Out There Without Fear Dialogue Speakers
Who We Are
Joelle Powe
Moderator, Documentarian, Visual Anthropologist
Joelle Powe is a visual anthropologist, documentary filmmaker, program developer, researcher, and writer based in Kingston, Jamaica.
Latonya Style
Dancehall Entreupeneur, CEO of Dance Jamaica
Style is a world-renowned spearhead of Dancehall culture and Jamaica's dance industry. She is the creator of the original Dancehall female style, Stylish Moves and the founder and CEO of Dance Jamaica Academy. She has travelled to more than 40 countries teaching Dancehall dance.
Dr. Carolyn Cooper
Award Winning Cultural and Literary Scholar
Professor Cooper is the author of
Sound Clash: Jamaican Dancehall Culture At Large (2004) and Noises In the
Blood: Orality, Gender, and the 'Vulgar' Body of Jamaican Popular Culture (1993).
She is the editor of the award-winning collection: Global Reggae (2012). Professor Cooper initiated the establishment of the Reggae Studies Unit at the University of the West Indies, Mona, For her outstanding work in the field of Education, Professor Cooper was awarded the national honour, the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander in 2013.
Herbie Miller
Musicologist and Director/Curator of Jamaica Music Museum
Herbie Miller is a musicologist, producer, artist
manager, museum director, historian, songwriter, cultural critic, and intellectual giant. A legendary expert on the industry, having been Peter Tosh’s former manager, he offers deep lectures on the evolution of Jamaican music, the metaphors behind lyrics, and the unwritten histories behind Jamaica’s music culture. In 2019, he was awarded the Order of Distinction in the rank of Commander for his elevation of Jamaican art and music.
Kool Kid
Popular Dancer
Award-winning Dancehall dancer, Kool Kid gave the world the dance moves Breadfruit, Rice and Peas, Rubba Bounce, Bap, and Jordan Foot. He says dancing saved his life.
Beverley Manley Duncan
Former First Lady, Gender and Sexuality Scholar, Politcal Scientist, Broadcaster
Beverley Manley Duncan is a champion for women’s rights and early childhood education. Married to Michael Manley between 1972 and 1993, as the wife of the Prime Minister, she threw herself into the work of transforming the lives of the average Jamaican.
As a former leader of the PNP Women’s Movement, she is credited for bringing women’s issues to the forefront of the People’s National Party’s agenda during the 70s, which introduced equal pay for women and paid maternity leave. She is celebrated for opening Jamaica House to the public through community and social initiatives such as the founding of the Jamaica House Basic School in 1974.
Beverley was inspired to write the controversial book, the Manley Memoirs, in 2008 to feed the burning interest of young people who wanted to learn about the 1970s in Jamaica.
Beverley has lectured on gender and politics at several prestigious universities across the USA including Harvard University and Howard University.
She is renowned for her career as a broadcaster and host of various radio programmes.
Dr. Dennis Howard
Lecturer, Author, Personality, and Producer
Dr Dennis Howard, author, lecturer and creative industries consultant is a veteran broadcaster, who has worked in radio and television as a personality, producer, programme manager, editor and entertainment writer.
Howard is the founding Programme Manager and afternoon presenter at Irie FM, one of the most successful radio stations in Jamaica. His show, the Riddim Magic, rose to the number one spot just months after its inception. He was also the producer of the very popular talk show Man Talk on Television Jamaica.
A Grammy-nominated record producer, Dr. Howard has served in various capacities in the music business, including artist manager, publicist and production manager.
A prolific writer and a voice in the media, Dr Howard has authored two books, Rantin From Inside the Dancehall in 2012 and his most recent, The Creative Echo Chamber: Contemporary Music Production in Kingston Jamaica.
With a doctorate in Cultural Studies and Ethnomusicology, Dr Howard is a most sought-after presenter at conferences, especially in the United Kingdom, Brazil, the U.S.A, Mexico, South Africa, Japan, Ghana and several CARICOM countries.
Dr. Donna Hope
Author, Professor of Culture, Gender and Society, Media Commentator
Donna P. Hope, PhD is a tenured Professor of Culture, Gender and Society and former Deputy Dean of Graduate Studies and Research in the Faculty of Humanities and Education, University of the West Indies. A former Director of the ICS, she was Program Chair of the inaugural Global Reggae Conference (2008), and organized and chaired three International Reggae Conferences, (2010, 2013, 2015). A specialist in the areas of popular culture, identity, masculinities, and media, Professor Hope’s work tackles Jamaican/Caribbean cultures of identity-making as they intersect with power domains.
She has published hundreds of academic and popular articles, five academic books.
Professor Hope was the 2017 Distinguished Alumna in Cultural Studies, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, at George Mason University.
She is the founder of The Dancehall Archive and Research Initiative (www.dancehallarcive.org) which preserves, innovates and disseminates information about dancehall culture.
Maria Hitchins
Dance Lecturer and Advocate
Hitchins is an adjunct dance lecturer at the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing Arts, where, in 2015, she introduced the first accredited Dancehall Dance course. Her thesis for her Masters of Philosophy in Cultural Studies is "Dutty Wining in the New Millennium: Jamaica’s Street Dancers Negotiating While Navigating Local and Global Challenges".
Cyrielle Tamby
Cultural Scientist, Author, Dancer
Cyrielle Tamby is a diasporic researcher with multiple backgrounds from India, Vietnam and Congo. She is also a fundraising manager for Diversity & Inclusion at MINCE e.V., dancer, member of the Berliner dance crew Primetime Dimension, as well as part of the collective BlackWomxnMatter Deutschland, that highlights Black female and queer entrepreneurs. With a MA in Sociocultural Studies in Berlin (Europa-Universität Viadrina) and as Visiting Scholar at UC Berkeley in African Diaspora Studies and Black Geographies, Cyrielle has traveled regularly to Jamaica to attend dance workshops and conduct her academic research with Jamaican
scholars. In 2017 she published her first book entitled “Welches Geschlecht hat Dancehall? Eine Auseinandersetzung mit Gender- und postkolonialistischen Theorien in der Dancehallforschung” which deals with how gender relationships are portrayed in dancehall. Cyrielle Tamby has been invited to high-ranked universities – such as UC Berkeley, Sciences Po Paris, UvA Amsterdam, King ́s College London – to introduce her research on her second book "Resist(d)ance: Resistance and Dance within the postcolonial lives of Jamaican Dancehall street
dancers".
Richard Stewart
Cinematographer and Video Editor
Viral visual content creator, Richard Stewart is the Chief Video Editor at Adtelligent, the leading digital marketing company in Jamaica. He was the cinematographer and master editor behind Out There Without Fear. Stewart offers his rich perspective on connecting to subjects for collecting stories in the interview process of filmmaking and listening to interviews with the final product in mind.