Jazz, Gender and Hoteliers - Dr Myrna Hague-Bradshaw takes the mic on stage, in school and in support of the oppressed

While pursuing a career as an accomplished jazz musician, Dr Myrna Hague-Bradshaw’s societal concerns and contributions stretch beyond the cabaret stage. This multifaceted woman splits her time between the stage life, academics, and advocacy.

Had she been raised in Jamaica, Hague guesses she may have become a teacher or a nurse. Caught up in the Windrush generation, her fate bloomed beyond standard expectations and has produced a performer, a scholar, a woman who stands solidly in an era fuelled by advocacy, and a vocal warrior for people’s rights.

Hague-Bradshaw had her start in Buff Bay, Portland, a community that she cannot recall. As a babe, her family moved to Kingston, then her mother migrated to the United Kingdom.

“Soon after that – I followed. I think that a lot of parents in my mother’s generation did that – migrated and then took their kids,” Hague told The Sunday Gleaner.

But growing up in the UK opened up myriad opportunities. “I could be anything I wanted to be because the landscape was open. I was in a good place, and I had always loved singing. It became an obvious choice.”

“My mother didn’t approve right away, but having done the secretary exam and got my 60 words in shorthand – haha! – I did what was required of me and got my first secretarial job as such. I began to buy the show-business papers, see when the auditions were happening … and I would just go to auditions,” Hague-Bradshaw revealed.

Despite the disapproval, Hague kept on until she landed her first gig at age 17 and her first tour at 18. From its start in the ’60s, her career flourished, including an enviable six seasons at the Moulin Rouge in Florence, Italy, a place where she headlines her own concerts and organises jazz festivals to this day.

A Singer & A Scholar

In the midst of this, the accomplished performer has spent time flexing other muscles in other arenas. Since earning her doctorate four years ago from the University of the West Indies, for her thesis on jazz in the Caribbean Hague has received other accolades, including a special plaque awarded to 70 graduates of a gender studies programme. Of that cohort, Hague was one of three asked to remark on the award, a request she readily embraced.

Here is an excerpt from the address: “When I was a teenager, the world – all of it – was dominated by men, partly because we did not yet have the modern technology that now allows us to know what’s going on in the world. If we could have had the information that we can so easily access now, we would have known that women all over the world were actually doing a lot of things, and we, in our small corner, would have been encouraged – just to know that we weren’t alone.

“In my own profession, the struggle has been immense because I always felt emotionally and physically vulnerable, but I have survived relatively intact. I feel honoured to be in this company of women achievers.”

As a long-standing executive member of the Jamaica Federation of Musicians affiliates union, she urges others to attach themselves to something similar for their own protection.

Madness

Hague-Bradshaw offered an example that hit close to home. “I just heard yesterday that a particular hotel on the north coast, there’s a black door for staff and a white door for guests coming into the hotel. I am shocked at these things. You can’t be in your own country and be treated as a third-class citizen. This is madness.”

So to prevent against such treatment persisting, Hague-Bradshaw continues to advocate for musicians and encourages them to band together in an organised fashion.

“A lot of us in our environment, the workplace is the hotel industry. That is where the musicians get up and go to work every day, five days a week. Without representation, you’re gonna have people telling you to walk around to the back door. If you are really rich and can employ your own lawyer, that’s fine. But some of us artistes never become that. But you can still earn a living at the job that you like, and you need to have representation.

“Not everybody is going to be a rich reggae singer; not everybody is going to be Bob Marley,” she added.