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 Santería 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/jamaica.

You may also call the registration department staff at The New York Open Center at 212 219 2527

Email: jamaica@opencenter.org