Symposium on Sounds of Freedom

Kingston, Jamaica:–The Jamaica National Heritage Trust (JNHT) and the St. Ann Parish Library in celebration of the 10th anniversary of Emancipation Jubilee cordially invites the public to a symposium on Sunday, July 30, 2006 at the St. Ann Parish Library on Windsor Road in St. Ann’s Bay.

The symposium, which is dubbed “Sounds of Freedom” will open at 3:00pm and is in tribute to the African ancestors. “Sounds of Freedom” will feature presentations from noted historians and musicologists such as Professor Frederick Hickling of UWI who will speak on slavery on its effect on modern Jamaica, Mr. Dorrick Gray of the Jamaica National Heritage Trust will speak on the African presence at Seville; Mr. Bernard Jankee of the African Caribbean Institute of Jamaica and Mr. Herbie Miller who will look at the music.

The evening will also feature the Jomini cultural group from Guadeloupe and the Jamaica Regiment Band. The Jomini group is well known in the French Caribbean as one of the most important groups of Gwoka, the traditional music of Guadelope. Gwoka is a term encompassing all folksongs and dance steps performed with the rhythms belting from a Guadeloupean drum which is itself called a gwoka or ka.