Farika Berhane brings stories from the mystic Blue Mountains of Jamaica, the wildly beautiful Cockpit country known as The Land of Look Behind and poetry to the beat of Nyahbinghi drums, the sound of the abeng through her culture’s nommo – power of the word. She is an accomplished writer and performer of fiction, poetry and plays a folklorist, oral historian and storyteller with a background in journalism.
Farika has performed and read her work at universities, cultural institution schools, festivals and community forums across the nation as well as in Europe and Africa. Her work is known in the ghettos of Jamaica and the United States particularly among Pan African circles, over hills and valleys and mountains in the Caribbean, at Nyahbinghi campsites and in the Maroon territories. She has opened for such well-known personalities as Gil Scott Heron and reggae icons The Wailing Souls and Freddie McGregor. She shared stage with murdered dub poet Mikey Smith and with Mutabaruka.
Nana Farika was trained as a writer by the Philip Sherlock Creative Arts Centre at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica, the London School of Journalism in England, the British Broadcasting Corporation, London, England, the Institute de Allende, University of Guanajuato, Mexico, the Circle in the Square Theater School, New York and the Gleaner Company, Kingston, Jamaica. Her short fiction, poetry, articles, radio and television scripts are published in the Caribbean, the United States, England and many European countries. Her children’s stories were published by Kingston Publishers and McGraw Hill publishers and were used for over a decade as readers in the Jamaica elementary school system.
Nana Farika is an award-winning writer with over 30 (thirty) years experience as an arts educator. Her children writing workshops are designed to develop reading fluency heighten creativity, increase comprehension skills and inculcate in children a love of the literary arts. She brings joy to the process of learning and inspires children to become eager readers and writers. She takes the writer from off the bookshelf and makes him/her a living, breathing person with relevancy to students’ lives. She offers long and short-term residencies to schools, community organizations and cultural institutions in poetry, fiction, drama and print journalism. She is also available for storytelling, poetry performances and workshops in arts education to teachers.
Her work with students addresses national education goals and fulfills the District of Columbia standards for English and the Literary Arts from Kindergarten through Grade 12. She spent several years working with California Poets in the Schools (CPITS) as a poet/teacher and consultant. CPITS was a joint project of the Arts and Humanities Program of the United States Office of Education, the National Endowment for the Arts and the California Arts Council. Her journals on her teaching experiences were published in Poetry Flash. She received grants for her work with CPITS and her students won prizes for their poetry. Her students in Washington D.C. and Detroit, have also won poetry contests, performed their poems and had them published.
Nana Farika was trained as a writer by the Philip Sherlock Creative Arts Centre at the University of the West Indies, Mona Campus, Jamaica, the London School of Journalism in England, the British Broadcasting Corporation, London, England, the Instituto de Allende, University of Guanajuato, Mexico, the Circle in the Square Theater School, New York and the Gleaner Company, and Kingston, Jamaica. Her short fiction, poetry, articles, radio and television scripts are published in the Caribbean, the United States, England and many European countries. Her children’s stories were published by Kingston Publishers and McGraw Hill and were used for over a decade as readers in the Jamaica elementary school system.
She has won awards and honors from cultural institutions, foundations, commissions and organizations for change. The D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities gave her grants for her arts education projects and her work as a folk artist and poet. The Smithsonian Institution awarded her for sharing the folk culture of the Maroon people; the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation gave her a Peer Mentoring Grant to be trained by Paddy B. Bowman, Co-coordinator Network for Folk Arts in Education and Dr. Diana N’Diaye, Folk life Specialist, Smithsonian Center for Folk life and Cultural Heritage. Oxfam America, the Organization of American States, the Humanities Council of D.C., Starbucks Foundation. The Caribbean American International Organization and the Jamaica Cultural Development
“When she walks into a classroom or whatever the setting may be, she applies her unique brand of teaching skills to both children and adults. Immediately learning begins to bloom.”
Dr. Annie B. Ashby
Former Guidance Counselor, J.C. Nalle Es
Author of “What Child is This?”
Executive Director, Ideal School of Washington D.C.
Benjamin E. Mays Chair of Urban Teaching, Learning and Leadership
In the College of Atlanta, Georgia Education,
Georgia State University.
“The progress I have noticed in Raisa’s writing and reading since Mama Farika has been teaching her is impressive.”
Professor English Department
Howard University.
“Drawing upon the children’s own cultural backgrounds, she elicits poetry, stories and journals from the children as the process of developing literacy. She has imbued her work with a rich cultural tradition and a long history of writing and teaching.”
President Children’s Studio School
June 27, 2009
June 27 Farika Berhane
