Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze was a popular Jamaican Dub poet and storyteller
whose performances wee so powerful she was called a ‘one-woman
festival’. Her poems are Caribbean songs of innocence and experience, of
love and conflict. They use personal stories and historical narratives
to explore social injustice and the psychological dimensions of black
women’s experience. Striking evocations of childhood in the hills of
Jamaica give way to explorations of the perils and delights of growth
and change – through sex, emigration, motherhood and age.
Introduced by renowned critic Colin MacCabe, the book brings together
new poems with poetry and reggae chants from four previous collections: Riddym Ravings, Spring Cleaning, On the Edge of an Island and The Arrival of Brighteye. Many of the poems were included in two performances by Jean ‘Binta’
Breeze filmed by Pamela Robertson-Pearce at Leicester’s Y Theatre
available by scanning QR codes printed in the book, along with an
interview with Jane Dowson.
Price: $19.95
Publisher: Bloodaxe Books
Imprint: Bloodaxe Books
Publication Date:
30 June 2011
ISBN: 9781852249106
Format: Paperback
BISACs:
POETRY / Caribbean & Latin American
‘She stood out for the passion of her performances, the raw honesty of
her personal stories and her use of Jamaica’s lyrical vernacular.’ – Katharine Q. Seelye, The New York Times, tribute to Jean 'Binta' Breeze
Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze (1956-2021) was an internationally-renowned poet.
Born in Hanover, Jamaica, she first visited London in 1985 to take part
in the International Book Fair of Radical and Third World Books, and she
continued to write, perform and teach until a collapsed lung resulted
in early retirement to Jamaica. She published eight books of poetry and
stories. Answers (Jamaica, 1982), Riddym Ravings (Race Today, UK, 1988), Spring Cleaning (Virago, 1992) were followed by On the Edge of an Island (1997), The Arrival of Brighteye (2000), The Fifth Figure (2006), Third World Girl: Selected Poems (2011, with DVD) and The Verandah Poems (2016) from Bloodaxe. She also released several records, cassettes and CDs, including Tracks and Eena Me Corner with the Dennis Bovell Dub Band and Riding On De Riddym: selected spoken works
(57 Productions). She performed her work throughout the world,
including tours of the Caribbean, Britain, North America, Europe, South
East Asia and Africa, and latterly divided her time between Jamaica and
England. She received a NESTA Award in 2003, and an MBE in 2012 for
services to literature.
