Jean "Binta" Breeze facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Jean "Binta" Breeze
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Breeze pictured in 2007
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| Born |
Jean Lumsden
11 March 1956 Hanover, Jamaica
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| Died | 4 August 2021 (aged 65) Sandy Bay, Jamaica
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| Occupation | Writer, dub poet |
| Known for | First Jamaican female dub poet |
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Notable work
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Riddym Ravings and Other Poems (1988) |
| Children | 3, including Gareth |
Jean "Binta" Breeze MBE (11 March 1956 – 4 August 2021) was a Jamaican dub poet and storyteller, acknowledged as the first woman to write and perform dub poetry. She worked also as a theatre director, choreographer, actor, and teacher. She performed her work around the world, in the Caribbean, North America, Europe, South-East Asia, and Africa, and has been called "one of the most important, influential performance poets of recent years".
Contents
Biography
Breeze was born and raised in rural Jamaica, growing up in Patty Hill, a small village in the hills of Hanover Parish. She moved to Kingston in 1978 and studied for a year at the Jamaican School of Drama, where she met Michael Smith and Oku Onuora. She then lived for three and a half years in the Clarendon hills as a member of the Rastafarian religion, also becoming an early participant in the Sistren Theatre Collective. She went on to become known as Jamaica's first female dub poet after she performed onstage in 1981 with Mutabaruka, who recorded her work, including her on the compilation album Word Sound 'ave Power performing "Aid Travels with a Bomb" and "To Plant or Not to Plant". She first visited London early in 1985, at the invitation of Linton Kwesi Johnson, to make her debut UK performance at the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books on 19 March that year. Returning to London in September 1985, she earned a certificate of education at Garnett College (1987), taught Theatre Studies at Brixton College, but left after two years of teaching in order to be able to perform full-time.
She wrote in various media. Her first book of poetry, Riddym Ravings, was published in 1988 by the Race Today Collective, with the title poem, also known as "The Mad Woman's Poem", being described by Linton Kwesi Johnson as "a classic in contemporary Caribbean poetry" and featuring in Margaret Busby's 1992 anthology Daughters of Africa. Breeze appeared on Channel 4's New Voices series in 1988, and went on to write the screenplay for Hallelujah Anyhow, a co-production of the British Film Institute screened at the British Film Festival in 1990. Her work was featured on Channel 4's series Bandung File in a 1990 documentary called "Moods and Moments". She also released several albums, contributing to Woman's Talk (1986), and recording Tracks in 1991 with Dennis Bovell's Dub Band.
Among her later collections are The Arrival of Brighteye and Other Poems (2000), which includes a Brixton Market version of Chaucer's "The Wife of Bath's Tale", The Fifth Figure (2006), about five generations of black British women, and Third World Girl: Selected Poems (2011).
Her theatrical appearances included leading roles, in 1987, in Edgar White's play The Moon Dance Night, and in Ntozake Shange's The Love Space Demands in 1992, for Talawa Theatre Company, directed by Yvonne Brewster, who also directed her in One Love by Kwame Dawes (Bristol Old Vic, 2001), as well as appearing in other productions such as The Prayer, directed by Michael Buffong at the Young Vic in 2000, and Geraldine Connor's Carnival Messiah at the West Yorkshire Playhouse in 2001.
She had schizophrenia from her early 20s and wrote poetry about what she herself called "madness". In April 2006, on the BBC Radio programme The Interview, Breeze gave her perspective on mental illness and advocated increased attention to the needs of schizophrenics who may not be given as much leeway as someone with a "talent" like hers.
She presented her work throughout the world, including tours performing in the Caribbean, North America, Europe, South East Asia, and Africa, and was once described as a "one-woman festival". In her later years she lived between Leicester in England and Jamaica.
Personal life
Born Jean Lumsden, she married Brian Breese in 1974 (adapting his surname to Breeze) and the couple had a son, before separating in 1978. Her son Gareth became a West Indies cricketer. She also had two daughters, Imega and Caribe.
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Breeze died on 4 August 2021 of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease at her home in Sandy Bay, Jamaica. Michael Rosen, who had appeared along with Breeze at the Ledbury Poetry Festival, paid tribute to her: "Her poetry and performance was an announcement about womanhood, ethnicity, colour, nationhood and in particular Jamaica." Carolyn Cooper wrote:
Breeze has left a legacy of poems, short stories, scripts for theatre and film as well as numerous recordings of her vibrant performances that will, indeed, endure. Her exceptional body of work confirms her place as a major figure in Caribbean literature. From the sturdy roots of dub poetry, Breeze branched out into other literary genres. But she never forgot the power of performance that is such a fundamental element of dub poetry.
Archives
The Bloodaxe Books Archive in Newcastle University's Special Collections and Archives holds a Jean "Binta" Breeze collection. It consists of letters and proofs relating to her published poetry works.
Honours and recognition
In 2003 Breeze was awarded a NESTA Fellowship of two years, to be held in Cambridge.
In 2004, she featured in the photograph "A Great Day in London" taken at the British Library of 50 Black and Asian writers who have made major contributions to British literature.
She was an Honorary Creative Writing Fellow at the School of English, University of Leicester.
Breeze was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2012 Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to literature.
In August 2018, Breeze's poem "dreamer" was among those by six poets (the others being James Berry, Kwame Dawes, Lorna Goodison, Grace Nichols, and Andrew Salkey) that were displayed on the London Underground in a set entitled "Windrush 70, A Celebration of Caribbean poetry" to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the arrival in Britain of the ship Empire Windrush from Jamaica in June 1948, which marked the beginning of the most significant West Indian post-World War II migration.
In 2018, Breeze received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Leicester, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Jamaican Poetry Festival, and a silver Musgrave Medal from the Institute of Jamaica.
Works
Books of poetry
- Answers (Masani Productions, 1983)
- Riddym Ravings and Other Poems (Race Today Publications, 1988, ISBN: 9780947716141) edited by Mervyn Morris
- Spring Cleaning (Virago Press, 1992, ISBN: 9781853812538)
- On the Edge of an Island (Bloodaxe Books, 1997, ISBN: 9781852244057)
- Song Lines (Gecko Press, 1997, ISBN: 978-0952406785)
- The Arrival of Brighteye and Other Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2000, ISBN: 9781852245382)
- The Fifth Figure (Bloodaxe Books, 2006, ISBN: 9781852247324)
- Third World Girl: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2011, ISBN: 9781852249106), with live performances DVD
- Third World Girl: Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books, 2016, ISBN: 9781780372853)
Albums
Source:
- Riddym Ravings (1987), ROIR
- Tracks (1991), LKJ Records
- Hearsay (1994), 57 Productions
- Riding on de Riddym (1997), 57 Productions
- Eena Me Corner (2010), Arroyo Rec.
See also
In Spanish: Jean "Binta" Breeze para niños
