1 year ago
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Under the moonlight at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre’s open-air theatre on Sunday, 10 beautiful and accomplished women descended onto the decorated stage with backdrop of whites and blues. By the end of the night, one of them would be crowned this year’s Miss Kingston and St Andrew (KSA) Festival Queen through contests of charm and poise, performing arts, cultural awareness and community activism.
At stake were a myriad of prizes ranging from cash incentives, furniture, appliances, brand ambassadorships, a monetary pledge towards the lucky winner’s community initiative and a spot among the 13 other contestants representing their parish at the Miss Jamaica Festival Queen pageant in August.
Following contestant introductions, the evening’s proceedings began with the talent showcase. Keeping up with the vibrant spirit of pageant’s facilitator, the JCDC, the KSA Festival Queen hopefuls presented performing arts pieces diverse in category.
The crowd was thrilled by the dub poetry, dance numbers, songs, and speeches, all rich in cultural consciousness and addressing topics like climate change, society’s treatment of women, and Jamaica’s international impact. Mayor of Kingston Andrew Swaby was particularly impressed with the performances by the women. He thoroughly enjoyed the talent contest and looks forward to the community work from the winner.
“It has been an excellent show so far. It’s my first year as mayor but I’ve always come to the [Festival Queen pageants], so I’m looking forward to whosoever is crowned the winner and working with them, especially on my team at [the KSAMC].
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Jhanielle Powell, the outgoing Miss Kingston and St Andrew Festival Queen, was in high spirits and eager to crown the new queen. She reminisced fondly about her reign and the opportunities the crown had afforded her.
“The places I’ve been, the opportunities I’ve been given and the people that I’ve been able to interact with … I wouldn’t have been able to do that if I didn’t enter this competition. Tonight, the competition is really stiff. I love how [the contestants] are coming full out. The crown is up for grabs, and I’ll be really happy for whoever takes the crown tonight.”
Following the talent contest and a brief intermission came the final segments of the evening where the 10 ladies donned sparkling dresses for the evening gown procession.
Crowd favourite
The sectional prize segment was dominated by the clear crowd favourite, Miss Jamaica Private Power Company, Daindra Harrison, as evidenced by the deafening cheers whenever her name was mentioned. The media practitioner won Most Poised, Most Popular on Social Media, and Most Active in the Community. Other prizes included Most Congenial, awarded to Miss This Is Really Great Yoghurt, Zara Harris, and Best Talent and Most Culturally Aware, awarded to Miss Ontime Taxi Services, Jameika Johnson. The competition was then whittled down to five finalists for the highly anticipated question-and-answer segment.
Daindra Harrison’s victory seemed assured in the eyes of her many fans and the awestruck crowd when she responded to the question of how to combat crime and violence among Jamaican youth. Her answer, emphasising the use of arts and culture as a remedy, was met with thunderous applause and cheers at the Ranny Williams Entertainment Centre. It was no surprise when Powell relinquished the title of Miss KSA Festival Queen to her.
Jameika Johnson and Lori-Kaye Miles were named first runner-up and second runner-up, respectively.
Breathless with joy and humbled with gratitude, Harrison reflected on the support she had received from her network throughout her journey to the crown. The newly crowned Miss Kingston and St Andrew Festival Queen 2024 looks beyond the national competition to her true purpose: IMPAC, a youth-focused arts and culture programme, which will be greatly aided by the $100,000 grant from the Bob Marley and Rita Marley Foundations.
“My supporters have been with me from the start. I’m so grateful for each and every one of my friends who came out for me tonight. Some of them personally trained me to walk, poise and for the question and answer. I’m so grateful as well for the cash incentive I got for my community involvement to put that into my personal project Ideal Movement in the Performing Arts for Change (IMPAC),” she said.
Adding to what she hopes to use the fund for, she Harrison said, “I’m going to use the funds to invest in so many students. I have so many plans in my head! That was the prize I was most excited about. As it relates to the energy I brought to the competition, I prayed. The crown did not look sure for me until a few seconds before they called my name. [My competitors] are competent ladies who came and did their best as well; I am so grateful that I was chosen as the queen.”
English (US) ·