Jamaica National Treasure We celebrate Louise Bennett-Coverley our Miss Lou

Louise Simone Bennett-Coverley or Miss Lou, OM, OJ, MBE (7 September 1919 – 26 July 2006), was a Jamaican poet, folklorist, writer, and educator. Writing and performing her poems in Jamaican Patois or Creole, she worked to preserve the practice of presenting poetry, folk songs and stories in patois ("nation language").Louise Bennett was born on September 7, 1919 on North Street in Kingston, Jamaica. She was the only child of Augustus Cornelius Bennett, the owner of a bakery in Spanish Town, and Kerene Robinson, a dressmaker. After the death of her father in 1926, Bennett was raised primarily by her mother. She attended elementary school at Ebenezer and Calabar, continuing to St. Simon's College and Excelsior College, in Kingston. In 1943 she enrolled at Friends College in Highgate, St Mary where she studied Jamaican folklore. That same year her poetry was first published in the Sunday Gleaner. In 1945 Bennett became the first black student to study at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art after being awarded a scholarship from the British Council.

After graduating from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, Bennett worked with repertory companies in Coventry, Huddersfield and Amersham, as well as in intimate revues across England.[6] During her time in the country she hosted two radio programs for the BBC - Caribbean Carnival (1945-1946) and West Indian Night (1950).