Tea Meeting opens the 4th Biennial Rex Nettleford Arts Conference

Edna Manley Tea Meeting

The biennial Rex Nettleford Arts Conference (RNAC) 2017 opens on Wednesday, October 11 with a Corporate Social Tea Meeting at the Amphitheatre School of Drama at 7:00 PM.

A “Tea Meeting” is a mixture of a Jamaican community gathering and an English tea party. It began as a cultural imitation of the colonisers by the enslaved Africans. The enslaved would replicate the fashion, gait and speech of their masters; mocking them. “Tea Meetings” became very popular in rural communities as a form of community engagement and entertainment. It was also done to raise funds for community affairs such as burials, medical bills as well as children’s treats.

EMCVPA College Orator and popular Storyteller Dr. Amina Blackwood-Meeks excitedly shares that “local participants can expect a delicious slice of our creative innovations while visiting participants can observe whether there are similarities between our local Tea Meeting and cultural forms from their respective countries. The College encourages Jamaicans to support the arts through this event. Come dressed in your finery and be prepared to participate in the silent auction to bid “to put up” or “take down” this or that performer over tea and treats”.

The 2017 Rex Nettleford Arts Conference, is a platform for discourse among local, regional and global practitioners, arts educators, policy makers, researchers, and of course artists(es), and aims to raise awareness and lead the discourse as cultural agents for change and expression. The conference is presented by the Edna Manley College in association with the National Gallery with supporting partners The Chase Fund, RJRGleaner Communications Group, True Juice, Jacqui Tyson from Thought to Finish.

The conference will be held on October 11-13, 2017, and honours the life and works of dancer, writer and scholar, Professor the Hon. Raltson Milton “Rex” Nettleford, founder of the National Dance Theatre Company (NDTC) and a major influence on the development of the School of Dance.

For more information please contact the Marketing Department at the Edna Manley College of the Visual & Performing Arts at 920-4633 or marketing@emc.edu.jm.