Beverley Bryan (born 18 August 1949) is a

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

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 17 English-speaking countries and territories in th ...

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. One of the first black women's groups in the UK, the BWG existed from 1973 to 1985. A socialist feminist group, it aimed to raise consciousness and organise ar ...

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 city, capital town Port Antonio, is a Parishes of Jamaica, parish located on Jamaica's northeast coast. It is situated to the north of Saint Thomas Parish, Jamaica, St Thomas and to the east of Saint Mary Parish, Ja ...

, 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 are an ethnic group in the United Kingdom. They are British citizens whose ancestry originates from the Caribbean or they are nationals of the Caribbean who reside in the UK. There are some self-identified Afro-C ...

". She and her parents eventually settled in

Brixton Brixton is a district in 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 ce ...

, London, which had a large

Afro-Caribbean Afro-Caribbean people or African Caribbean are Caribbean people who trace their full or partial ancestry to Sub-Saharan Africa. The majority of the modern African-Caribbeans descend from Africans taken as slaves to colonial Caribbean via the ...

community. Bryan studied teaching at

Keele University Keele University, officially known as the University of Keele, is a public research university in Keele, approximately from Newcastle-under-Lyme, Staffordshire, England. Founded in 1949 as the University College of North Staffordshire, Keele ...

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

, and moved back to Brixton to teach at a

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

. Bryan later undertook further studies at the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

, graduating with a

B.A. Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four years ...

in English, an

M.A. A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...

and

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is a ...

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 Olive Elaine Morris (26 June 1952 – 12 July 1979) was a Jamaican-born British-based community leader and activist in the feminist, black nationalist, and squatters' rights campaigns of the 1970s. At the age of 17, she claimed she was assaul ...

and

Liz Obi Elizabeth Obi is a British activist who was involved in the feminist, black nationalist, and squatters' rights campaigns of the 1970s. A close friend of Olive Morris, in 2009 she founded the Remembering Olive Collective, which researches and docu ...

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 Feminism, 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 Briti ...

. 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 left-wing publishing house based in London and New York City, founded in 1970 by the staff of ''New Left Review''. Renaming, new brand and logo Verso Books was originally known as New Left Books. The ...

, with a new foreword by Lola Okolosie, and including an interview with the authors by

Heidi Safia Mirza Heidi Safia Mirza (born 1958) is a British academic, who is Professor of Race, Faith and Culture at Goldsmiths, University of London,

, 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 West African influences, spoken primarily in Jamaica and among the Jamaican diaspora. A majority of the non-English wo ...

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 UNESCO leads the United Nations Literacy Decade (UNLD) under the slogan of "Literacy as Freedom". Launched at UN Headquarters in 2003, the Decade aims to increase literacy levels and empower all people everywhere. In declaring this Decade, the in ...

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 , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

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 youngest and first black female book publisherJazzmine Breary"Let' ...

) 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

* ''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 (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 Boc ...

, 2010,

References

External links

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