Velma Pollard, the Jamaican cultural activist, educator, linguist and writer, passed on to the realm of the Ancestors on Saturday 1st February 2025. The Caribbean literary community is in mourning for this daughter of the region who was passionate in her love of the Jamaican nation language/patwa, and Caribbean culture in general.

Both Pollard and her sister Erna Brodber (social activist and writer) were brought up immersed in an understanding
of the heritage and value of indigenous and traditional knowledge.

Winning the Casa de las Americas Prize in 1992, for the novella Karl, Velma Pollard continued to build on an impressive body of creative writing, with five collections of poetry and three short story collections. Her book Dread Talk: The Language of Rastafari became a instant classic and many others are staples of the Caribbean literary canon.
Her impactful research focus on Caribbean women writers, Creole languages emanating from the Anglophone Caribbean, as well as the language of Caribbean literature, would find Pollard bringing forth texts like 'Anansesem - A Collection of Folk Tales, Legends and Poems for Juniors', 'Considering Woman' and 'From Jamaican Creole to Standard English: A Handbook for Teachers'.

The British Library holds titles about and by Velma Pollard. The following are some examples of what can be accessed:

Erna Brodber and Velma Pollard: Folklore and Culture in Jamaica by Violet Harrington Bryan YC.2023.a.841
Karl: Monologue - in the mind of - a man! by Velma Pollard YK.2009.a.31871
The Best Philosophers I Know Can't Read or Write by Velma Pollard YK.2008.a.5992
Anansesem: A collection of folk tales, legends and poems by Velma Pollard YD.2005.a.4795
From Jamaican Creole to Standard English: A Handbook for Teachers by Velma Pollard YA.2001.b.1763
Dread Talk: The Language of Rastafari by Velma Pollard YA.1994.a.18156

 

Go well Ms. Pollard and Thank You! May You be in the joyous company of the Ancestors.

Nicole-Rachelle Moore
Curator, Contemporary Caribbean Collections