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A one-man poetic engine of reggae, revolution
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LA Daily News, A one-man poetic engine of reggae, revolution >>
Twenty-five years ago, Linton Kwesi Johnson, a young Jamaican resident of London with the fire of the Black Panthers in his soul and the love of his people in his heart, began performing poetry with phrases such as "Shock-black bubble-doun-beat bouncing/rock-wise tumbledoun sound music/foot-drop find drum."
Using Jamaican patois and phonetic spelling, Johnson - recently voted No. 22 in a poll of the top 100 black Britons of all time and only the second living poet and the first black poet to have his work published in Penguin's iconic Modern Classics series - is considered the first reggae poet.
Known also for a series of eloquent albums, including "Dread Beat an' Blood," "Bass Culture" and "Forces of Victory," Johnson shares the deeply felt fervor of early Gil Scott-Heron and, later, Public Enemy. On Thursday, Johnson will be the guest reader/artist at the 2005 Jean Burden Poetry Reading in the Golden Eagle Ballroom on the campus of California State University, Los Angeles.
With an austere appearance that belies a devilish sense of humor, Johnson often writes about police corruption and race relations in Britain, but the sentiments are universal. "People all over the world understand racism and brutality," he said. "You don't have to be a victim to know full well what's going on - or want to do something about it."
In the U.K., Johnson, subject of a recent BBC-TV documentary, might be notorious. The Spectator (the oldest continuously published magazine in English) has blasted him, insisting that the patois and phonetics he employs "wreaked havoc in schools and helped to create a generation of rioters and illiterates."
Reggae historian Roger Steffens counters that Johnson's delivery places his work firmly in a roots context and is, in fact, easily digested. "His poetry is deeply moving. He allows the words to work for themselves with very, very powerful results. There's no finer poet in reggae."
Johnson's mother immigrated to Britain in 1962, just before Jamaican independence, and at age 11, Johnson joined her in then-down-at-the-heels Brixton. Though he adjusted to his new home, it did not fit anyone's picture-book idea of the mother country.
"We were the children of immigrants, brought to England to do the work that the white working class didn't want to do," Johnson explains. "We were not supposed to have higher aspirations."
To mark his 25th year as a recording artist, Johnson issued both a live CD and DVD, titled "LKJ Live in Paris With the Dennis Bovell Dub Band." The U.K.'s Bovell is one of reggae's most imaginative and respected producers and bandleaders.
In the midst of a wide-ranging conversation, Johnson, 52, laughs when asked about the greater meaning of "The Kumars at No. 42," the BBC comedy series broadcast here on the BBC America channel that deals with an East Indian family living in London who've hit upon a unique method of keeping up with the Joneses by hosting their own chat show from a TV studio erected in the back garden.
"It's remarkable, isn't it?" Johnson says. "Twenty years ago, it would've been unthinkable to have a show where Indians make fun of white people. It never would have gotten off the ground." 04/19/05 >> go there
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