[artinfo] Jamaican dub-poetry @ Merlin Theatre

[Vince Varga]

Riding on de Riddym
- a verbal voyage -
with Jamaican dub-poet 
Jean Binta Breeze

29th March, 2003
International Merlin Theatre

local specialty: Mango (congas)
records: Badihali & Sanyi * Gonnok * Haze
visuals: Kiégõ Izzók * Andrew Wood * Iris Lemonade * Lee Unflyable

http://tilos.hu/riddim

On 29th March, Papa ante portas in cooperation with The British Council
warmly welcomes Jean Binta Breeze as the next performer of the
multimedia poetry series introducing British minority poetry at Merlin
Theatre. The event will lend itself as a nice initiation for the
audience into issues current among the black diaspora in Britain, which
will in most likelihood be enriched by the experience of the Jamaican
poetess in education and theatre.

The audio visual accompaniment will be provided by: our local treat,
Mango on congas, behind the record-players: Badihali and Sanyi, Gonnok
and Haze; stills and projection by Kiégõ Izzók, Andrew Wood, Iris
Lemonade and Lee Unflyable. After the performance the beat goes on in
the restaurant area. 

Jean Binta Breeze
Jamaican-born dub-poetess, Jean Binta Breeze was encouraged by his
fellow-poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, who already played an active part in
London’s cultural life, to choose Britain as a temporary home when she
was 30. She is considered these days as the first female dub-poet to
shoot to international fame in this so far masculine genre. 

She studied at the Jamaican School of Drama in Kingston, where during
the 70’s she established herself as a sought after poet and performer,
and contributed to various recordings. Since her first trip in the 80’s,
she divides her time between Jamaica and Great Britain and enchants the
audience with her socially conscious poetry reverberated with Jamaican
and Trinidadian rhythms, conceived in standard and Jamaican patois,
which explore the psychological dimension of Black women’s everyday
experiences. Her work is rich, ranging from childhood memories of
Kingston market through the contemporary inner-streets of London to
popular Jamaican culture. Her first collection, Riddym Ravings in 1988
has been followed by, and several audio recordings. She has done work
for Channel 4, has written numerous scripts and directed for theatre, is
also a choreographer and dancer.