Mel Cooke, Freelance Writer
WHEN THE two Michaels of Joy Mechanics, Harris the singer and Holgate the choreographer, among other talents, spoke at the School of Music Auditorium on Thursday evening, their team-work showed.
They alternated sentences and even words in explaining to those who made it to the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts that they wanted to create "outside the box.
"What we want to do with arts and culture was not being done in Jamaica in a big way," they said.
"We did not want to do just dancehall and reggae," they said, saying that the work of the production company would still be based on "cultural structures that are grounded in Jamaica, the Caribbean and us."
These will cover not only live productions, such as Gungo Walk, a world beat, folk and alternative music festival - it will not exclude reggae and dancehall artistes - but multi-media products and CDS, one title being available on Thursday evening and Spirit, Mind, Body Overhaul soon to be out. On the research side of things, Age of Fire will be a melting pot of cultural expression.
GREAT EXPECTATIONS
And with performances by Ashe, including a song from the musical Curfew that was written by Holgate, and Harris singing one of his compositions to the accompaniment of Ashe members and the music of C Sharp band, there was a strong indication of things to come.
Sydney Bartley, director of culture in the Ministry of Education and Youth, said: "We know we are in for a platform of excellent products." He ended his address by reciting If We Must Die. "The words are Claude McKay's; the spirit is Jamaica," he said.
The evening's host, Karl Williams, noted that the two Michaels' friendship was born at Wolmer's, where they had a common interest in MTV and the Rolling Stones Magazine, and that it was from the Marescaux Road, Kingston, school that they were scouted by Cathy Levy. The two went on to be founding members of Ashe.
Minister of Education and Youth, Maxine Henry-Wilson, extended her "congratulations on yet another development initiative by yet another set of young Jamaicans ... who see a bright future in Jamaica, land we love." After exploring an article on the use of music to provide soundtracks other than gunshots for the young people in Palestine, Henry-Wilson anti-cipated "young people in the deepest recesses of the Jamaican landscape are a part of the joy that will come from them (Holgate and Harris)."
