My sister poet and recording artist, Jean Binta Breeze, MBE, passed away last night in Jamaica. She had been suffering from COPD, a lung disease for some time. I first met Jean in the late nineteen seventies when she was a part of the ‘dub poetry’ movement based at the Jamaica School of Drama alongside…
It’s with great sadness that I share the news of the passing of reggae musician Vivian Weathers on 1st May 2021. We both attended Tulse Hill Secondary School in south London, were in the same class in our first year and were friends from the age of eleven. He was 69 years old. Vivian was…
Linton Kwesi Johnson is excited to be taking part in this year’s official @RSDayUK Drop on 12th June with a special release of Making History. Remastered at Abbey Road Studios and pressed on heavyweight yellow vinyl, you can get a copy from a participating indie record shop near you: https://RecordStoreDay.lnk.to/Stores #RSD21 #RSDDrops
Poet Linton Kwesi Johnson has been awarded the PEN Pinter Prize 2020. He will receive the award in a digital ceremony co-hosted by the British Library on 12 October, where he will deliver an address. Linton Kwesi Johnson was chosen by this year’s judges: The Guardian’s Associate Editor for Culture and English PEN trustee Claire…
Linton Kwesi Johnson was awarded the Golden PEN Award from English PEN on 3 December for his lifetime achievement in poetry and his record of activism. Johnson was not able to attend the ceremony at the Free Word Centre in London, but had made a video where he stressed how he has never sought validation…
I am often asked why I started to write poetry. The answer is that my motivation sprang from a visceral need to creatively articulate the experiences of the black youth of my generation, coming of age in a racist society. Some of my early work dealt with fratricidal violence and internecine warfare, not too dissimilar…
On 30 November 2011, acclaimed Jamaican musician Nambo Robinson posted on YouTube his tribute to Linton Kwesi Johnson. Entitled ‘Letter to LKJ’, it can be found here: LKJ said that it is a wondeful tribute and said to Nambo Robinson ‘I have listened to your music over the years and consider you one of the…
We have not forgotten ‘ … at the present time blacks are really very much inside British society … no longer on the periphery’ – John La Rose, 2003. The most significant date in the history of the black experience in Britain during the second half of the twentieth century is the year 1981….
UNIA Blue Plaque Unveiling on Marcus Garvey’s 124th birthday At 2 Beaumont Crescent, West Kensington on 17 August 2011 The re- interment of Marcus Garvey’s body in Jamaica in 1964 by Jamaica’s first independent government, and his elevation as Jamaica’s first national hero was, and remains of profound significance for the majority of Jamaicans at…
A decade is a significant milestone in the life of any cultural institution, and the 10th annual Calabash International Literary Festival held in May this year, a highlight in Jamaica’s cultural calendar, confirmed its place in the premier league of literary festivals. The organizers, Colin Channer, Kwame Dawes and Justine Henzell, have shown what can…