A Quest for the Heart of the Rastafari is a conference on Rasta culture, history and identity to take place in Jamaica from March 7th to 13th in 2009.
Presenters include:
"Origin and Emergence of Rastafari,"
"Rastafari and Other World Views Santerķa and Vodon"
Professor Barry Chevannes is a graduate of Boston College, the University of the West Indies and received his doctorate from Columbia University. His thesis at CU was on the Rastafari movement in Jamaica. And he is recognized as one of the leading scholars on Rastafari culture. He has written many books and is a distinguished professor of social anthropology at the University of the West Indies, Mona. He is also the current Chairman of the Institute of Jamaica, a cultural institution devoted to science, literature and art that also awards national honors.
"Overstanding Rastafari: Jamaica's Gift to the World"
Yasus Afari is one of Jamaica's top dub poets, a musician and he is also an author. Afari has collaborated with record producer Garnet Silk, as well as other dub poets and singers: Maxi Priest, Everton Lender, General Degree and Tony Rebel. Afar has performed throughout Europe, the US and the Caribbean.
Yasus Afari's book:
Overstanding Rastafari: Jamaica's Gift to the World.
"From Makeda to Makeda: The Rastafari Empress Ethiopian Heritage"
Barbara Blake Hannah is multitalented; she is an author, music journalist, filmmaker and public speaker with her own production company, Jamaica Media Productions. It should also be mentioned that in 1968, she became the first Black British TV presenter on Thames-TV's daily evening show, Today with Eamonn Andrews. Ms. Hannah is one of Jamaica's most respected cultural historians and received an award from the Ethiopian royal family. Her latest film, The Road through the Blue Mountains, is a spiritual journey through the most beautiful natural locales of Jamaica. Hannah's The New Creation is the first book about Rastafari written by a practicing member of the faith;
Josephe: A Rasta Reggae Fable is a novel inspired by the life of Bob Marley.
Barbara Blake Hannah's books:
The New Creation
Joseph: A Rasta Reggae Fable
Films:
The Road through the Blue Mountains 2007
Joseph: A Rasta Reggae Movie 2007
Race, Rhetoric, Rastafari 1982
The conference is co-sponspored with the Rastafari Indigenous Village
To register for the conference or if you have any further questions, please take a look at our website
http://www.opencenter.org/jamaicaYou may also call the registration department staff at The New York Open Center at 212 219 2527