Today at Creative Writing Reading Series we welcomed the most charismatic speaker yet, a Jamaican Dub poet and storyteller, Jean “Binta” Breeze. She arrived at the university to discuss her new collection of prose poems, The Verandah Poems. It is a touching and intimate look at Jean’s life in rural Jamaica, a book of coming home and coming to terms with the choices we make throughout our lives. The poems revolve around the physical space of a verandah, where the speaker spends her time contemplating the departures and arrivals, her past, present and future. The Verandah Poems were published on the author’s 60th birthday and were written in impressively short period of time.

It’s impossible to discuss Jean “Binta” Breeze’s work without mentioning her reading of them. Without a doubt, she was the best reader we had welcomed to the series. Recited with passion, engagement and often, humour, the poems touched the most fragile parts of our souls. We would love to see Jean “Binta” Breeze coming back to Kent in the future. As for now, you can see her during her tour in the UK.