Doris Harper-Wills

writer, composer, and choreographer, was born in Guyana. She is a guiding light focused on teaching the history and culture of the Caribbean Diaspora through her art forms.

She has won First Prize for her performance poetry, accepting awards from the History and Arts Council, Guyana, and Avery Hill College, Kent. She has also won the Carifesta Award (the first Black Festival of Creative Arts in Guyana), the International Women's Year Award, New York, for her contribution to civic life in Brooklyn and The Bronx, and the Top Teller Award for story-telling from Yukon Community Arts Council, Canada.

From 1976 to 1991, Doris worked in the Education Centre of the Commonwealth Institute, where she organised festivals and focus weeks. She also became Artistic Director of London Entertains, an annual festival of many cultures, which took place at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar Square, and Covent Garden. She has also composed and choreographed for St. James Church, Piccadilly and the Lambeth Conference, Canterbury.

Her songs and stories have been performed on radio and television, and in museums and parks. They can be found in collections by the EEC and UNESCO, and publications by A&C Black, Blackie, Nelson and Scholastic.

We shared the same voyage in the dark, the same grief in different languages. It is up to us to share our knowledge of African and Caribbean history with our children. It is up to us to give light and awareness to our children by informing them about their roots.