2010 LINE UP
Ananse Animation Project
The Ananse Animation Project is a joint partnership between Steadyimage Multimedia, Inc. and Frame by Frame Productions, Inc., namely, the principals, Adrian Allen, Vivienne Chance and Lukkee Chong. The project’s objective is to entertain and to assist with the re-socialization of the Afro Caribbean Diaspora through animated cartoons. These cartoons are developed to attract an audience through stories with a moral, while acquainting the viewer with their ancestry, culture, and history: www.anansespider.com
Beryl Johnson
Ms. Johnson has played piano professionally for several years in musical theatre (including Jamaican pantomimes), rhythm and blues cover bands, and various settings as a soloist. She recently graduated with a Master of Music degree in ethnomusicology from the Butler School of Music at UT Austin.
Cherry Three
Cherry Three is delighted to participate in this years’ Anancy Festival and to showcase the work of Afua Hall, Asha Darbeau, Melinda Desire and Katherine Alvarado. Movement is Cherry Three’s primary medium of communication, occasionally along with the aid of music, theater, the spoken word and the visual arts. The movement vocabulary is based largely on contemporary modern dance with West African, European, and Caribbean influences. Cherry Three is rooted in its commitment to service and excellence.
Dawn Forrester Price
An enthusiastic lover of the worlds of theatre and music, Price is author of the novel Run to Freedom, as well as an award-winning actress, singer and writer. She teaches English in her hometown of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Father Easton Lee, C.D.
Father Easton Lee is a playwright and poet as well as an amazing performer and story teller. He is also an ordained priest in the Anglican Church. One of his numerous publications is Heritage Call: Ballad for Children of the Dragon.
Geoffrey Philp
Author of Grandpa Sydney’s Anancy Stories and numerous other books of poetry and fiction, Geoffrey Philp is a professor of English and creative writing. He is also webmaster of the extremely popular Caribbean literary blog “Geoffrey Philp’s Blog Spot.” http://geoffreyphilp.blogspot.com/2006/11/about-geoffrey-philps-blog-spot.html.
Jamaica Folk Revue
The Jamaica Folk Revue was started over 30 years ago in the South Florida community. Over the years, this group of Jamaicans—men and women, from all walks of life—has done outstanding performances promoting the country’s rich cultural heritage through song, dance, oral history and drama. Through this effort, the group has showcased the historical interconnections between the various art forms, dating from early forms of Jamaican music to the internationally acclaimed music genre “reggae.” http://www.jamaicans.com/articles/primeinterviews/msdarbyinterview.shtml
DETAILED BIOS, INCLUDING CONTACT INFORMATION
Ananse Animation Project
Adrian Allen: adrian@steadyimage.net
Vivienne Chance vivienne@steadyimage.net
Lukkee Chong: lukkee@framebyframejm.tv
The Ananse Animation Project is a joint partnership between Steadyimage Multimedia, Inc. and Frame by Frame Productions, Inc., namely, the principals, Adrian Allen, Vivienne Chance and Lukkee Chong. The project’s objective is to entertain and to assist with the re-socialization of the Afro Caribbean Diaspora through animated cartoons. These cartoons are developed to attract an audience through stories with a moral, while acquainting the viewer with their ancestry, culture, and history. Lukkee Chong was the director of the well-known Jamaican TV show, “Ring Ding,” starring Jamaican folklorist, Louise Bennett (Miss Lou). Lukkee Chong made a personal promise to Miss Lou that he would do what it took to make sure Ananse lived on! Adrian Allen and Vivienne Chance of Steadyimage Multimedia provided the animators and writers who helped make the project a reality. It is the project’s ambition to use Ananse’s persona to both entertain and teach the differences between right and wrong and to promote Afro Caribbean heritage.
Beryl Johnson
Before leaving Jamaica for further studies in the United States in 1998, Ms. Johnson had already played piano professionally for several years in musical theatre, rhythm and blues cover bands, and various settings as a soloist. She has a B.Sc. in music with a specialization in Jazz Studies, and a minor in CIS from the University of Indianapolis, Indiana, and a Master of Science degree in information from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. While a graduate student at The University of Texas at Austin, she instructed students in the UT Caribbean Ensemble to perform popular dance styles from the English, French, and Spanish-speaking Caribbean. She recently graduated with a Master of Music degree in ethnomusicology from the Butler School of Music at UT Austin.
Cherry Three
Cherry Three is delighted to participate in this years’ Anancy Festival and to showcase the work of Afua Hall, Asha Darbeau, Melinda Desire and Katherine Alvarado. Movement is Cherry Three’s primary medium of communication, occasionally along with the aid of music, theater, the spoken word and the visual arts. The movement vocabulary is based largely on contemporary modern dance with West African, European, and Caribbean influences. The company was founded to connect cultures and people with disparate and shared stories—both literal and abstract. Manifestations of this commitment include producing workshops in Jamaican folk dance and Afro-Caribbean dance with Mr. Barry Moncrieffe of the National Dance Theater Company of Jamaica in New York in 2004, and in presenting dance performances for foundations and corporations such as Colgate-Palmolive and American Friends of Jamaica. Future plans include producing a not-for-profit, summer dance workshop for the children of Negril, Jamaica. Cherry Three is rooted in its commitment to service and excellence.
Dawn Forrester Price
Dawn Forrester Price is an English instructor and International Studies consultant in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. She was extensively active in the Jamaican Theatre and music worlds as an award winning actress, singer and writer. In 1984 she emigrated the U.S. and since then she has written, directed and performed in a number of educational, public service, and religious theatre and video productions. She holds a bachelor’s degree and a diploma in education from the University of the West Indies, as well as a master of arts in teaching from Coe College.
Father Easton Lee, C.D.
Born at Wait-a-bit village in Jamaica to a Chinese father and a Jamaican mother of mixed racial background, Lee spent his early years in a village shop. He attended primary and secondary school in Jamaica then attended the University of the West Indies. He went on to study radio broadcasting at BBC in London, theatre and television broadcasting in California, where he practiced and taught theatre and broadcasting. He is the recipient of several Jamaican awards, including: the Commander of the Order of Distinction (C.D.); the Silver Musgrave Medal awarded by the Institute of Jamaica, and the Prime Minister’s award for excellence. Lee has published numerous books, including Heritage Call: Ballad for Children of the Dragon, From Behind the Counter, Encounters: Poems from a Chinese-Jamaican Experience, and Run Big ‘fraid… and Other Village Stories. He studied theology at the United Theological College and is an ordained priest in the Anglican Church. You may contact Lee about purchasing any of his books that are not available at major booksellers.
Geoffrey Philp
Geoffrey Philp is a poet, novelist, and playwright. He was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and attended Mona Primary and Jamaica College, where he studied literature under the tutelage of Dennis Scott. When he left Jamaica in 1979, he went to Miami Dade College, and after graduating, studied Caribbean, African and African-American literature with Dr. O.R. Dathorne and creative writing with Lester Goran, Evelyn Wilde Mayerson, and Isaac Bashevis Singer at the University of Miami. Since then, he has participated in workshops taught by Derek Walcott , Edward Albee, and Israeli playwright, Matti Meged. As a James Michener Fellow at the University of Miami, he studied poetry under Kamau Brathwaite and fiction with George Lamming. Philp’s reviews, articles, poems and short stories have appeared in Small Axe, Asili, The Caribbean Writer, Gulf Stream, Florida in Poetry: A History of the Imagination, Wheel and Come Again: An Anthology of Reggae Poetry, Whispers from the Cotton Tree Root, The Oxford Book of Caribbean Short Stories, and The Oxford Book of Caribbean Verse. His latest book, Who’s Your Daddy?: And Other Stories was published by Peepal Tree Press in May 2009.
Jamaica Folk Revue
The Jamaica Folk Revue was founded in 1975. The group was initially known as the “Singing Group”: the cultural arm of the Jamaica Association of Florida. When the organization became defunct in 1978, the group stayed together and continued as the Jamaica Folk Revue. According to Ms. Norma Darby, leader of the group, the Revue was started to showcase Jamaica’s culture. In the early 1970’s the Jamaica Association of Florida participated in the Miami International Folk Festival, which was a major annual event held at the Bayfront Auditorium (now Bayside) in Miami. There were Jewish, Hispanic and other cultural groups displaying their food, songs and dances, but there was no representation of Jamaica’s culture. It was then that Darby’s “love affair” with Jamaica began in earnest. She made intense studies of the works of Jamaican folklorists and historians, including Mervyn Alleyne, Martha Beckwith, Walter Jekyll , Prof.Rex Nettleford ,Edward Seaga, Philip Sherlock, and the late great Louise Bennett (Miss Lou) to learn more about the island’s culture. Darby especially acknowledges the influential work of Miss Lou, Olive Lewin, and Marjorie Whylie for helping shape her vision of The Folk Revue.
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