Cheryl Byron

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Cheryl Byron
Born	Cheryl Byron Trinidad & Tobago

Cheryl Byron (died June 17, 2003) was a visual artist. She started her studies in her native land, Trinidad & Tobago. There she also studied dance with Neville Shepard and acted with the Caribbean Theater Guild.

While on tour in New York, her artwork won her a scholarship to the New School University, where she studied fine art. Byron then obtained a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in English from City College (CUNY) while maintaining her professional life, including being the first woman to perform her own original brand of poetry in a calypso tent in Trinidad.

Byron is a pioneering performer of rapso and dub poetry. She studied dance with Pearl Primus, and became a member of the Primus Board "Earth Theater". She then became Primus' special assistant, accompanying her on her numerous teaching and choreograpy assignments, including Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Byron performed on National and International stages. Her talent took her to such places as Canada, Guyana, Barbados, Jamaica, London, Kenya and Nigeria. Byron was an ordained Reverend Mother in the Spiritual Baptist faith and a professor at Medgar Evers College and the College of New Rochelle in Brooklyn, New York. Byron also taught at City College, and New York City Technical College. Byron played one of the lead roles in the PBS film Homecoming, became a published poet in an anthology of poetry, Woman Rise, and is featured on an album of dub poetry, Womantalk, on Heartbeat Records. In addition to the aforementioned, Byron founded Something Positive, a not for profit dance organization based in New York City.