Port-of-Spain designated UNESCO City of Music

(CMC) – The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has designated the city of Port-of-Spain as a City of Music.

The announcement was made on Tuesday by Port-of-Spain mayor,Joel Mar¬tinez.

#OurCaribbean https://t.co/bFyyNKPykK

— Caribbean Community (CARICOM) (@CARICOMorg) November 6, 2019

In mak­ing the an­nounce­ment, Mar­tinez said the Port-of-Spain four-year plan to ac­tion has been aligned with UN­ESCO Cre­ative Cities Net­work’s mis­sion.

“If we want to progress as a peo­ple and coun­try our cap­i­tal city can­not re­main the same,” Mar­tinez told the at­ten­dees.

Mar­tinez said the di­rec­tor-gen­er­al of UN­ESCO de­cid­ed to des­ig­nate Port-of-Spain as a mem­ber of the cre­ative cities net­work in the field of mu­sic.

“Al­most every fes­ti­val or cul­tur­al ac­tiv­i­ty that pass­es through the streets of the city has some sort of mu­si­cal ac­com­pa­ni­ment.”

He said the scope of the ini­tia­tives with­in Port-of-Spain’s four-year plan are both na­tion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al which would have ben­e­fits for many.

The mu­sic zones seek to es­tab­lish lo­ca­tions with­in Port-of-Spain to pro­mote mu­sic her­itage as a dri­ver for sus­tain­able ur­ban de­vel­op­ment.

The in­ten­tion is to pro­vide year-round op­por­tu­ni­ties for artists, mu­si­cians, en­tre­pre­neurs, res­i­dents, na­tion­als, vis­i­tors and the com­mu­ni­ty to ex­pe­ri­ence the twin island republic’s mu­sic and cre­ativ­i­ty.

“We are look­ing at ways to max­imise our cul­tur­al po­ten­tial and our cre­ative city of mu­sic des­ig­na­tion does just that,” Mar­tinez said.

Port of  Spain joins five other cities in the region with this status – they are Nassau, Ba­hamas; Jacmel, Haiti; Ha­vana, Cuba; San Domin­go, Dominican Republic and Kingston, Jamaica.

gston, Jamaica.

Source: CARICOM TODAY