Cheryl Byron
Cheryl
Byron Founder/Executive Director- started her life as a visual artist in her
native land, Trinidad & Tobago. There she also Studied dance with Neville
Shepard and acted with the Caribbean Theater Guild. While on tour in New York,
her artwork won her a scholarship to the New School, where she studied fine art.
She then obtained B.A. and M.A. degrees in English from City College (CUNY)
while maintaining her professional life, including being the first one to
perform her own original brand of poetry in a calypso tent in Trinidad. She is a
pioneer of the genre “Rapso” and “Dub Poetry.” She Studied dance with
Pearl Reynolds, and became a member of the Primus Board “ Earth Theater.”
She then became Dr. Primus’s special assistant, accompanying her on her
numerous teaching and choreographing assignments, including Alvin Ailey American
Dance Theater. Cheryl Byron has performed nation ally as well as worldwide, her
talent taking her to such places as Canada, Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica, London,
Kenya and Nigeria. She is an ordained Rev. Mother in the Spiritual Baptist Faith
and an adjunct professor at Medgar Evers College and the College of New Rochelle
in Brooklyn. She also taught at City College, and NYC Tech. Ms. Byron is
presently completing her Dissertation at N.Y.U. for a PhD in Performance Studies
with a Certificate in Museum Studies. She played one of the lead roles in the
film “Homecoming,” aired on P.B.S. Ch13, Published poet in a anthology of
poetry “Woman Rise,” and featured on the album of dub poetry- “Womantalk,”
Heartbeat Records. She thanks God and the orishas, saints, deities, ancestors
and the Something Positive Family and extended family and friends. Cheryl is
especially dedicated to the children and believes that the youth is our best
investment.
Cheryl Byron passed into
the land of the Ancestors on June 17, 2003
"Iba aye Iba aye Iba aye tonu"
Portrait By K. Cox
