Q: So what did you do when arriving in Jamaica? Were you on a Caribbean travel on your way to Panama for a visit and ended up in Jamaica, like? Or what was the circumstances? A: No. When I was living in Boston at the time, I had been working for a few years in different corporations, and I found that ultimately the same stigma about being a woman in a corporation at a administrative level - whether you are a receptionist or a secretary, administrative assistant or whatever, that it always came down to, well, serving the coffee or having to hear remarks about being a woman. And by this time I had definitely developed an ability to appear very arrogant and indignant and refusing to comply with certain demands made from me. Q: The suggestive stuff, sexual harassment. A: Yeah, and I just... actually was asked to probably leave the last job I had in that capacity, but was given glowing references to anywhere else I decided I wanted to work. Because they would rather have me not there influencing the other women than to keep me there. So I decided that I really wasn't sure what I was gonna do at that time, but I knew that I wanted to move out of the United States and I really didn't know how I was going to do that, in a way that I was going to be paid. Because, of course, I definitely wasn't in a position where I could be financing travelling anywhere, let alone the Caribbean. It was just because it was my fancy. So I met someone who was actually at the time working at the Boston Playboy club. She told me "Well, if you're looking for a gig... why don't you work at the club, because you really get paid very well, there's no sexual harassment whatsoever", even as ironic as that might seem - but that's totally taboo. And most of the girls that work there are either in school or they're married, but it's really like a very high level of exclusivity to work there. So I said well, I never really thought about working in a place like that, and had my own idea of what it would be like. Long story to a short story: I ended up working there because I heard that eventually if I worked there for a period of time I can be transferred to Jamaica. Q: Mmm (chuckles). A: Long story to short, that's what happened. And it was almost like being two people there, because there were very strict rules about working there as an American in Jamaica, or in a club whereby they really wanted you to sort of continue your work hours - after-hours - with this sort of superficiality of being, y'know, part of some elite, sophisticated, social-status persona. And my integration into Jamaican society or community was that of becoming very involved with the indigenous community around the club, really getting to know the people, having relationships with the people that live in the village surrounding the club, I started to locks then - just a lot of things happening politically, moving with people that were considered undesireable to the upper echeleons of Jamaican society such as RasTafari bredren and sistren. So that was my intro into Jamaica versus the creation of this superficial Jamaica within the environment of the club itself. Q: Apart from what you have spoken about, was there anything else reggaewise in the States at that time that had caught your attention, apart from Marley, the movie? A: I mentioned 'The Israelites', Desmond Dekker. Jimmy Cliff, Bob Marley... Q: How were these names covered at this period in American media, how could you get access to the music if you wanted to know more? There was the odd club somewhere, the odd radio show, even at that stage? A: Well, I think the first piece of music was Desmond Dekker and 'The Israelites', and of course I was really young, but it was just... You know, Peter, as I said to you before, I live on a multi-dimensional level of acceptance of who and what I am as a human being, something resonates in you - it's yours, y'know. You don't graft it into you, it's you and you begin to express internally out. So when I'm hearing this music and I'm hearing the language, there was just this afffinity that made me feel as though this was mine, but where has it been and where can I get more of it. And then as I mentioned to you the movie 'The Harder They Come', the music...

Desmond Dekker

Q: I don't know exactly for how long but that movie was shown for years and years in Boston, incredibly popular for some reason in that particular city. It might've been screened there first of all in the US. A: Right, that's where I saw it. Then on that particular album there was an array I believe of different artists - apart from what Jimmy Cliff sang. And then of course when I first heard 'I Shot The Sheriff' by Eric Clapton, I was like 'I know that Eric Clapton couldn't write this song', but there's something about it, y'know. And then I think of course 'Catch A Fire', the originators of 'I Shot The Sheriff', when I heard that whole album it was like 'Oh, my God!' You know, 'this is so revolutionary, this is the instrument, this is the tool or conduit for African liberation' - the music, the lyrics. And then of course there was the Ethiopians I believe, there was this... who wrote 'Satta Massa Gana'? Q: The Abyssinians. A: Abyssinians. That kind of music, just everything that was coming out of Jamaica at that time. And when I moved to Jamaica, it was like talk about landing in the middle of a banquet. I was just writing all the time. You couldn't see me without a book. Everybody who knew me at that point in time, y'know, liked me or didn't like me, it was like 'what are you writing about?' You know, 'what are you always writing about?' It got to be a point that sometimes people would suspected me as being... Q: A spy (laughs)?! A: A sort of a spy, which was so comical, y'know. And then as I said because I was there, authentically, in those early years I began relationships with many of the artists and writers, and of course at that time it was just (chuckles)... just the crew, in the community, in the neighborhood. I didn't even realise at that time - I don't think that Bob had had that much exposure outside of Jamaica, maybe some in England. Q: And this is the period around 'Natty Dread', 1974. A: Yeah, '74/75. So that brings me up to meeting people like Mutabaruka and Bob, Jacob Miller, Horsemouth. I remember when they were doing the film... oh gosh, what was the...? Q: You mean 'Rockers'? A: Yes.

Q: That was in '77 they started filming that I think. A: Patrick who was doing that film had originally wanted me to be in that film, but... Q: Who you said? A: Patrick, he was the producer of the film. And Horsemouth was in the film, I think Jacob Miller was in the film, and they wanted me to be in the film but the part they wanted me to play was just some girl I think doing some female kind of task, maybe doing laundry or something. Q: (Chuckles) A: And after they said: "Oh, you should've just been in it", but I was just: "No, if I can't do my songs I don't just wanna be some girl". I'm me, so I wanna be me in it. So I didn't do that. But these are the people that I began consolidating relationships with, y'know, Ras Michael... Q: Kiddus I? A: Kidd-... oh, I just asked somebody yesterday if they knew where Kiddus was, because Kiddus was a very good friend of mine - is a good friend of mine, and maybe up to six months ago just called me. Yeah, Kiddus, Tommy Cowan, that whole vanguard of... Q: Talent Corporation, yeah. A: Mmm, and when I met Muta, I don't know, I guess I'll have to say in lack of better terminology, it was sort of spirit-love at first sight, because our head-space was so similar and so in synch. And he invited me to co-author a book with him. Q: Is this the book 'Outcry'? A: No, 'Outcry' came out after that. This was called 'Sun & Moon', and it was just a small compilation of maybe ten to twelve pieces each that we did together. And I mean to this day we're still in touch. Then one day I hail down a mini-van on the way to Kingston. They open the door I get in with a friend of mine and come to find out, this is Jack Ruby's personal van on the way to Kingston for a recording session. Jack began having a conversation with me having seen me in the village of Ochi asking 'what do I do' and 'how come I'm always carrying this book? He just decided to stop and pick me up and let me drive into Kingston to the studio that he was going to that day, and that was the beginning of our relationship.

Faybiene Miranda in Ochi (Ocho Rios)

Mutabaruka

Q: What was his stature like in that village at this time? As a newcomer in Ochi, how aware were you of his status there? I can imagine a lot was centered around his activities in that village. A: Jack Ruby, I was very aware of Jack Ruby in Ocho Rios. Q: He had a sound system. A: He had a sound system, he had a soccer team. He was the personification for me of what a socialist is. He took care of so many people, Peter. I mean, his yard and his home... Q: The 'private social worker', like. A: He was like the 'Godfather of social work'. When he cooked, he had cooks. And I'm sure that on a daily basis no less than probably thirty to forty people ate. And anybody - and a lot of people might have whatever to say about Jack, but I consider Jack like my Godfather there who brought me into the musical culture without ever having to say directly to me what it was to be like being a conscientious upholder of social responsibility, Jack did it. And I have to give him like a big up, because here he was, y'know, a producer producing Burning Spear and producing... Q: Justin Hinds. A: Yeah, Justin... he had Justin. Oh gosh, Tyrone...

Justin Hinds

Tyrone Taylor

Q: Taylor? A: Yeah, and the Black Disciples... Q: And Righteous Foundation, which was really the Gaylads - or should I add their second line-up, sort of anyway. A: Exactly! And he had the... you know, he just had all this music constantly bubbling, and everything that everybody did around him was conscious. You couldn't come to Jack with anything soft. And so when he read - I gave him my notebook on our way to Kingston, he started reading some of my stuff and he was like - excuse me for saying this, but it was like: "Bumbaclaat, dis work is haaard ya know dawta!" (laughs). Q: There wasn't exactly a flow of female artists at this time in the music - if there ever has been, Jack's stable was no exception. He didn't have many female singers at all, if any, apart from you. A: No, nobody did. I mean, who really did? I think that, y'know, we found that he was very supportive and intrigued with, here he's lookin' at me as this... he used to call me 'Red' - 'Red Dread', right, and he just looked at me, 'cause he's saying he used to see me walk past his house all the time and 'who was this gal', y'know. 'Who was this crazy woman who had been dressed just crazy', and very just individual - didn't really follow any... anybody's habit of dressing one way or the other. Skirts one day, shorts and cowboy boots the next, military garb another day - it was like 'who was this?!' And for Jack to be able to just say to me: 'I'd like to work with you, I love your work', he said: "I don't see anybody who writes like this except like maybe Bob or Peter, and there's no woman doing this, would you like to work with me?" And I said no, I'm not a singer, but I'd love to sing 'cause I'd always be singin', y'know. Any time I would hear music I loved singin'. Q: What sort of stuff did you grow up with, musically, both in Panama and the States later on? A: Well, not really Panama, it was the United States.

Faybiene Miranda ('This Morning' poster)

Q: Can you recall still what was being played down in Panama? A: In Panama? Well of course Panamanian music, exclusively. My mother sings and, y'know, the radio plays Spanish music and... Q: Mainly merengue in other words? A: Yes. But that was what I was dancing to, Panamanian music. It's just a liveliness about the music that even today... well, actually when I was in Cuba a couple of years ago it was almost a semi home-coming because of just the music, and the vibe was so similar to what I remember growing up as a little girl and dancing to. And then of course growing up in the United States for me I totally loved rock music. Q: What sort of acts? A: Who did I love? I loved the Doors, Jimi Hendrix. I actually saw the Doors, I saw Jimi Hendrix. I listened to... I loved Joni Mitchell because of her lyrics, Laura Nyro, Marvin Gaye, Bob Dylan - lyrically again... Q: Richie Havens? A: Definitely Richie Havens... gosh... Q: The Greenwich Village scene, that's good. A: I always liked the San Francisco music, I think I saw Cream. Q: The Grateful Dead (chuckles)? A: I didn't really care too much for the Grateful Dead, but I...

Bob Marley

Kiddus I

Q: Janis Joplin I suppose? A: Oh, definitely Janis Joplin. But when I heard Bob Marley and the Wailers, it superceded anything that I ever heard, rhythmically, musically the content, the spiritual fire, y'know, this was it. And I just remember at one point coming up to New York with a friend of mine from Jamaica who was a fashion designer I took up, to help her to get some kind of a stage show, and walking up trying to find any Bob Marley and the Wailers music and nobody had ever heard of him at that point, it must have been '75. Just interesting how quickly after that the music would begin to really penetrate America. It was the kind of music that inspires me: hard lyrics, something that you could move to - not just with your feet but with your body, and like a call to arms, music that said 'wake up', y'know, 'do something, say something, be something'. And most of the music was always about loving somebody, well, I think what I write about is about love, it's about loving yourself and loving your own power... loving humanity, loving earth, loving freedom, loving truth and rights. Q: More about humanity on a whole. A: Compassion, generosity, the spirit, co-existence. Q: A higher tolerance perhaps, seeing the individuality among people. A: Exactly. And thinking beyond the surface of life and finding an association with your ancestors, with humanity's ancestors looking at what a possible future can be if we re-evaluate our priorities. Holding people accountable in leadership positions, y'know, that is for me music and poetry, the responsibility that I had to play that part, because everybody has a role to play. That was what my listening was about, the bottom line, y'know, the fiscal line: 'who's gonna pay?' (chuckles). And if one person have to pay everybody gotta pay. Q: So moving up to the recordings with Jack, what brought 'Prophecy' to his attention? It was that trip to Kingston that made it? A: We had the trip to Kingston, he read my work, he wanted Spear to record 'Prophecy'. That was the - I told him if I ever did anything, if anything was ever recorded, that because my purpose and motivation was to uplift people by what I wrote, I wanted to pay tribute to Marcus Garvey, and that was the song I wanted to have recorded.

Burning Spear

Q: How aware were you, while still living in the States, of the works of Marcus Garvey? A: Oh, at that time? Nothing. Q: What a revelation that must've been, learning about him at that time - in Jamaica. A: That's why it was such a shock, 'cause I said: "Imagine, this kind of literature has been hidden from us", never presented. I mean, of course I don't know if you know, but growing up in America in the sixties there's barely a sentence - maybe two or a paragraph at the most if it's needed - attributed to slavery in the United States of America, let alone any leaders that one might've identified with. Q: America has sadly enough hardly dealt with its shameful past, they cover up a lot of this in the history presented, although I believe it has changed for the better in later years at least. A: You know. So finding out about Marcus and of course meeting with people like Mutabaruka and Kiddus I for instance, these were brothers that were very literate, I started being exposed to these kind of publications.

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Article: Peter I (Please do not reproduce without permission)