Brandon dreams of becoming kite-making king

While many children are buried in video games or glued to screens nine-year-old Brandon Cooper, from Tel-Aviv, central Kingston, is hard at work creating kites of all shapes, colours.

Amid the Easter breeze, the St Michael Primary student has transformed his yard into a makeshift kite factory. Bamboo and strips of plastic bags are his main raw materials, and he pours his energy into building sky-bound beauties.

"Brandon build kite every day! Mi don't know why, as him come from school this little man a mek kite," said his aunt and guardian, Rosemarie Anderson.

"Mi tell him say mi nuh want see him a make no more fi the week [and] him fi take up him book."

Anderson admits she is partially to blame, even as she tries to balance his passion with his studies.

"Where mi work, mi can get the garbage bag dem, and mi buy him rope and glue. But dat a what mi a guh stop buy now, cause it look like a me a encourage him."

Young Cooper's love for kite-making was sparked two years ago after watching a co-worker of his aunt, craft his own.

Having watched his aunt's co-worker, Mr Willy build kites, Cooper absorbed the lessons and decided that he took will decorate the skies with flying beauties.

"Him come to me as mi reach home one day and say him want $1,500," Anderson recalled, laughing.

"Mi ask him what him want it for - trash cord! Him say the regular string dem weak and a go pop so him use that instead."

Cooper has developed his own style and tricks - like using the longest tail he can find to help his creations dance in the downtown breeze.

"It don't tek long to make it," he explained, carefully attaching a tail while his friends helped hold the kite steady. "Sometimes mi cover it and if mi don't like how it look, mi tek it back off."

Though he currently builds just for fun, Cooper hopes to improve his skills and keep alive a tradition that's slowly fading from many Jamaican communities.

Kite-flying is especially popular around Easter. In Clarendon, vendors Fitzroy 'Suppa' Forbes and Michael 'Brandish' Taylor were seen at Hayes Kite Fest on Easter Sunday, doing their part to preserve kite culture as well.

"Mi a make kite from me a boy. Mi 64 now, so yuh know how long dat?" said Forbes, proudly, a resident of Hayes Cornpiece.

"In Easter we get sales because people not making them own kite, but di children love fi see it."

Forbes, who typically crafts for the Hayes Kite Fest, says business picks up this time of year.

"Mi sell one a dem kite here fi $2,000. Dis a di original bamboo kite, not the likkle plastic one dem weh yuh see. It tek three weeks fi build 40 of dem."

His friend, 66-year-old Taylor, believes kite-making is more than just an Easter hustle - it's a cultural duty.

"Mi teach my grandchildren, but overall mi think it's something we should bring back," he said.

"Teach the youths how fi do things with them hands," he said.