Beverley Bryan (born 18 August 1949) is a

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

n educationist and retired academic who was a professor of language education at the

University of the West Indies The University of the West Indies (UWI), originally University College of the West Indies, is a public university system established to serve the higher education needs of the residents of 18 English-speaking countries and territories in t ...

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 The Brixton Black Women's Group (BWG) was an organisation for Black women in Brixton, London, England. One of the first Black women's groups in the UK, the BWG existed from 1973 to 1989. BWG members were also involved in Organisation of Women o ...

and co-authored the 1985 book '' The Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain''.

Early life

Bryan was born in

Portland, Jamaica Portland (), with its capital town Port Antonio, is a parish located on Jamaica's northeast coast. It is situated to the north of St Thomas and to the east of St Mary in Surrey County. It is one of the rural areas of Jamaica, containing part ...

, but immigrated to England in 1959 to join her parents who had gone ahead to Britain in 1953, as part of the "

Windrush generation British African-Caribbean people or British Afro-Caribbean people are an ethnic group in the United Kingdom. They are British citizens or residents of recent Caribbean heritage who further trace much of their ancestry to West and Central Africa. ...

". She and her parents eventually settled in

Brixton Brixton is an area of South London, part of the London Borough of Lambeth, England. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Brixton experienced a rapid rise in population during the 19th century ...

, London, which had a large

Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean or African Caribbean people are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern Afro-Caribbean people descend from the Indigenous peoples of Africa, Africans (primarily fr ...

community. Bryan studied teaching at

Keele University Keele University is a Public university#United Kingdom, public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, it was granted uni ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation ''Staffs''.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It borders Cheshire to the north-west, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, ...

, and moved back to Brixton to teach at a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, India, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, South Africa, and Singapore), elementary school, or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary ...

. Bryan later undertook further studies at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

, graduating with a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

in English, an M.A. and Ph.D. in language education. She was a member of the

British Black Panthers The British Black Panthers (BBP) or the British Black Panther movement (BPM) was a Black Power organisation in the United Kingdom that fought for the rights of black people and racial minorities in the country. The BBP were inspired by the US ...

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), a collective that shared similar radical views. 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 Virago is a British publisher of women's writing and books on feminist topics. Started and run by women in the 1970s and bolstered by the success of the Women's Liberation Movement (WLM), Virago has been credited as one of several British femin ...

. 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." The book was reissued in 2018 by

Verso Books Verso Books (formerly New Left Books) is a publishing house based in London and New York City, founded in 1970 by the staff of ''New Left Review'' (NLR) and includes Tariq Ali and Perry Anderson on its board of directors. According to its webs ...

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

Career

In 1992, Bryan moved back to Jamaica to join the

(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 Jamaican Patois (; locally rendered Patwah and called Jamaican Creole by linguists) is an English-based creole language with influences from West African, Arawak, Spanish and other languages, spoken primarily in Jamaica and among the Jamaican ...

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. She was one of the founders of the Caribbean Poetry Project launched in 2010, a collaboration between UWI and the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

that aims to increase the visibility of Caribbean writers in the UK. Bryan was the keynote speaker at the Eighth Annual Huntley Conference in 2013, addressing the topic "Educating Our Children, Liberating Our Futures". She is a contributor to the 2019 anthology ''

New Daughters of Africa ''Daughters of Africa: An International Anthology of Words and Writings by Women of African Descent from the Ancient Egyptian to the Present'' is a compilation of orature and literature by more than 200 women from Africa and the African diaspora ...

'' (edited by

Margaret Busby Margaret Yvonne Busby, , Hon. FRSL (born 1944), also known as Nana Akua Ackon, is a Ghanaian-born publisher, editor, writer and broadcaster, resident in the UK. She was Britain's then youngest publisher as well as the first black female book p ...

) with "A Windrush Story". 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)".

Selected works

* As a member of the Brixton Black Women's Group, Bryan contributed to the group's newsletter, ''Speak Out''. * ''The Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain'', with Stella Dadzie, Suzanne Scafe;

, 1985, . New edition,

, 2018, * ''Between Two Grammars: Language Learning and Teaching in a Creole-speaking Environment'',

Ian Randle Publishers Ian Randle OD (born 7 July 1949) is a Jamaican publisher. He is the founder of an eponymous independent publishing company whose main focus is on English-language readers. He has won awards including the Prince Claus Award in 2012 and the 2019 ...

, 2010,

References

External links

"Beyond the Black Panthers Dr Beverley Bryan"
Black History Walks, 9 September 2021 (YouTube video). {{DEFAULTSORT:Bryan, Beverley 1950 births Academic staff of the University of the West Indies Alumni of Keele University Black British women writers Black British writers Alumni of the University of London Jamaican academics Jamaican emigrants to the United Kingdom Jamaican women academics Jamaican women writers Language education Living people People from Portland Parish Recipients of the Martin Luther King Memorial Prize