Who is Faybiene Miranda?

Born on June 30, 1950 in Panama City, Panama, Faybiene Miranda began her journey earthside as the eldest of 8 children to Mr. and Mrs. Perry Walters. From the age of 5, Faybiene became familiar with moving frequently. In 1955, she, her 3 siblings, soon to be 4, and parents arrived at Ellis Island on a ship. She grew up in a one family household in many places from an early age due to her father’s employment as the Chief Hospital Corpsman for the United States Navy. Before graduating from high school in 1968, she lived in Maryland, Ohio, multiple areas in California, back to Panama, and Virginia. Soon after high school, Faybiene’s independent spirit chose to spring free leaving her family in Virginia following love to land in Boston, MA. While going to school and supporting herself she came across a movie, The Harder They Come, which moved her spirit so deeply she chose to seek a closer look in person. 

A long way from home, Faybiene Miranda landed in Kingston, Jamaica alone on a one way ticket due to her requested job transfer obtained while working for an international hotel. Her simmering passion for revolution, social equity and equality was set ablaze once landing a position at the Playboy Mansion of Ocho Rios. She quickly became a well known Playboy bunny for her exotic looks and eventually phenomenal mind as greats like Bob Marley recognized her talent for writing. By 1976, Faybiene Miranda had become a shining star recognized for her unique sound, provocative costumes, revolutionary dub poetry and elaborate showcases bringing her lyrics to life on stage. Her first single Prophecy was banned by the Jamaican government due to its aim at the hearts of the people, indicting politicians for neglect and corruption, and raising the names and wisdom of Honorable Marcus Garvey and Emperor Selassie I like a sword against oppression. This single is still today noted as a collector’s item and listed as a top 100 in reggae musical recordings by Island Records and made a number one spot in the UK. In 1977, she dropped her second single Destiny in Jamaica and London. She then forged a valuable alliance with her close friend and lover at the time continuing her performances and unorthodox musical production as a band traveling internationally until the creation and birth of her only womb child, Chiriqui Cooper in 1983. After giving birth alone, she set her sights on creating a safe haven for her new family.

At age 34, she journeyed to the United States alone with help from her parents after a distressed call hoping to reconnect with her daughter’s father in order to create a familial foundation of community, stability, and security as a new mother. From homelessness, to scrubbing toilets, she worked tirelessly to establish herself. She finally landed a studio apartment from an inside favor on Ocean Avenue in Brooklyn, NY in 1985. From that point on, she dedicated her life force to establishing valuable connections with organizations and people she believed would provide the strength, empowerment, confidence, and security for Chiriqui, as she often felt she missed this as a nomadic child who struggled to experience lasting connections with her peers. 

She succeeded in becoming instrumental in every community she interacted with beginning with the first school she chose for her young child, Sparks of African Geniuses Emerging. She was a consistent member of the PTA at PS 399 during Chiriqui’s elementary years and continued to provide creative arts workshops and collaborate with the school’s performing arts department for their graduations and special events long after her child’s graduation. In 1989, she placed her support behind a young entrepreneurial woman, Kwayera Archer, who at the age of 24 decided to leave her legacy by teaching young girls self empowerment through the power of dance, after begging to have underaged Chiriqui accepted as a student. She stayed with Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy from that day forward as a parent until the day she transcended and left as a Founding Faculty member, IYE Director, Rites of Passage Lead Facilitator, Arts Education Program Director and Core member in 2013.

During her time living in Brooklyn, on March 2, 1991 she married her lifelong partner Clifford “Moonie” Pusey and started making music again. They collaborated to create the band Highly-I, the music school, and many various projects within the public school system to bring awareness to thousands about the power of words and music as a means for healing, creativity, and progressive education. 

The rest is history. Over her lifetime she performed and collaborated on national and international stages with world-renowned artists such as The Last Poets, Steel Pulse, Sandra St. Victor, Yewande, the Black Rock Coalition, Poet Jessica Care Moore, Mutabaruka, Supa Nova Slom, Atiba Wilson, The Family Stand, author and Poet Asha Bandele, Activist Benjamin Zephaniah, and Professor and Poet Safiya Bandele. Faybiene’s poetic credits are ever living in publications including Sun and Moon with Mutabaruka, ‘Itations of Jamaica’, ‘I RasTafari’ (the trinity publications), Professor Kamau Braithwaite’s publication Savacou’: an anthology of Caribbean women writers (I Am That I Am), ‘Tonic: Restorative Poetry for the Living’, CD recording ‘MOUTH’, amongst various other publications and magazines including the evolved minds of her students and the new generation who continues to learn and share her children’s poetry and songs at Ifetayo Cultural Arts Academy today. 

Amongst her numerous accolades as a community activist and advocate for arts in education she was awarded the Ifetayo Founders Award in 2003, recognized by former Senator Carl Andrews in 2004 for her commitment to youth development throughout New York CIty, held a TEDxDUMBO talk Power of Words in May 2010, and received the PASEsetter Afterschool teacher’s award in 2012.