still came out, we had a full house! If it wasn’t for the Corona thing it would have probably been even more packed than the capacity. So that was really good and then we did interviews as well. I was able to talk about the issues of Africa, women’s rights, marijuana; things that are potentially controversial in that space but because I am from outside I could speak very freely. I think we made a good impact in that space, we then left very quickly because of what was happening there. I was supposed to go to the UK, to do a series of press events, yoga on dub and some other things but at that time we heard that Corona had hit the UK hard. So the question was, do I go back to Kenya or do I try to get to Jamaica. I started to realize that world travel had become tense at the time and I really didn’t want to become trapped. I wasn’t feeling very strong at that time so I really thought it best to just go across to Tanzania on Malafi’s recommendation. It just turned out that my road manager, has family here in Tanzania, which made it very easy to make the transition here in Tanzania. We made a connection with the Jamaican consulate here in Jamaica and they were able to facilitate us coming across and being here up to this point. Even in coming here, not knowing what it is we would be doing, I spent most of the past few weeks just acclimating, wrapping my mind around the new realities of the world. I was able to make some very good connections here. One of them is with a creative community of Rastafari – Wasili Asilia is the name of one of the bredrin’s company. He’s started off doing simple craft and now he has one of the most significant tanzanian shoe and fabric manufacturing companies. He’s a really good example of just industry and determination coming to full bloom. You will see some of our collaborations online like on my IG. There are more collaborations to come, we’re going to do a special line of Jah9 merch made in Africa. I also made another good connection with another company called Wanene TV, who did the production for my live performance of Note To Self. The only thing we have a problem with here in Tanzania is the internet and that is something we are constantly working on, but I’m not complaining because poor internet means low radiation levels. So we making it work because they have a real state of the art studio space, and everyone there is very welcoming. So the timing feels divine and Tanzania is one of the places where the movement isn’t very restricted, but this is the most freedom I would probably be able to get anywhere in the world right now.” Do you feel there’s a future for creatives in Africa, even amid this crisis? “Once travel is no longer a restriction, definitely. I would encourage it. I think the only way we’re going to bridge the gap between romanticized ideas of Africa, is by facilitating that.” Is there anything you’ve been working on or plans you have while in Tanzania that you are able to share? “We’re making plans for things that people can be a part of, like tours and retreats across, Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania as early as October/November/December into early next year. The idea is to create a model that I can replicate in West Africa, which I was supposed to visit last year. A whole lot of collaborations with the creative communities here, Africa is so welcoming. There’s people like Wanene TV who  I’ve linked with VP Records to handle production for my upcoming acoustic livestream and they’re excited to work with an international artist because they also want content for their station. Africa is so fruitful and vast, there is so much to do and so much freedom. I’m really just taking my time and being purposeful about how I want to move around the continent right now.”

Jamaica Chamber of Commerce and Kingston Creative announce ‘Block of Excellence’ partnership to transform Downtown Kingston

The Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) signed an MOU with Kingston Creative to form a strategic alliance that will advance the mandate of the JCC to develop an improved Central Business District, which includes a vibrant  Arts District. This partnership leverages the UNESCO designation of Kingston as a Creative City of Music and will catalyse much needed economic and social benefits for residents, communities and businesses.

Downtown Kingston has a rich history, and while music, creativity and culture are deeply etched into its foundations, the city is suffering from crime and urban decay.  With the recent investments by entities like Pan Jam in the ROK Hotel and the Tourism Enhancement Fund (TEF) and the City of Kingston’s steady investment in transforming Water Lane and its environs into a tourism hub, momentum is building to transform Downtown’s infrastructure, buildings, public art and green spaces, creating a ‘Block of Excellence’ in the heart of Jamaica’s capital city.

Many of the JCC’s members have been headquartered in Downtown Kingston for generations and are passionate about its redevelopment. The partners believe that everyone deserves the opportunity to enjoy a safe, livable, prosperous city.   The objective of the partnership is to develop an exemplary area between Tower Street and Ocean Boulevard which will be a pilot project that shows how art, creative placemaking, infrastructure upgrades and urban regeneration can improve the space in which Jamaicans live, work and play.  The vision puts people and their built environment first. The hope is that this will drive the regeneration of Downtown Kingston and accelerate innovation, monetization and the city’s overall global competitiveness.

“Our organisation is made up of businesses and professionals working together to ensure the most favourable environment for the effective and profitable operation of businesses, and to build and promote a healthy economy and improve the quality of life in Jamaica,” commented JCC President Ian Neita. “We see partnerships between the third sector and private sector as critical to success. Ultimately, our hope is that the Downtown Kingston area will become an inclusive and inspiring space to live and work, and a shining example of what civil society and corporate cooperation can achieve.”

“Our vision is that Kingston is the creative capital of the Caribbean” said Director and Art District lead Doris Gross. “As an NGO, our mission is to help creatives to succeed by providing the necessary training, resources, and environment, so that they can create economic and social value, gain access to global markets and have a positive impact on their local communities.  This partnership with the JCC will start to visibly demonstrate what the City of Kingston can become, and hopefully everyone will be inspired to get involved in restoring the heart of Kingston.”

This partnership between the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce and Kingston Creative is in furtherance of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals and Vision 2030 for Jamaica.