Performances

Amina Blackwood Meeks

Amina Blackwood Meeks is a writer, educator, theatre practitioner, award winning actress, and, in her own words “a custodian of the oral tradition, dedicated to exploring the connections between the ancient wit and wisdom of the African ancestry and the ways in which this heritage has immediate redemptive applications for the growth, development and continuation of civilisation. She has been a lecturer in Caribbean Aesthetics and Caribbean History and Culture at Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, and is currently doing postgraduate work in the oral tradition at the University of the West Indies , Mona. Amina has wide experience as a social and cultural policy research and development specialist. She is Director of the Culture in Education Programme in the Jamaican Ministry of Education, has served on the consultative team that developed the National Cultural Policy and the Culture in Education Programme, and is currently a member of the National Culture and Values Task Force, as well as a member of the Behaviour and Community Change Implementation Team of the Education Transformation Task Force. Amina has won several awards for her work in radio, is a three-time best actress recipient, and a multi-medal winner in national creative writing competitions in Jamaica , is widely acknowledged as a leading female storyteller in the Caribbean and is credited for her contribution to the revival of story telling art-form in the region. She was Featured International Storyteller 2007 at the International Storytelling Festival in Jonesboro Tennessee , October 2007. Amina is Hon. Ambassador of the Jamaican Language for the University of Birmingham, England . and founder and artistic director of Ntukuma, the Storytelling Foundation of Jamaica .