Poetry is like Medicine
Following a couple of heatwave days in the UK we attended an evening of poetry with poet, musician and activist, Linton Kwesi Johnson. Linton read from his newly reissued Penguin Classics publication, ‘Selected Poems’, and was joined by poet, Caleb Femi, who also gave a reading. The venue was none other than ‘Black Chapel’ at London’s Serpentine Pavilion (2022) designed by Chicago-based artist Theaster Gates.
Linton Kwesi Johnson is a pioneering performance poet and has shaped the evolution of ‘dub poetry’ however johnson says this title was not how he would describe his craft — more ‘just’ a poet. “ I came into poetry through politics and activism.’ Johnson’s poetry has the same resonance as it did in the 1980’s and most notably with the New Cross house fire in 1981. Though no one has ever been convicted for these deaths, many people believe the fire was a racially motivated arson attack. The poem uses a combination of Jamaican Patois and English to capture the anguish at the loss of these lives and express rage at the indifferent response from the police, the media and the justice system. Johnson published it with a dedication ‘to the memory of the fourteen dead’, to include the 13 who perished in the 1981 fire and a 14th party goer who survived that night but died in 1983 in what many believe was a suicide as a result of his trauma. How familiar does this sound familar with the current injustice of Grenfell..? (The Grenfell Tower Inquiry is a British public inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire, which killed 72 people and destroyed Grenfell Tower on 14 June 2017.)
It is always an honour to hear and absorb his live readings and all in that intimate space were blessed with a preview of new poems. These were about the lockdown and the sad passing of his mother, both powerful and in his unique rhythmic delivery.
Johnson has released numerous books of poetry including Mi Revalueshanary Fren (2002), one of only three books in Penguin’s Modern Classics series by a living author, and the only in the series by a Black author. He has recorded and released over fifteen albums including Dread Beat an’ Blood (1978), Forces of Victory (1979), Bass Culture (1980), LKJ in Dub (1980) and Making History (1983). A new edition of Johnson’s Selected Poems will be released by Penguin in August 2022, featuring new poetry and an afterword, as well as an introduction by Gary Younge.
As part of the Serpentine’s summer programme, the Pavilion becomes a platform for live performances and public convenings. This is the second performance I have attended in the ‘Black Chapel’ with the first delivered by London-based composer and producer Sam Beste entitled “Notes from The Vernon Spring” see below.
On 24th August 2022 Linton Kwesi Johnson will celebrate his 70th Birthday and I like many will be giving thanks for his work which shaped many of our lives. “I began to write verse, not only because I liked it, but because it was a way of expressing the anger, the passion of the youth of my generation in terms of our struggle against racial oppression. Poetry was a cultural weapon in the black liberation struggle, so that’s how it began.”
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any other media without my explicit permission.©Kings Davis 2022
