In partnership with Lancaster Litfest, Lancaster Arts is thrilled to welcome the legendary Reggae poet Linton Kwesi Johnson in conversation with writer, Jacqueline Crooks for an unforgettable evening of poetry, prose and discussion about his life and work. In his latest book, Time Come, Kwesi Johnson collects some of his most powerful non-fiction writing, paying tribute to the activists and writers who inspired him.
Since 1975 when Kwesi Johnson burst onto the scene with Dread Beat an’ Blood, he has revolutionised English poetry with his electrifying fusion of oral verse, Jamaican speech, radical politics and reggae rhythms.
We are delighted to have Jacqueline Crooks moderating this evening to uncover the sources and inspiration of his work. Crooks is a Jamaican-born writer who writes about Caribbean migration and sub-cultures; her first novel, Fire Rush, is due in March 2023.
“Linton Kwesi Johnson’s body of work - the sheer length, breadth, depth, politics, performance, rhyme and reason of it - bears witness to a lifetime of lending lyrical form to a condition that Britain has proved unable or unwilling (or both) to name.”
Gary Younge, from his introduction to Kwesi Johnson’s Selected Poems
Duration: 90 mins, incluing interval
