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Beverley Bryan

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Beverley Bryan
Born (1949-08-18) 18 August 1949 (age 75)
Portland, Colony of Jamaica, British Empire
EducationKeele University; University of London
Occupation(s)Educationalist, activist, academic
Notable workThe Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain (co-author; 1985)

Beverley Bryan (born 18 August 1949)[1] is a Jamaican educationist and retired academic who was a professor of language education at the University of the West Indies in Mona. Settling in Britain with her parents in the late 1950s, she went on to become a founding member of the Brixton Black Women's Group and co-authored the 1985 book The Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain.

Early life

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Bryan was born in Portland, Jamaica, but immigrated to England in 1959 to join her parents who had gone ahead to Britain in 1953,[1] as part of the "Windrush generation". She and her parents eventually settled in Brixton, London, which had a large Afro-Caribbean community. Bryan studied teaching at Keele University, Staffordshire, and moved back to Brixton to teach at a primary school. Bryan later undertook further studies at the University of London, graduating with a B.A. in English, an M.A. and Ph.D. in language education.[2] She was a member of the British Black Panthers in the early 1970s, and later together with such activists as Olive Morris and Liz Obi helped to found the Brixton-based Black Women's Group (BWG),[1] a collective that shared similar radical views.[3]

Bryan co-authored with Stella Dadzie and Suzanne Scafe the book The Heart of the Race, a collaborative work that came about through the concerns of the BWG, which was published in 1985 by Virago Press.[1] Speaking of the focus of the BWG, Bryan has noted: "Women came to us with issues from their workplace, incidents in hospitals or health centres; with their care of their children’s case of abuse from the police or schools... This came to the fore and so by the time I came to co-author Heart of the Race, we had the full range of the lives and stories that we could draw on."[4] The book was reissued in 2018 by Verso Books, with a new foreword by Lola Okolosie, and including an interview with the authors by Heidi Safia Mirza, focusing on the impact of the book since publication and its continuing relevance.[5]

In June 2020, Bryan spoke about her involvement with the Black Panther Movement in a rare interview with Tell A Friend podcast.[6] She spoke about the challenges she experienced during the 1970s era of racial discrimination.

Career

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In 1992, Bryan moved back to Jamaica to join the University of the West Indies (UWI) as a lecturer in educational studies. She was promoted to senior lecturer in 2002 and to professor in 2011, and served as head of the Department of Educational Studies. Bryan is a leading authority on Jamaican Creole learners of English, and has worked as a consultant to the Ministry of Education on language policy. She has also advised other Caribbean governments on literacy policies, as well as serving as a member of the United Nations Literacy Decade Experts' Group.[7]

She was one of the founders of the Caribbean Poetry Project launched in 2010, a collaboration between UWI and the University of Cambridge that aims to increase the visibility of Caribbean writers in the UK.[8]

Bryan was the keynote speaker at the Eighth Annual Huntley Conference in 2013, addressing the topic "Educating Our Children, Liberating Our Futures".[9]

She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology New Daughters of Africa (edited by Margaret Busby) with "A Windrush Story".[10][11]

In 2021, Bryan delivered the Windrush Day Online Lecture, entitled "Key Moments and Issues In The Black British Civil Rights Movement: A Brief History Of Our Story/Journey (So Far)".[12]

Selected works

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  • As a member of the Brixton Black Women's Group, Bryan contributed to the group's newsletter, Speak Out.[13]
  • The Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain, with Stella Dadzie, Suzanne Scafe; Virago Press, 1985, ISBN 9780860683612. New edition, Verso Books, 2018, ISBN 9781786635860
  • Between Two Grammars: Language Learning and Teaching in a Creole-speaking Environment, Ian Randle Publishers, 2010, ISBN 978-9766373528

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Thomas, Tobi (28 January 2021). "Beverley Bryan: the British Black Panther who inspired a generation of women". The Guardian. Retrieved 28 January 2021.
  2. ^ Professor Beverley Bryan, Jamaica Gleaner, 5 December 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  3. ^ Agyepong, Heather (10 March 2016), "THE FORGOTTEN STORY OF THE WOMEN BEHIND THE BRITISH BLACK PANTHERS", The Debrief. Retrieved 26 November 2017. Archived 1 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ^ Akpan, Paula (10 October 2019). "How The Stories Of Black Women In The UK Are Being Reclaimed". Refinery29. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  5. ^ "The Heart of the Race" at Verso.
  6. ^ Knight, Bryan (5 June 2020). "Tales From The Struggle (feat. Dr Beverley Bryan)". YouTube.
  7. ^ Dr. Beverley Bryan Promoted to Professor, University of the West Indies. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  8. ^ Caribbean Poetry Project, University of Cambridge. Retrieved 26 November 2017.
  9. ^ "The Eighth Annual Huntley Conference". Black Women in the Arts. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  10. ^ New daughters of Africa. OCLC 1066069680 – via WorldCat.
  11. ^ Hillhouse, Joanne C. (10 June 2019). "Carib Plus Lit News Round Up (early June 2019)". Wadadli Pen. Retrieved 29 January 2021.
  12. ^ "Windrush Day Online Lecture 2021 with Dr Beverley Bryan Announced". blackhistorymonth.org.uk. 17 May 2021. Retrieved 13 September 2022.
  13. ^ Bryan, Beverley (2022). "From migrant to settler and the making of a Black community: an autoethnographic account". In Scafe, Suzanne; Dunn, Leith L. (eds.). African-Caribbean women interrogating diaspora - post-diaspora. London New York (N.Y.): Routledge. ISBN 978-0-367-72613-3.
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