Above: the exhibition at the Jamaican Embassy in Washington (JIS Photo)

By the Caribbean Journal staff

A new exhibition at the Jamaican Embassy in Washington, DC looks celebrates the richness and variety of Jamaican culture.

The exhibition, “Roots and Culture Jamaica,” features the photographs of Andrea Cauthen, a member of the Jamaican diaspora who lives in New York.

Jamaica’s Ambassador to the United States, Stephen Vasciannie, officially opened the exhibition this week, saying that in the cultural realm, Jamaica “punches well above its weight.”

““In the course of Caribbean Heritage month, it is refreshing for Jamaicans and friends of Jamaica to be reminded about ‘ital stew’, ‘veggie chunks’, ‘ackee’ and ‘callaloo’, among other things,” Vasciannie said.

Cauthen was born in the United States to a Jamaican mother, who, she said, instilled in her a “sense of pride and identity in Jamaica.”

She is donating 25 percent of all proceeds from sales made at the show to the Irish Penn Early Childhood Institution in St Catherine, where she works as a volunteer.