During Black “Her-story” Month, the Emperial Group pauses to acknowledge a truth we don’t hear often enough: Bermuda’s progress has been shaped not only by protest and resistance, but also by courageous leadership that made space — sometimes quietly, sometimes contentiously — for Black Bermudians to thrive.

This year, we are revisiting a moment that is frequently remembered through conflict alone: the 1997 concert curfew controversy involving our founding roots in Dred and Baha Animal Productions.

That episode has long been framed as a stand-off between government and culture. But a fuller account demands more than the headline version. It requires us to also name the support, access and institutional doors that were opened — especially by Dame Pamela Gordon, Bermuda’s groundbreaking Premier (1997-98), whose contributions to Black empowerment are too often left in the margins.

The Emperial Group grew out of the work of Dred and Baha in the mid-1990s — an energy-driven movement grounded in community. Cofounded by Andrew Phillips, Jill Bascome and Gladwyn Simmons, Dred and Baha used dancehall culture, live events and social messaging to reach young people who were too often ignored except when they were being blamed. We created spaces for expression and belonging. We blended entertainment with civic action — promoting voter registration, challenging violence and confronting political apathy. Those efforts helped to shape youth engagement, leading into the 1998 election, when the Progressive Labour Party’s victory marked an historic turning point for Bermuda.

In 1997, we publicly opposed a policy requiring open-air concerts to end by 1am. We believed that it clashed with the lived reality of Bermudian nightlife and Black cultural practice, where crowds frequently arrive late and events are expected to run into the early-morning hours.

We argued that the curfew threatened the economic viability of promoters, shortened what audiences paid for and risked dispersing energised young people without enough safe, structured spaces to go next. That frustration was real. The petition was real. The tension was real. But so is the part of the story that rarely gets told.

Long before she became Premier, Pamela Gordon — then-Minister of Youth, Sport and Recreation (1992-95) — helped make it possible for grassroots organisers like us to do our work. She supported access to public parks and non-residential venues, enabling community events and concerts that brought young people together in supervised, organised settings. That mattered. Access is not a small thing in a small place. For many community builders, access is the difference between an idea and a movement.

Even the curfew itself — while painful for promoters and culturally disruptive in our view — was not simply a dismissal of Black culture. It was shaped by competing demands: public safety, noise complaints, policing concerns and the pressure to balance economic life with social order. Whether one agreed with the policy or not, it reflected a governing reality that required negotiation among stakeholders, including promoters, police and the wider community.

Our point today is not to rewrite history into something comfortable. It is to tell it completely.

Dame Pamela Gordon stands as a singular figure in Bermuda’s political story: the first female premier, the youngest premier and the first woman to hold that office in any British Overseas Territory at the time. Her rise mattered, not as symbolism alone, but as proof that Black Bermudian leadership could occupy spaces that had historically felt out of reach for many. Her life also reflects a Bermudian truth: resilience is often built under pressure.

As the daughter of Dr EF “Mazumbo” Gordon — physician, parliamentarian and founder of the Bermuda Industrial Union — she inherited a legacy rooted in the fight for equality and worker dignity. Yet she also carved her own path, overcoming personal challenges, building a career in business and entering politics in 1989. As Premier, she led during an era marked by heated debates around national direction, social equity and Bermuda’s future.

After office, her service continued internationally and in civic life. Her honours — including being appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire — recognise a record that deserves more public memory than it receives at present.

The Emperial Group has never been an organisation that runs from hard conversations. We were built for them. But maturity — community maturity — also means being able to look back and say: even in the moments we disagreed, we can acknowledge who showed up for the people. Dame Pamela Gordon did. In ways that were visible, and in ways that were administrative and structural. In ways that made room for youth culture to exist in public space.

As we continue our work — youth empowerment, antiviolence efforts, cultural programming and future initiatives such as the Sounds of Sanctuary campaign for DJ diplomacy in the hood — we offer this statement as both tribute and correction: a necessary widening of the lens.

This Black “Her-Story” Month, we honour Dame Pamela Gordon not as a footnote to controversy, but as a builder — one whose leadership forms part of the foundation beneath the cultural and civic movements that followed. Because “Her-story” is not separate from ours. It is woven into the same Bermudian fabric: struggle, advancement, disagreement and progress — moving forward anyway.

• Eugene Dean represents the Emperial Group in partnership with the Trustees of the Somers Pride of India Lodge, 899, GUOOF. The Emperial Group is built on the legacy of the United Cultural Committee, with Dread and Baha as its predecessor