Of Caribbean heritage and African descent, she was born in
Hackney and brought up in
Tottenham,
North London, the only child in a single-parent family. She graduated in Drama and Communications studies from
Middlesex University and also studied at the
London International School of Performing Arts. as well as doing other collaborative work including with visual artist
Theaster Gates, choreographer
Qudus Onikeku and dancer
Akram Khan, and has toured with other high-profile names such as
Hugh Masekela,
The Last Poets and
Baba Maal. Edwards has had commissions from
BBC Radio 3 and
Radio 4 and from the
Birmingham Rep, and for four years was Associate Artist at the
Albany Theatre, London. She was Resident Poet at the
Poetry Café in
Covent Garden, and was shortlisted for the first Arts Foundation Award for Performance Poetry in 2007, She has written and performed three solo shows,
Security (2009) — described by Annemarie Kropf as "an absolute tour de force about humanity that bonds us all", and about which
Lyn Gardner said in
The Guardian: "Edwards is a superb performer, equally at ease as an elderly Caribbean man, as a would-be teenage MC, Ayleen, or as a lonely, 47-year-old Palestinian photographer, Mahmoud" — and in 2011
Travelling Light (2011), followed by
The Fury Project. She has also produced the CDs
Healing Pool ("a clever and fresh fusion of eclectic, soulful and African traditional vibrations") and
Mine 4 Life.
Security (Flipped Eye, 2012),
No Condition is Permanent (Platform London, 2010), and
New Daughters of Africa (edited by
Margaret Busby, 2019). Among her involvement with various other activities and projects, Edwards is founder and Creative Director of ©ViD, an umbrella creative arts and activism company. ==References==