Stories by Mel Cooke

Two weeks ago, I went to the 2015 staging of the International Reggae Day celebrations at Countryside Club, Half-Way Tree. It was a sound system style performance, with Ken Boothe, Andrew Tosh, Cherine Anderson, Denyque, Beenie Man, Bushman, and Ras...

Sometimes, it seems, the making of Jamaican popular music is a reverse of what obtains elsewhere. So, since the Sleng Teng established not only the digital sound but also the process of music mass production in 1985, our accustomed approach is to...

Confession: I have not paid as much attention to film in general and Jamaican film output in particular as I should have. Sure, in the latter category, I have seen undisputed classics like The Harder They Come, Countryman and Rockers, then the batch...

On Saturday, analysis of the Chinese impact on the Caribbean continued at the inaugural Confucius Conference at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona Campus. The conference's theme was 'Dragons in the Archipelago - The Chinese-Caribbean...

Dr Erna Brodber explained the title of her new book Nothing's Mat, published by the University of the West Indies (UWI) Press, to a near full audience at the main library's multifunctional room last Thursday.It is deeply connected to personal family...

So far, Stefhen Bryan has had as far-flung an experience presenting Doodu Boy as his life. Which is appropriate, as the one-man show is autobiographical, Bryan using the production's three acts to relive on stage distinct phases of his life in...

Just over a mere half-decade ago, in Jamaica, this time period meant solely a national focus on projects that involved physical exertion, each collective effort meant to benefit a geographic community or a community of persons. Then there was the...

In the days before the significant effect of climate change hit the world, the opening lines of HD Carberry's poem Nature would have resonated even more with Jamaicans than now. The words would have been familiar to every child who went through the...

Jamaica has had a spotty relationship with bootleg CDs and videos: from the era in which compact discs were the medium of choice to distribute pirated music and movies up to now when it seems that everything is available online.In at least one...