Lasco Chin Foundation champions the culture

Award-winning playwright David Tulloch took just one week to complete a script about National Hero Sam Sharpe, a project which he found particularly fulfilling. The production will have its triumphant unveiling next month at the weekly Yaadbridge Entertainment Unscripted Sundays held at Johnny’s place, and it will also be made available to students, all made possible through the Lasco Chin Foundation (LCF) which is the engine driving the production.

Last Monday, the foundation invited the media, creatives and, in a rather bold and innovative move, representatives from other foundations, to the press conference announcing the playwright who was selected to bring to life the production honouring the life and legacy of Sam Sharpe, and officially launch the LCF Cultural Entrepreneurship Programme.

Tulloch, who is also an actor of note, is quite delighted to have been chosen for the job, and, the official signing between him and the Foundation was caught on camera on Monday. He is hoping that he will be asked to direct the play “but at this point there is no talk about who is directing”. But, if Tulloch is given the opportunity to choose the cast, Sabrina Thomas, Jomo Dixon and Oraine Meikle, the three actors who gave the goose pimple rendering reading at the launch, would definitely be in the production.

“I hope that we get to mount the play as a full production and tour the schools that the students can learn. I write fast ... so I wrote it in one week, but kept it for one extra week, just to forget that I wrote it and then look at it again with fresh eyes,” Tulloch told The Gleaner.

He learned a lot about Daddy Sharpe and the infamous Christmas Rebellion which ended in his being hanged at “yonder gallows”.

“Sam Sharpe is one of those national heroes who I think is underplayed. I was happy to do the research. As a child, I believed that he was the one doing all the rebellion and starting the fires all over the place, but in research he was not. He was the one saying ‘Look, we are going to stage a peaceful protest. While they are eating their hams and opening gifts, we are going to be resting.’ Those around him said, ‘No Daddy Sharpe, yuh too sof’ man! It look like God get to yuh head. We going to fight, fight, fight!’ When he made his famous statement ‘I’d rather die on yonder gallows,’ he was misconstrued. He was innocent,” Tulloch said.

AGENT OF CHANGE

Like many others at the event, Tulloch commended the Lasco Chin Foundation for being an agent of change. The LCF, through its chairman James Rawle and the energetic CEO, Professor Rosalea Hamilton, is intent on focusing on the arts through the lens of not just creativity, but also the enormous, waiting-to-be-tapped financial potential.

Rawle has clearly done his homework and he spoke with passion about the need for change, starting from within the classroom, as it relates to the creative arts. He shared that during his discussions with representatives from the Education Council, “one of the things that stood out ... was that the problem is that our education system is not catering to our children”.

“We have a set curriculum that moves them along and they are incapable of learning what we are teaching because their interest lies elsewhere. And [the education council rep] said to me that one of the areas is the creative arts. They have fertile minds and can become great actors ... but they are not interested in two times one. But the problem is that we have not adapted our system and no one seems serious about adapting the system for the population that we have,” a concerned Rawle said.

He shared a that he had read a book on the music industry in which the lives and struggles of the artistes were explored. “One of the most prominent [artistes] got a lunch money and a new suit of clothes for a song that was on the charts for 10 weeks,” he said.

“There is a nexus between the creative economy and entrepreneurship .... there is music but there is also the business of music. How do you bridge that gap? That’s what we are aiming to do. This why we want to get into the schools and teach people the nexus between what I do and monetising what I do.” the chairman sated.

He added, “In 2023 the contribution to Jamaica from the creative economy was US$2.2 billion five per cent of GDP and that’s music and film mainly but it can be much more. “

Hamilton, who Rawle noted “works at the speed of sound ... has a fertile mind, and is a wonderful person to work with,” got the project going upon being impressed after one visit to Unscripted Sundays. In addition to the Sam Sharpe project, Hamilton, who is not wasting any time, also has the Marcus Garvey Foundation in her line of vision and signed an agreement with them on Monday. Another of her initiatives is an annual scriptwriting competition to be rolled out early in January 2026.

Giving the riveting keynote address on Monday was Owen ‘Blakka’ Ellis.

yasmine.peru@gleanerjm.com