Miss louise bennett biography of george
Jamaica’s cultural ambassador – Louise Bennett
Long before judges crowned royalty to winners of national pageants naming them Miss World, Miss Universe and queen of territories, Jamaica’s Louise Bennett reigned as the queen of patois and worldwide regarded, Miss Lou.
Born Sept. 7, 1919 in Kingston, Jamaica, Bennett was the only child of Cornelius Bennett, a baker and Kerene Robinson, a dressmaker. Her father died when she was young.
Therefore, she was raised by her single parent, mother.
Bennett by her own words said she was an average student. But she loved to communicate. Eventually she emerged a poet, folklorist, writer and educator.
She was instrumental in enabling the legitimization of the Jamaican dialect of the people giving literary recognition to patois.
Her recitations entertained and amused the average citizen but also influenced other poets, including Mutabaruka and Britain-based Linton Kwesi-Johnson.
She appeared in leading humorous roles in several Jamaican pantomimes and television shows. Among her comedic routines, her parting salutation was always “walk good.” The full sentiments extended the hope: “… and may good duppy (ghosts) follow you.”
She taught drama and folklore at the University of the West Indies. She also worked at the Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation.
She travelled throughout the world promoting the culture of Jamaica through lectures and performances on stage, radio, television and films.
Although her popularity was international, she enjoyed celebrity status in her native Jamaica, Canada and the United Kingdom. Ironically, Bennett was ostracized by educated Jamaicans who saw the local patois as inferior to the preferred Oxford English. Initially, the island’s premiere newspaper — The Gleaner — refused to publish her poems. However, later the publ When I was ten years old, I found a book at my local library called MANGO SPICE: 44 Caribbean Songs. Growing up in Toronto in the 1980’s, as a Canadian-born Black child of Jamaican immigrants, I had never seen a book and a cassette tape which profiled songs from my cultural background. I borrowed them and soon my sister and I were trying to learn the songs. My parents overheard our attempts and, recognizing the melodies, sang along with us. I remember that many of these songs were credited to Louise Bennett. But who was Louise Bennett? Many years later, I was taking a writing non-fiction for children course at George Brown College in Toronto. I was given an assignment— to write a query letter and an excerpt of the biography. I knew immediately who I would write about— Louise Bennett – ‘Miss Lou’. That was in 2012. I wrote A Likkle Miss Lou in the poetry style of Louise Bennett, advocating for the use of patois. I had experienced the appeal of her words first- hand in a Canadian classroom when I taught her poetry to my first grade students. At the time, I was teaching at the Africentric Alternative School in Toronto. Most of my students were children of Caribbean parents and when given Bennett’s poem “Education, Studeration”, they loved her patois words which were fun to say. My students “ate them up”. After that first workshop, I continued writing and attending workshops, conferences, and courses. I wrote five children’s books which were published— Malaika’s Costume, Malaika’s Winter Carnival, Harriet Tubman: Freedom Fighter, Sankofa Music, and Sankofa Media. I organized book launches and tours, presented in schools and festivals, continued teaching, and kept writing. In October 2017, I attended a writing biography workshop in Pennsylvania and my instructor said that it is ideal to publish a biography close to a significant Description A Kirkus Reviews most anticipated picture book of fall 2019, new from Nadia L. Hohn, named one of CBC's "6 Black Canadian writers to watch." Louise Bennett Coverley, better known as Miss Lou, was an iconic poet and entertainer known for popularizing the use of patois in music and poetry internationally--helping to pave the way for artists like Harry Belafonte and Bob Marley to use patois in their work. This picture book tells the story of Miss Lou's early years, when she was a young girl growing up in Jamaica. As a child, Miss Lou loved words--particularly the Jamaican English, or patois, that she heard all around her. As a young writer, Miss Lou felt caught between writing "lines of words like tight cornrows," as her teachers instructed, and words that beat more naturally "in time with her heart." The uplifting and inspiring story of a girl finding her own voice, this is also a vibrant, colorful, and immersive look at an important figure in our cultural history. With rich and warm illustrations bringing the story to life, A Likkle Miss Lou is a modern ode to language, girl power, diversity, and the arts. End matter includes a glossary of Jamaican patois terms, a note about the author's "own voice" perspective as a Jamaican-Canadian writer, and a brief biography of Miss Lou and her connection to Canada, where she lived for 20 years. Publication date August 15, 2019 Classification Non-fiction BISAC categories JNF007030 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Biography & Autobiography | Literary Library of Congress categories Biographies The poet Louise Bennett Coverley (1919-2006), a seminal figure of the Caribbean As we near the end of Poetry month, today I share with you a post I did about writing A Likkle Miss Lou: How Jamaican Poet Louise Bennett-Coverley Found Her Voice. This book about Jamaica’s most celebrated poet, Cultural Ambassador, and Mother of Jamaican culture, Dr. Louise Bennett Coverley, took seven years to write. This article was first published while I was the Open Book writer in residence. You can read the blogpost in its entirety here, but I’ve decided to include some excerpts below. Born in Kingston in 1919, Miss Lou is the mother of Jamaican culture, a cultural ambassador, singer, poet, playwright, actress, television show host, author, radio personality, ethnomusicologist, popular educator in drama, wife, mother to adopted children, and woman way ahead of her time. Sadly, I had never met Louise Bennett. But if I had, I think we would be very good friends. It’s been quite “a trip” with A Likkle Miss Lou. Bringing it into the world was slow and frustrating at times. In the background, I was going through many life changes. I will take you through the 7 year journey to bring this 32 page picture book from conceptualization, research, grant-applications to support a research trip to Jamaica, editing, critiquing, pitching, and revising. Please know that while I was working on this book, I was working on others. I guess that makes me a polyscribe? A multiscribe? When I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2010, the disease added “fire” to my drive to write and publish my stories. I had treatment mostly in 2011, then my return to work as a classroom teacher at the Africentric Alternative School, where I was an inaugural teacher, was gradual. While still on part-time hours in 2012, I was singing with the Heritage Singers (a local Caribbean folk choir), planning my wedding, and taking a Writing Non-Fiction for C
A LIKKLE MISS LOU:How Jamaican Poet Louise Bennett Coverley Found Her VoiceBy: Nadia L.Hohn
A Likkle Miss Lou: How Jamaican Poet Louise Bennett Coverley Found Her Voice
JNF038050 - Juvenile Nonfiction | People & Places | Caribbean & Latin America
JNF036020 - Juvenile Nonfiction | Music | History
JUVENILE FICTION / General
Women poets
Bennett, Louise
Authors, Jamaican Publishers Weekly
Nadia’s Substack
Miss Lou portrait and I at the Jamaica, Jamaica! Exhibit in São Paolo, Brazil in 2018