Photo: Kevin Hume
Provincetown wears its colors well. In June the town is festooned with the green and red of the flag of Portugal for the annual Provincetown Portuguese Festival. Soon after, it’s the stars and stripes of red, white, and blue for the Fourth of July. Come Carnival it’s the vast spectrum of colors that represent the LGBTQ community. And now, every August 6 it’s all about the green, black, and gold of the flag of Jamaica in celebration of Jamaican Independence Day, when the Caribbean country declared itself free from 300 years of colonial rule by the United Kingdom in 1962. With its large Jamaican community, marking the country’s important holiday has become a day for celebration in Provincetown, too, taking its spot on the town’s cultural calendar of events.
Now in its fourth year, Provincetown’s Jamaican Independence Day Celebration is organized by Outer Cape resident Kevin Hume, a native of Kingston, Jamaica, who first arrived in Provincetown 25 years ago. Hume is a community and cultural dynamo and a key figure in helping to celebrate and share Jamaican culture throughout the region. He’s been behind a Jamaican film festival in Provincetown and hosts The Kevin Hume Show on WOMR, produces film and television locally, participates in storytelling events, and his cooking skills of traditional Jamaican cuisine have found their way onto a variety of local menus. His goal is to someday have the Jamaican Independence Day Celebration evolve into a multi-day event, something like the Provincetown Portuguese Festival. And by the response from the community-at-large, it seems that expansion would be most welcome.
“It’s phenomenal,” says Hume as to the community’s support. “It keeps growing. People really look forward to it and stop to ask me if we’re doing it again. We try to get people who aren’t Jamaican to come and learn more about Jamaican culture. People see us working in town and say, ‘Hey mon’ and ‘wagwan.’ This is a chance for us all to get together and celebrate Jamaican culture.”
The Jamaican Independence Day Celebration brings many of the traditional ways to celebrate to Provincetown. After centuries of colonial oppression, Jamaicans were eager to fully express themselves without the limits imposed by a foreign overlord. Universal suffrage didn’t come to Jamaica until 1944, where prior voting was only open to those who met strict property and income qualifications, shutting out most of the island’s residents. But full freedom came in 1962 when the Union Jack was lowered and the Jamaican flag raised in the capital of Kingston. Part of that day included the inaugural Jamaican Independence Festival, meant to celebrate all things Jamaican, after years of having said culture suppressed. A public competition was held for a national anthem, with Reverend Hugh Sherlock and Robert Lightbourne composing the winning “Jamaica Land we Love.”
“That’s when we really came into our own,” says Hume.
Come 1966, the Independence Festival Song Competition (now known as the Popular Song Competition) was founded to honor Jamaica’s rich musical heritage. The famed band The Maytals won the inaugural contest with “Bam Bam.”
Music is a big part of any Jamaican Independence Day party, and there will be plenty at the all-day celebration at the Bas Relief Park, with a special appearance by popular Jamaican musician and DJ, Jah Child, known for his dancehall and reggae music. Also part of the celebration will be traditional Jamaican games, including dominos and Ludi, a popular board game. In Jamaica, children often receive gifts on Independence Day, and there will be presents for kids in Provincetown’s celebration. And of course, there will be food. Hume and Natessa Brown, known for running Irie Eats on Shank Painter Road, take the lead on providing traditional Jamaican food as well as “tree root beer,” a particular specialty of Hume’s. The whole day is meant to build community, express an important and robust part of Provincetown’s multicultural culture, and above all else, be a really, really good time.
“Jamaica is a party place,” says Hume. “We know how to do it well.”
Provincetown’s Jamaican Independence Day Celebration is scheduled for Wednesday, August 6 at the Bas Relief Park, 106 Bradford St. (behind Provincetown Town Hall) from 10 a.m. to 12:45 a.m. All are welcome.
