SPANISH Town’s SELF Theatrical Movement celebrated its 41st anniversary on December 27 with a reunion at Cecil’s Restaurant in the Old Capital.

The event was hosted by former member Yolanda ‘Mitsy’ Gardener. It was a stroll down memory lane as a number of SELF’s founding members recalled their involvement in the artistic company.

Some of them also performed. Including dub poet Nabbie Natural, who performed his poem, The SELF in You. Comedian/poet Pink Panther (Earl Vasselle), now a resident in the United Kingdom, was unable to attend but another longtime member, Rick Anthony, did Inna Di Ghetto, one of Panther’s poems.

Trevor ‘Fish’ Byfield went over well with his poem, A Just Me and Mi Madda, while Dennis Morgan delivered a light-hearted rendition of the song I Believe. Percussionist/poet M’bala brought the house down with Just Love fi Laugh and CHUCH.

In 1971, a group of youth led by Eisenhower ‘Stowie’ Williams got together on a street corner in Spanish Town and started the group to encourage love of fellow man and promote a cultural, creative and artistic outlet for their peers in St Catherine. It offered training in dance, music and drama.

The SELF Theatrical Movement won a gold medal for dance in the 1973 Festival Competition. Their plays, such as Dis YA Town and Breakthrough, were also lauded.

Elaine Jones won a Certificate of Merit for her acting in the drama Icilda Green in the 1984 Festival. That year, the group received honourable mention and a certificate of merit for the dance, What a Feeling.

“It’s heartfelt. I felt like a seed was dispersed and it flourished and come back,” an elated Williams told the Sunday Observer. A past student of Camperdown High School, he taught at Dinthill Technical for seven years, and recently returned from The Bahamas where he became a Christian, lived and taught for over 20 years.

Williams is now studying for a degree in dance at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts.

Because of migration of many of its founding members, the SELF Theatrical Movement’s activities waned. Williams is planning a revival.

“Going forward, SELF will not be performing but providing resources for talented youths who are to be identified to be trained (in the creative arts),” he explained. “SELF will no longer be a theatrical movement, but a ministry, though I will still write and direct plays for the next generation.”