Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
Children at the Jones Town Cultural Centre in St. Andrew prior to the 'Ghettoversity' rehearsal on
Thursday night.- - PHOTOS BY ROSS SHEIL
'GHETTOVERSITY' IS the name of a new performance project springing up from the inner city, hoping to give residents their own voice and not as the media portrays them.
'Ghettoversity' is the brainchild of Vuraldo Barnett, executive director of RAGE (Revolutionary Artistic Global Expression), which is based in Jones Town.
Mr. Barnett has high hopes for this venture, citing the potential for cultural tourism offered by Cricket World Cup 2007 and a possible performance in Trinidad later this year as justification.
When The Gleaner visited a rehearsal at the Jones Town Cultural Centre on Thursday night, RAGE had drawn together a cross-section of 'performers' from the community pooled from the 75 members of Junior Club RAGE (three to 16 years old), and another 70 from Senior Club RAGE (17 to 55 years old).
ENCOURAGED TO DOCUMENT EXPERIENCES
"How it works is that we are encouraging them to document their experiences in different formats, whether that be a letter to the editor or a song. The process of putting down all the information is cathartic, getting out this rage of personal and community failures and then taking it and putting it into fully fledged stage productions, skits, songs and poems," he said.
The 'versity', he explained, reflects what he believes is a universal audience for the project. "The persons outside of the community can relate, we can create this dialogue," he explained.
Participants agree that the performance is a form of self-liberation.
Babysitter, Collen Morris, 46, from Jones Town, is preparing a small play about family life within a group of five women. "The five of us realised that we could do it and we did a very good job of it. People that we didn't know just from the street we have come together as close as a family," said Ms. Morris.
Craig Town resident, Richard Samuels, 14, believes Ghettoversity will help convince outsiders of a different reality, the life inner city people lead, apart from the crime reports.
"We are building a foundation to serve the community as role models. For us to go out there and represent ourselves must feel good. The media promotes the negatives, we need to promote the positives," said Richard.
Since, he reasoned, as Jimmy Cliff sang before, "You can get it if you really want. But you must try, try and try ..."
A preview showing of 'Ghettoversity' will be held at the Jones Town Cultural Centre on Labour Day, Tuesday May 23 at 7 p.m. For more information contact RAGE: 967-3857/496-0786.
