Kingston, March 12 – The Minister of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, the Honourable Olivia Grange, says Kingston is among the first group of cities selected by UNESCO to participate in its community based Inventorying of intangible cultural heritage in urban contexts pilot project.

The Minister made the announcement at the opening of a week-long workshop examining the types of intangible cultural heritage that exists within communities in Kingston on Monday at the Trench Town Multipurpose Centre.

“Many Jamaicans associate intangible cultural heritage with the rural areas and of a past era when our elders would transmit to us, knowledge about plants, Anansi stories, duppies and how to make the best run dung. This workshop, will, however, for the first time, examine what intangible cultural heritage exists within an urban space. The fact that Jamaica and Kingston, in particular, was selected for this pilot is a signal from UNESCO of the respect it has for the island’s culture and cultural elements,” Minister Grange said.

The workshop includes participants from the communities of Trench Town and Port Royal.

The UNESCO project seeks to contribute to the international debate on safeguarding living heritage in urban contexts with links to sustainable development through community based inventories of intangible cultural heritage in nine cities in different regions of the world. 

The first group of pilot cities will also involve communities in George Town (Malaysia) and Harare (Zimbabwe).