Music & Dance Flavors Port Royal Exhibit at Historical Museum – Miami, Thursday, April 19, 2007

Jamaica Awareness, Inc., will present an evening of music, dance and oral presentation entitled Port Royal Runnings, on Thursday, April 19, as part of the historic Port Royal, Jamaica exhibition, jointly organized by the Institute of Jamaica and the Historical Museum of Southern Florida, currently on display at the downtown Miami museum through June 3, 2007.

Port Royal Runnings is free to the public and will feature the music of Wyle Fyah Band, the Tivoli Dancers from Jamaica, Shif Shakti dance troupe from Trinidad & Tobago and South Florida-based Poets Malachi Smith and Susan Davis. The program will run from 6:00 pm to 8:30 pm.

“Port Royal is more than fish and bammy,” commented Sydney Roberts, executive director of Jamaica Awareness, Inc., referring to the gastronomical fare that the famed historical city is currently popular for among locals. “The city has a rich cultural history and we want to show the impact of the city throughout the Caribbean by way of our presentation.” said Roberts.

Port Royal was one of the most important cities in the English-colonized Americas. Comparable in size to Boston, it was densely settled, graced with lavish homes and imposing forts, and extremely wealthy, due in part to government-sanctioned pirate raids of Spanish ships and ports. The city was also known for its abundance of shipwrights, blacksmiths, pewterers, silversmiths and other skilled craftsmen

The exhibition provides the public an opportunity to view a large collection of rare artifacts from the famous Jamaican city of Port Royal, much of which sank under the sea in a devastating earthquake in 1692, while enjoying the entertainment presented by Jamaica Awareness. Museum visitors will be able to see over 150 unique artifacts illustrative of life in Port Royal, many of which were recovered through underwater archaeology expeditions carried out since the 1950s.

Port Royal Runnings is part of the museum’s Third Thursday evening activities lectures and other programs related to Jamaican history and cultural traditions. The event is presented with the generous support of Grace Foods, People’s Telecom, the Miami-Dade County Dept. of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Affairs Council; Miami-Dade County, the Mayor & the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners; and the members of the Historical Museum of Southern Florida.

For further information call the Historical Museum at 305.375.1492 or visit www.hmsf.org or Jamaica Awareness, Inc., at 305-891-2944 or www.jamaware.org