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…
LKJ News
Riots, Rhymes and Reason
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…
Nambo Robinson Music Tribute to LKJ
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…
Preface to New Cross Massacre Story published by New Beacon Books
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….
Short Speech Given At The Unveiling of UNIA Blue Plaque
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…
Calabashment In Jamdoun
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…
Introduction to Lecture on African Consciousness in Reggae Music
The Ambivalence of Race in Jamaica Your Excellency, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, good evening. I consider it an honour to have been asked by Doctor Carolyn Cooper to give the inaugural lecture at the launch of the Global Reggae Studies Centre. When I am in Jamaica I sometimes listen To Perkins On Line on…
On Black History Month
Black History month (BHM) is perhaps now as ubiquitous in Britain’s inner cities as it is in the USA. The Americans have theirs in February and we have ours in October. It is one of the better ideas we have borrowed from our African American cousins. Here in the UK community organisations, colleges, schools, trade…
Legality, Legitimacy and Vigilance
As we all know, the British National Party is a fascist, racist, xenophobic organisation, dedicated, like its National Front antecedent, to fomenting racial conflict. Their politics of hate has promoted and continues to inspire numerous racist attacks against, and murders of, ethnic minorities in the UK. The vast majority of whites have come to terms…
About the George Padmore Institute
The George Padmore Institute is as far as John La Rose had reached in the realisation of his vision of change before he died in February, 2006. Established in 1991 by La Rose and a group of political and cultural activists connected to New Beacon Books, the GPI is an archive, educational, research and information…