Linton Kwesi Johnson

About Linton Kwesi Johnson

Linton Kwesi Johnson was born on 24 August 1952 in Chapelton in Clarendon in rural Jamaica. He came to London in 1963, went to Tulse Hill secondary school and studied Sociology at Goldsmiths’ College, University of London. Whilst at school he joined the Black Panthers, helped to organise a poetry workshop within the movement and developed his work with Rasta Love, a group of poets and drummers. In 1977 he was awarded a C Day Lewis Fellowship, becoming the writer-in-residence for the London Borough of Lambeth for that year. He went on to work as the Library Resources and Education Officer at the Keskidee Centre, the first home of black theatre and art. 

Johnson’s poems first appeared in the journal Race Today. In 1974 Race Today published his first poetry collection, Voices of the Living and the Dead. Dread Beat An’ Blood was published in 1975 by Bogle-L’Ouverture and was also the title of his first LP released by Virgin (1978). That year also saw the release of the film Dread Beat An’ Blood, a documentary on Johnson’s work. In 1980 Race Today published Inglan Is A Bitch and there were four more albums with Island: Forces of Victory (1979), Bass Culture (1980), LKJ in Dub (1981) and Making History (1983).  

Johnson launched his own label, LKJ Records, in 1981 with two singles by Jamaican poet Michael Smith, ‘Mi Cyaan Believe It’ and ‘Roots’. During the 1980s he became immersed in journalism, working with the Brixton-based Race Today collective. His ten-part radio series on Jamaican popular music, From Mento to Lovers Rock, went out on BBC Radio 1 in 1982-83. From 1985-88 he was a reporter on Channel 4’s The Bandung File. He also toured regularly with the Dennis Bovell Dub Band and produced albums by poet Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze and jazz trumpeter Shake Keane.  

Recorded at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London, LKJ Live in Concert with the Dub Band came out in 1985 and was nominated for a Grammy Award. Tings An’ Times (1991) was also the title of his Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Books/LKJ Music Publishers). In 1992 LKJ and Dennis Bovell collaborated on LKJ in Dub: Volume Two. In 1996 LKJ Records released LKJ Presents, a compilation of various artists, and LKJ A Cappella Live, a collection of 14 LKJ poems without music. In 1998 More Time celebrated his 20^th anniversary in the recording business. Island also put out a two-CD compilation, Independant Intavenshan. In 2002 Johnson became only the second living poet and the first black poet to be published in Penguin’s Modern Classics series with his book Mi Revalueshanary Fren; it has since become part of Penguin’s Selected Poets. In the USA, the collection was published by Ausable, now Copper Canyon. In 2002 the BBC made a TV programme about LKJ’s poetry for BBC 4’s Profile and Johnson released LKJ in Dub: Volume Three. To mark his 25^th anniversary as a reggae recording artist in 2004, LKJ released a CD and DVD of LKJ Live in Paris with the Dennis Bovell Dub Band.  

Linton Kwesi Johnson has toured globally, from Japan to the new South Africa, from Europe to Brazil and the Antipodes. His recordings are amongst the world’s top-selling reggae albums and his work has been translated into Italian and German. He is known and revered as the world’s first reggae poet. He is a Trustee of the George Padmore Institute and the 198 Gallery, two London-based independent charities with a focus on the cultural and political contributions made by the UK’s populations of colour. 

Awards 

Associate Fellow of Warwick University (1985); 

Honorary Fellow of Wolverhampton Polytechnic (1987); 

Award at the XIII Premo Internazionale Ultimo Novecento from the city of Pisa for his contribution to poetry and popular music (1990); 

Premio Piero Ciampi Citta di Livorno Concorso Musicale Nazionale in Italy (1998); 

Honorary Fellowship from his alma mater, Goldsmiths College, University of London (2003); 

Honorary Visiting Professor of Middlesex University in London (2004);  

Silver Musgrave Medal, Institute of Jamaica for ‘eminence in the field of poetry’ (2006);  

Golden PEN award from English PEN for a Lifetime’s Achievement in Writing (2013);  

Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (2013); 

Jamaican government’s Order of Distinction (Commander Class) for achievements in poetry and popular music (2014);  

Artist-in-residence at New York University’s Institute of African American Affairs (2014); 

Honorary Doctor of Literature degree from Rhodes University in South Africa (2017);  

His first UK Honorary Doctor of Letters from the Solent University, Southampton (2018);  

Cholmondeley Award for Poetry from the Society of Authors (2018); 

PEN Pinter Prize from English PEN (2020); 

Honorary Doctor of Letters, University of the West Indies (Mona Campus, Jamaica) (2021). 

Bibliography 

Voices of the Living and the Dead (London: Race Today, 1974) 

Dread Beat An’ Blood (London: Bogle-L’Ouverture, 1975) 

Inglan Is A Bitch (London: Race Today, 1980) 

Tings An’ Times (Newcastle upon Tyne and London: Bloodaxe Books and LKJ Music, 1991) 

Mi Revalueshanary Fren: Selected Poems (London: Penguin Modern Classics, 2002) 

Selected Poems (London: Penguin, 2006) 

Mi Revalueshanary Fren (US edition) (Keene, NY: Ausable Press, 2006) 

Discography 

Dread Beat An Blood (Virgin, 1978) 

Forces of Victory (Island, 1979)  

Bass Culture (Island, 1980) 

LKJ in Dub (Island, 1981) 

Making History (Island, 1983) 

LKJ Live in Concert with the Dub Band (LKJ Records, 1985) 

Tings An’ Times (LKJ Records, 1991) 

LKJ in Dub: Volume Two (LKJ Records, 1992) 

LKJ Presents (LKJ Records, 1996) 

LKJ A Cappella Live (LKJ Records, 1996) 

More Time (LKJ Records, 1998) 

Independant Intavenshan (Island, 1998) 

LKJ in Dub Volume 3 (LKJ Records, 2002) 

Straight To Inglan’s Head: An Introduction to Linton Kwesi Johnson (Island, 2003)  

LKJ Live in Paris with the Dennis Bovell Dub Band (LKJ Records, 2004) – CD and DVD 

Reality Poems – The Best Of Linton Kwesi Johnson (Spectrum Records, 2014) 

Quotes about Linton Kwesi Johnson’s Poetry and Music 

‘…the newest and most original poetic form to have emerged in the English language in the last quarter century’ Fred D’Aguiar, poet and novelist 

‘…his poetry is meant to recoup lost structures, identities, pure “rhythm and roots”, poetry integrating audience and performer in one collective voice’ Cyril Dabydeen, World Literature Today 

‘One of Britain’s most influential and original voices’ The Arts Council of England 

‘…a slick, varied and rousing reggae-poetry showcase, which promises to inject some new life into the British reggae movement’ Robin Denselow, The Guardian, 1995 

Dread Beat An’ Blood is ‘reggae album of the year…Johnson details street life with authentic vigour’ Melody Maker, 1978 

‘Linton’s rhymes speak for our times…He’s a poet that lets his words do the talking’ The Voice, 1996 

‘…one of the world’s foremost black poets…an innovator and educator’ Portland Press Herald, USA, 1990 

‘The name Linton Kwesi Johnson conjures up images of leadership, strong views and direction. He is the acknowledged head of the new wave of performance poets, whose words welded politics and social conscience with a potent challenge to those in power’ Sharon Atkin, The Caribbean Times, 1995 

‘ The Black Londoners of the 1970s are no longer lonely in the old way, and Johnson is the first West Indian writer to document their new life styles and capture in verse rhythms the despairing apocalyptic mood, its menace and its mounting delusions’ Professor Kenneth Ramchand, Trinidad and Tobago Review 1977 

‘Brilliant Jamaican poet – the alternative poet-laureate’ Time Out, 1996