The Ashe Company heads to Toronto

The Ashe Company has a long-standing reputation of carrying their talents to the far corners of the globe - and this year is no different. Celebrating their silver anniversary, the famed local performing arts troupe is preparing to fly off to Toronto, Canada, to participate in the Parliament of the World's Religions.

From November 1 through to November 7, over 10,000 persons of faith from 80 nations will assemble to promote inter-religious harmony. Parliament presenters include students, clergy, interfaith leaders, scholars, Nobel Laureates, city mayors, spiritual luminaries, best-selling authors, and globally recognised entertainers - like The Ashe Company.

Previous Parliaments have been held in Chicago, US (1893, 1993); Cape Town, South Africa (1999); Barcelona, Spain (2004;, Melbourne, Australia (2009); and Salt Lake, Utah (2015).

Ashe caught the attention of the Parliament organisers through an original song, inspired by the book 8 Habits of Love, by the Reverend Ed Bacon.

"The song was written because of the book. They performed it last year when the author came to Jamaica for the Universal Foundation for Better Living Panorama of Truth Conference, and Bacon fell in love with the song," executive director of Ashe, Conroy Wilson, told The Gleaner.

Subsequently, Bacon and the Reverend Dr Sheila McKeithen, the current president of the Universal Foundation for Better Living, submitted an abstract to present an artistic element to the Parliament, in the form of Ashe Company performing their rendition of 8 Habits of Love.

"The abstract was accepted, to make a joint presentation between the three of us,"

Wilson said.

During their stay in the Great White, Ashe will also make an appearance at Church of the Holy Trinity in Toronto on November 3.

Silver Celebration

Since they began their 25th anniversary celebrations, The Ashe Company has been busy with their philanthropic efforts. This year, the troupe put out a call to institutions hosting

fundraising events, offering complimentary performances. They also performed in the Global Youth Village at the 2018 International AIDS Conference in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and hosted a summer 'edutainment' programme which included dance, drumming, and drama sessions.

Ashe will also be performing in Turks and Caicos next month, in honour of the company's co-founder, Joseph 'Joe' Robinson.

To wrap up their 25th anniversary, Ashe members currently working around the world are invited to reconvene in Jamaica in December for an extravagant red-carpet event.