According to Kamau Brathwaite, ‘Kumina is the most African of the [cultural expressions] to be found in Jamaica, with negligible European or Christian influence. Linguistics evidence cites the Kongo as a specific ethnic source for the ‘language’ and possibly the music of kumina. Recounting a personal experience with Imogene Kennedy, known as Queenie, who was a queen and tradition bearer of Kumina, James Early in his article, The ‘Re-communalization’ of a Jamaican Kumina Drum, highlights Queenie’s entrance into the world of the Kumina religion, as documented in Olive Lewin’s book, Rock It Come Over: The Folk Music of Jamaica, Queenie share that: “While searching for coconuts in a gully, the Spirits took her to a large, hollow cotton tree where she said she stayed twenty-one days without food or water, hanging upside down, communicating with the ancestral spirits who taught her prayers and songs in the Kikongo African language. From that epiphany she became a Kumina queen.” Today, we present to you, a conversation I had with Nyasha Laing about her film [Kumina Queen] contextualized in a wider discussion about Kumina. The film centers, Imogene “Queenie” Kennedy who was a contemporary priestess in post-colonial Jamaica who catapulted her African spiritual practice into renown. But after centuries of erasure, what remains of the dance between the living and the dead? Nyasha Laing is a documentarian, writer, cultural worker, and lawyer focused on transformative stories of global leaders, cultures, and communities. Her independent storytelling credits include Punta Soul (2008) and Kumina Queen (2022), two films that explore themes of loss, regeneration, and freedom. Her work has appeared in and on the Los Angeles Pan-African Film Festival, BBC World Service, YES Magazine, The Art Museum of the Americas, IMZ International Festival & European Traveling Showcase. In addition, she has served as an impact producer for award-winning PBS films including Tell Them We Are Rising (2017), All Kinfolk Ain’t Skinfolk (2018), Belly of the Beast (2020), and Into Dust (2021). Nyasha is a graduate of Yale University and New York University School of Law. In a statement from Nyasha Laing about the purpose of the film: “We tell this story to demystify and celebrate kumina.” Before the conversation … we will hear from Kamau Brathwaite presenting part of his poem, “Kumina” from Born to Slow Horses … that moves with the 21 days that Imogene Kennedy spent communicating with the ancestral spirits who taught her prayers and songs. Our show was produced today in solidarity with the Native/Indigenous, African, and Afro Descendant communities at Standing Rock; Venezuela; Cooperation Jackson in Jackson, Mississippi; Brazil; the Avalon Village in Detroit; Colombia; Kenya; Palestine; South Africa; Ghana, Ayiti, and other places who are fighting for the protection of our land for the benefit of all peoples! Listen intently. Think critically. Act accordingly. Enjoy the program! For more [about film & Nyasha Laing]: https://kuminaqueen.net/ Image: Nyasha Laing [film still] Sounds: Poet Kamau Brathwaite reads selections from the poem "Kumina" from Born to Slow Horses, winner of the 2006 International Griffin Poetry Prize: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ate7II-Fv6Q&t=443s SIYAANS: KUMINA [A homage to the Spiritual Expressions of our Ancestors] by ShakaRa!, Spoken Word Activist, available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MpbD9yFPLg&t=1s Paul Bogle Foundation, KUMINA @ STONY GUT OCTOBER 10TH 2014 available here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBnL4OvkDUML5Febztd8kJQ/featured Start Running from Death To The Planet by The Comet Is Coming