Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze was the first female dub poet, an internationally renowned storyteller, and cultural activist. Born in 1956, Hanover, Jamaica, Breeze was brought up by her grandparents. She studied at the Jamaican School of Drama before travelling to Britain at the age of 30, at the invitation of poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, to perform at the International Book Fair of Radical Black and Third World Books, and continued to write, perform and teach for a living. Breeze arrived at a time when the dub poetry scene was still emerging; her fusion of politically-driven spoken word over reggae rhythms resonated with Britain’s black communities in the 70s and early 80s, and she became the first female performer in a traditionally male-dominated field. Breeze brought new life, complexity, humour and subtlety to the genre in poems that spoke to black women’s experiences, such as ‘Arrival of Brighteye’. She was an unrivalled performer of her own work, and released several albums in which she performed her poems to music - Riddym Ravings (1987), Tracks (1991), Riding On De Riddym (2006), Eena Me Corner (2009). Breeze also wrote scripts for plays and films, and in 2012, was awarded an MBE for her services to literature. She was the author of nine books of poems and stories, the last of which, The Verandah Poems, was published in 2016 to mark her 60th birthday.
