ENTITY · PERSON (ARTIST, SELECTOR, PRODUCER…)

Jean "Binta" Breeze

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Jean "Binta" Breeze (11 March 1956 - 4 August 2021) is recognized as the first woman to write and perform dub poetry. She moved to Kingston in 1978 and studied at the Jamaican School of Drama, where she met Michael "Mikey" Smith and Oku Onuora; she made her stage debut alongside Mutabaruka in 1981, who went on to record her work, including "Aid Travels with a Bomb," on the compilation album "Word Sound 'ave Power.".

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Riddym Ravings - Jean 'Binta' Breeze (Channel Four Alter Image 1988)

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In stories

Story · Well supportedThe women of dub poetry and the spoken word

Jamaican-born women carried dub poetry's reasoning voice from Kingston yards to Toronto stages and a Halifax poet laureateship.

Story · Well supportedDub poetry and the reggae page

Dub poetry put Jamaican speech and reggae bass on the page and the stage at once, and made a form that belongs equally to Kingston, London and Toronto.