“Out of Many One People”, Performance. 2014. Come and see it this Thursday. Show runs from 8-11pm at Panoply Performance Laboratory.
“Out of Many One People”, 2014. Performance. 15 minutes by Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow
In “Out of Many One People” the recent state of events in Jamaica has become the focus of this work. The possibility of constructing a trans-shipment hub at Goat Islands, located off the south coast of St Catherine, Jamaica has been in debate with China Harbour Engineering Company (CHEC) in Beijing, China. The (CHEC) wants is 3,000 acres of land to build a shipping port. The government is aiming for the hub to be in operations by 2015 in order to coincide with the reopening of the Panama Canal. However, the building of this port would create a devastating impact to the Goat Islands and the surrounding coastal environment.
According to the Jamaica Environment Trust and the Caribbean Coastal Area Management Foundation the destruction of mangroves, seagrass beds, coral reefs, and endangered species could lead up to the degradation of the ancient dry limestone forest of Hellshire Hills and would only bring on the brink of an ecological disaster to the Portland Bight Protected Area.
Yet the Jamaican government is seeing this as a win-win opportunity with the CHEC as the CHEC promises to deliver 10,000 jobs to Jamaica.
In the performance “Out of Many One People” named after Jamaica’s national motto, and Jamaica’s meaning “Land of Wood and Water” may no longer be that. Moving images of Jamaica are projected onto the wall and plays for the entire duration. I will be running in place in front of the projection for the full length of the performance to reggae music. By doing this action I hope to add another layer of what we may commonly associate with Jamaica- the best track & field teams in history. So much glamour and praise is placed upon these athletes and the music year round that as not much seems to be said about the degradation of Jamaica’s natural landscape during the process of ‘economic development’. It goes without saying that Jamaica’s tourism may also feel the effects of such an investment. Why would tourists want to visit Jamaica if the environment is not environmentally safe, protected or socially responsible? Paradise may be lost but we can help it to prevail.
-Jodie Lyn-Kee-Chow
Bibliography:
http://savegoatislands.org/
http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2014/04/22/saving-goat-islands-jamaica/
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