TOO many people in the world see Jamaica’s culture as one of violence, disregard for the rights of women and intolerance of people with alternative lifestyles.

This impression is due to the prominence of the values purveyed by many performers of dancehall music and graphically expressed in popular novels and films.

But it is especially unfortunate that a large number of Jamaicans are among those who do not recognise that our cultural expressions and contributions to the creative arts are much more varied.

We celebrate Jamaica’s internationally recognised cultural icons Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and Sheryl Lee Ralph, yet too many Jamaicans have never heard of many of their compatriots who have achieved world-wide renown. This is partly because their artistic achievements are in creative fields which are not part of popular culture or because they are not contemporaries.

Edward Lucie-Smith, one of the leading authors of art books and poet Claude McKay come to mind. So too does Mary Seacole, the first Black woman to publish an autobiography in Britain. Isaac Belisario the painter is lost to antiquity although we have his paintings from the 19th Century. So too Claude McKay who gave us the immortal poem: “If We Must Die”.

Many of our artistes who have had to live and work abroad are claimed as British or American, like alto saxophone great Joe Harriott who was as much an innovator as Ornette Coleman and is frequently referred to as a British musician.

Andrea Levy and Lorna Goodison are authors whose literary work matches the best in the world. People, like Roger Mais, are almost forgotten, because our youngsters are being reared on a diet of “Shane” rather than Henry Winkler.

Jamaican Barry Reckord was the leading Black playwright in England during the 1960s with the most plays performed at the Royal Court theatre in London. Reckord’s “Skyvers” may resonate with young Jamaicans more than “Twelfth Night”.

Regrettably, most of us do not recognise some art forms as part of our culture. For example, jazz, opera and classical – while neither indigenous nor originally Jamaican – are part of our culture like dancehall music. All of us should know that Sir Willard White is considered by opera cognoscenti to be among the leading Bass-Baritone opera singers.

If the average Jamaican has not heard of jazz trumpeter Dizzy Reece who migrated in the 1950s, there is no excuse for not knowing that Monty Alexander is among the world’s best jazz pianists. Orrett Rhoden’s recent recital at the Kennedy Center forced a standing ovation, following a similar triumph at Carnegie Hall last year.

The fact that very few Jamaicans listen to jazz or opera or classical music does not mean that there should be little or no awareness of our world class performers. This is why we know of Grace Jones and not of Frank Silvera, Madge Sinclair and Delroy Lindo.

We proudly claim our footballers who are born abroad of Jamaican parents but not our artistes. Dr Shirley Thompson born to Jamaican parents is a composer, conductor and university lecturer in Britain who is the first woman in Europe to compose and conduct a symphony — “New Nation Rising”.

Ironic that some of our artists are lauded in foreign lands but not in the land of their birth. Jamaican painter Keith Morrison’s work hangs in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in the USA and sculptor Ronald Moody in the Tate Gallery in London.

Let us embrace and celebrate all our artistic and cultural richness.