Description
The Verandah Poems was both a departure and a return for Jean 'Binta' Breeze, who left her village in Jamaica to become an internationally renowned Dub poet and storyteller. This is a book of coming home and coming to terms, of contemplation rather than contention - of mellow, musing, edgy poems drawn from the life and lives around her. It was Breeze's first new collection after Third World Girl: Selected Poems (2011), and was published on her 60th birthday. Foreword by Kei Miller. With photographs by Tehron Royes.
About the Author
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.
Reviews
Jean 'Binta' Breeze... emerged in the 1980s as the first female dub poet, fusing reggae rhythms and music with the spoken word... Through the use of a variety of women's voices and contexts, Breeze's work challenged the usual stances of the dub and performance poetry tradition. Whether on stage, record or page, she spoke for - and to - black female experience, encompassing a wide range of subjects, styles and tonalities. -- Lyn Innes * The Guardian *
Jean 'Binta' Breeze... was a poet who first came to prominence among Jamaica's dub poets, but whose work quickly distinguished itself from its origins to gain a subtlety and versatility of its own. Dub poetry... was already capable of delivering powerful political messages. Breeze adopted this eagerly, but brought to it a more intimate voice that enabled her to advance feminism as well as openness about mental illness and sex...Her range included not only the polemical and the personal, but also more extended narratives and memoirs. -- Obituary * Daily Telegraph *
The third world girl, at home for a while, sets these attractive poems in rural Jamaica. Her verandah looks out on the sea, and she goes for a swim most mornings. The collection takes us well beyond the village, the bar across the road, and the men who proposition her. The easy-going voice talks of personal development, celebrates friends and family, comments on mortality, freedom, gender and class. The poet is examining, subtly, a more or less contented return to where her life began. -- Mervyn Morris * Poet Laureate of Jamaica *
Book Information
ISBN 9781780372853
Author Jean Binta Breeze
Format Paperback
Page Count 72
Imprint Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Publisher Bloodaxe Books Ltd
About the Author
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.
Reviews
Jean 'Binta' Breeze... emerged in the 1980s as the first female dub poet, fusing reggae rhythms and music with the spoken word... Through the use of a variety of women's voices and contexts, Breeze's work challenged the usual stances of the dub and performance poetry tradition. Whether on stage, record or page, she spoke for - and to - black female experience, encompassing a wide range of subjects, styles and tonalities. -- Lyn Innes * The Guardian *
Jean 'Binta' Breeze... was a poet who first came to prominence among Jamaica's dub poets, but whose work quickly distinguished itself from its origins to gain a subtlety and versatility of its own. Dub poetry... was already capable of delivering powerful political messages. Breeze adopted this eagerly, but brought to it a more intimate voice that enabled her to advance feminism as well as openness about mental illness and sex...Her range included not only the polemical and the personal, but also more extended narratives and memoirs. -- Obituary * Daily Telegraph *
The third world girl, at home for a while, sets these attractive poems in rural Jamaica. Her verandah looks out on the sea, and she goes for a swim most mornings. The collection takes us well beyond the village, the bar across the road, and the men who proposition her. The easy-going voice talks of personal development, celebrates friends and family, comments on mortality, freedom, gender and class. The poet is examining, subtly, a more or less contented return to where her life began. -- Mervyn Morris * Poet Laureate of Jamaica *
Book Information
ISBN 9781780372853
Author Jean Binta Breeze
Format Paperback
Page Count 72
Imprint Bloodaxe Books Ltd
Publisher Bloodaxe Books Ltd
