Poet, playwright, author and mentor Jean 'Binta' Breeze touched many of our lives with her words. With her books, her political engagement and her warm smile.
Following a period of ill health Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze passed away on the evening (EST) of 4th August 2021 in Jamaica at the age of 65.
Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze was an especially important part of our literary community in the UK and the Caribbean and her body of writing and orality, and the warmth and connection she generated through her art, touched the hearts and minds of audiences around the world. Her family, friends and colleagues have shared what she meant to them below.
One year on we celebrate and remember her impact on family, friends and audiences around the world.
A powerful performer, she has been called a ‘one-woman festival’. She was well known for her mastery of the ‘dub’ art form. Jean was an honorary Creative Writing Fellow at the University of Leicester, and In 2017 she received an Honorary Doctor of Letters (D Litt) degree at the University of Leicester. In 2018, she received a lifetime achievement award from the Jamaican Poetry festival and a silver Musgrave medal from the Institute of Jamaica. She was awarded an M.B.E. for Services to Literature in 2012.
Her poem ‘Tweet Tweet’ was The Guardian’s Poem of the Week in 2017. You can read it here.
Click below to read Jean´s obituaries
Jean ´Binta´ Breeze performed her powerful poem at London Liming
Poem for Jean, by her close friend and a fellow poet Bobba Cass
Homage by Bobba Cass, 2022
SIMPLE TINGS, tribute to Jean ´Binta´ Breeze
A playing saxophonist Marcus Joseph paid tribute to Jean with the sound of music.
Listen the song below.
“It’s all about the simple tings of life, no point in getting stressed, she rocked the rhythms in her chair, Brushed a hand across her hair, Miles of travel was in her stare, You could never compare, Jean Binta-Breeze was a Queen and her poems will always reign supreme! ”
Jean with Linton Kwesi Johnson and John La Rose
The International Bookfair of Radical Black & Third world Books
“Jean was a rare example of a Rastafarian woman dub poet and she grappled with issues with which women writers are forced to contend with masculinist literary criticism. ”
Watch Jean´s ONE LAST DUB above
Tribute from Burning Eye Books
Tribute from Suandi from National Black Arts Alliance
Tribute from Bocas Lit Fest
Tony Walsh and his words to Jean
Sandra A Agard’s words on Jean
Ian McMillan on Jean
Tribute from Ilkley Literature Festival
Jean with Linton Kwesi Johnson and John La Rose
Tribute from Upstairs at the Western
JEAN ‘BINTA’ BREEZE was born in 1956 in Patty Hill, Hanover, Jamaica. A graduate of Rusea’s High School, she enrolled at the Jamaica School of Drama in 1978 and studied there alongside Michael Smith and Oku Onuora. She also befriended Mutabaruka around this time. Between 1979 and 1981, she lived as a Rastafarian in the Clarendon hills and became a member of the Sistren Theatre Collective. She also worked with the Jamaica Cultural Development Commission as a cultural organizer in Westmoreland and, later, as a national coordinator for the literary arts.
She first visited London in 1985 on the invitation of Linton Kwesi Johnson to take part in the International Book Fair of Radical and Third World Books. From 1985 until 2013, Jean was based mainly in the United Kingdom (Cambridge, London and Leicester), writing, performing and teaching. In 1987 she earned a certificate in education at Garnett College, London and she went on to teach theatre studies at Brixton College of Further Education.
During her time in England, Jamaica and on tour elsewhere in the 1980s, Jean emerged as the first female dub poet, fusing reggae rhythms, music, poetry and speech. She was a very powerful performer, and has been called as a ‘one-woman festival’ and much admired for the way she inspired younger generations of poets to write and present themselves in their own voice.
Breeze is the author of nine books of poems and stories. Answers was published in 1983 in Jamaica, and the remainder was published in England and include Riddim Ravings and other poems (1988), On the Edge of An Island, The Fifth Figure, Third World Girl: Selected Poems. Many of her collections were published by Bloodaxe Books and they include The Verandah Poems which was published in 2016 on her 60th birthday. She made a number of albums and recordings include Riddim Ravings (1987), Tracks (1991) and Riding on de Riddim (2001) and Eena Me Corner (2010).
She presented her work throughout the world, including tours of the Caribbean, North America, Europe, South East Asia and Africa. Jean worked as a director and scriptwriter for theatre and film including a co-writer credit for the film Hallelujah Anyhow which screened at the British Film Festival (1990), and she had a pivotal role in the acclaimed Carnival Messiah productions created by Geraldine Connor (1999 and 2002).
In 2003 she was awarded a NESTA Fellowship. She was awarded an M.B.E. in 2012 for her services to literature. Her poems Moonwise, Rising and Dreamer were featured in Transport for London's Poems on the Underground. From 2013, she continued to divide her time between Jamaica and England, travelling to various cities to do festival engagements, readings, mentoring and masterclasses before returning to settle in Jamaica in 2016.
In 2017 she received an Honorary Doctor of Letters (D Litt) degree at the University of Leicester. In 2018 she received a lifetime achievement award from the Jamaica Poetry Festival and a Silver Musgrave medal from the Institute of Jamaica.
Represented by Renaissance One.
JEAN ‘BINTA’ BREEZE (Jean Lumsden)
11/3/1956 to 4/8/2021
Her latest book, The Verandah Poems was published in 2016 (Bloodaxe Books), marking her 60th birthday, followed by an England book tour of the same name with Renaissance One, which was funded by Arts Council England.
Jean ´Binta´ Breeze by Tehron Royes on Jamaica
Jean ´Binta´ Breeze by Tehron Royes
Portrait of Jean ´binta´ Breeze by Hayley Madden