Amina Blackwood-Meeks

AMINA BLACKWOOD MEEKS is DactaNanse

Jamaican-born, Caribbean National, bonafide Citizen of the World

Writer, director, performer, and custodian of the oral tradition

Lecturer-researcher-farmer, widely acknowledged for her instrumental contribution to the recent renaissance of the art-form of traditional Caribbean storytelling

A teller of traditional and contemporary tales

Her deep, rich, dramatic and deliberate voice brings stories from the heads of the ancestors, connecting ancient wit and wisdom with modern needs.

Amina is confidently bilingual in English and Jamaican

She has been described as:

"The complete Caribbean teller. Her telling of Ananse stories is unique and exciting". Cayman National Cultural Foundation

"A VOICE THAT MUST BE HEARD", Tim Hector, Antigua

"AN OUTRAGEOUS COMBINATION OF GLITZ AND THOUGHTFULNESS, OF ENTERTAINMENT AND EDUCATION", Ken Corsbie

"ONE OF THE MOST DYNAMIC AND CHARISMATIC PROPONENTS OF STORYTELLING"...Caribbean Week

Biographical information

Amina has always worked in the fields of communication, human and cultural development.
She is a political scientist, early childhood educator, research student in Cultural Studies at the University of the West Indies, Mona, Director� of the Culture In Education Programme in the Ministry of Education, Jamaica.

Founder of Ntukuma, The Storytelling Foundation of Jamaica, 2002

Founder/Artistic Director of LikkleStoryFest, an annual storytelling festival for children, operating since 2002

Founder/Artistic Director, Child's Play, Antigua, 1992

Founder, Zebra Theatre Group, Antigua, 1987

Founding Member, Theatre Group for National Liberation, Jamaica, 1976

Workshop Facilitator

Motivational Speaker

Lecturer in Caribbean History and Aesthetics