Dub poetry

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Dub poetry is a form of performance poetry of Jamaican origin, [1] which evolved out of dub music in Kingston, Jamaica, in the 1970s, [2] [3] as well as in London, England, and Toronto, Canada, cities which have large populations of Caribbean immigrants. [4] The term "Dub Poetry" was coined by Dub artist Linton Kwesi Johnson in 1976, [5] [6] and further popularized by artist Oku Onoura, which consists of spoken word over reggae rhythms, originally found on the backing or "version" side of a 12 or 7 inch vinyl record.

Contents

Unlike deejaying (also known as toasting), which also features the use of the spoken word, the dub poet's performance is normally prepared, rather than the extemporized chat of the dancehall dee jay. [2] In musical setting, the dub poet usually appears on stage with a band performing music specifically written to accompany each poem, rather than simply performing over the top of dub plates, or riddims, in the dancehall fashion. Musicality is built into dub poems, yet dub poets generally perform without backing music, delivering chanted speech with pronounced rhythmic accentuation and dramatic stylization of gesture. Sometimes dub music effects such as echo and reverb are dubbed spontaneously by a poet into live versions of a poem. Many dub poets also employ call-and-response devices to engage audiences.

Political nature

Dub poetry has been a vehicle for political and social commentary, [7] with none of the braggadocio often associated with the dancehall. The odd love-song or elegy appears, but dub poetry is predominantly concerned with politics and social justice, commonly voiced through a commentary on current events (thus sharing these elements with dancehall and "conscious" or "roots" reggae music).

Notable albums

Dub poetry has established itself as a major form of black popular art and its breakthrough was made through Linton Kwesi Johnson's (LKJ)'s seminal album Dread Beat an' Blood , [8] which was released in the UK in 1978. [9] [10] Oku Onuora's Reflection In Red in 1979 was the first Jamaican recording of a dub poem, [7] followed by Lillian Allen's Revolutionary Tea Party [11] and Benjamin Zephaniah's Rasta, [12] both produced in 1983, and many others from the early 1980s onwards such as Anti Social Workers 'Positive Style' produced by leading dub producer The Mad Professor on Ariwa Records..

Toronto

Toronto, Ontario, Canada, has the second highest concentration of dub poets, preceded by Jamaica and followed by England. [13] Lillian Allen, Afua Cooper, and Ahdri Zhina Mandiela are among the founding mothers of the Canadian dub poetry legacy. [14] [15] The Dub Poets Collective, established in Toronto in 2003, organized a total of five dub poetry festivals, three national and two international, between the years of 2004 and 2010. [15]

United Kingdom

LKJ still runs LKJ Records in the UK, a label that publishes both his own books and music, and that of other musicians and poets.

Benjamin Zephaniah continued to publish in the UK. He wrote novels as well as poetry. He was put forward for the post of Oxford Professor of Poetry in 1989 and British Poet Laureate in 1999, and in 2003 was also offered an OBE, which he declined.

Many dub poets have published their work as volumes of written poetry as well as albums of poetry with music.

See also

Related Research Articles

In Jamaican dancehall music, a riddim is the instrumental accompaniment to a song and is synonymous with the rhythm section. Jamaican music genres that use the term consist of the riddim plus the voicing sung by the deejay. A given riddim, if popular, may be used in dozens—or even hundreds—of songs, not only in recordings but also in live performances.

The music of Jamaica includes Jamaican folk music and many popular genres, such as mento, ska, rocksteady, reggae, dub music, dancehall, reggae fusion and related styles.

Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s. Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s. In the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably, with digital dancehall becoming increasingly characterized by faster rhythms. Key elements of dancehall music include its extensive use of Jamaican Patois rather than Jamaican standard English and a focus on the track instrumentals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin Zephaniah</span> British poet and author (1958–2023)

Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah was a British writer, dub poet, actor, musician and professor of poetry and creative writing. He was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008. In his work, Zephaniah drew on his lived experiences of incarceration, racism and his Jamaican heritage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linton Kwesi Johnson</span> Jamaican poet and activist (born 1952)

Linton Kwesi Johnson OD, also known as LKJ, is a Jamaica-born, British-based dub poet and activist. In 2002, he became the second living poet, and the only black one, to be published in the Penguin Modern Classics series. His performance poetry involves the recitation of his own verse in Jamaican patois over dub-reggae, usually written in collaboration with reggae producer/artist Dennis Bovell.

Michael Smith, usually referred to as Mikey Smith, was a Jamaican dub poet. Along with Linton Kwesi Johnson, and Mutabaruka, he was one of the best-known dub poets. In 1978, Smith represented Jamaica at the 11th World Festival of Youth and Students in Cuba. His album Mi Cyaan Believe It includes his poem of the same title. He had left-anarchist leanings and Rastafarian sympathies, and was allegedly murdered by political opponents associated with the right-wing Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) after he had heckled the Jamaican Minister of Culture at a political rally on 17 August 1983.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean "Binta" Breeze</span> Jamaican dub poet and storyteller (1956–2021)

Jean "Binta" Breeze MBE was a Jamaican dub poet and storyteller, acknowledged as the first woman to write and perform dub poetry. She worked also as a theatre director, choreographer, actor, and teacher. She performed her work around the world, in the Caribbean, North America, Europe, South-East Asia, and Africa, and has been called "one of the most important, influential performance poets of recent years".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lillian Allen</span> Musical artist

Lillian Allen is a Canadian dub poet, writer and Juno Award winner.

Oku Nagba Ozala Onuora, known as the "father of Jamaican dub poetry" is a Jamaican dub poet and performer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dennis Bovell</span> Barbadian-British reggae musician (born 1953)

Dennis Bovell is a Barbados-born reggae guitarist, bass player and record producer, based in England. He was a member of a progressive rock group called Stonehenge, who later changed name and became the British reggae band Matumbi, and released dub-reggae records under his own name as well as the pseudonym Blackbeard. He is most widely known for his decades-spanning collaborations with Linton Kwesi Johnson.

Allan Hope CD, better known as Mutabaruka, is a Jamaican Rastafari dub poet, musician, actor, educator, and talk-show host, who developed two of Jamaica's most popular radio programmes, The Cutting Edge and Steppin' Razor. His name comes from the Rwandan language and translates as "one who is always victorious". His themes include politics, culture, Black liberation, social oppression, discrimination, poverty, racism, sexism, and religion.

<i>Forces of Victory</i> 1979 studio album by Linton Kwesi Johnson

Forces of Victory is the debut solo album by Jamaican dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson. It was released in 1979 on Island Records.

<i>LKJ in Dub</i> 1980 studio album by Linton Kwesi Johnson

LKJ in Dub is an album by the Jamaica-born, British-based dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, released in 1980 on Island Records. It was produced by Dennis Bovell. It contains dub versions of tracks from the two previous LKJ albums, Forces of Victory and Bass Culture.

<i>Dread Beat an Blood</i> 1978 studio album by Poet and the Roots

Dread Beat an' Blood is the debut album by British reggae band Poet and the Roots released in 1978 on the Front Line label. It was produced by Vivian Weathers and Linton Kwesi Johnson. The "Poet" is dub poet Johnson and "the Roots" are Dennis Bovell, Lloyd "Jah Bunny" Donaldson, Desmond Craig, Winston Curniffe, Everald Forrest, Floyd Lawson, John Varnom, Lila Weathers and Vivian Weathers. Vivian Weathers and Winston Curniffe were school friends of Johnson's. They all attended Tulse Hill Secondary School. Most of the tracks are based on poems that first appeared in Johnson's 1975 book of poetry Dread Beat an' Blood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caribbean poetry</span> Poem, rhyme, or lyric that derives from the Caribbean region

Caribbean poetry is vast and rapidly evolving field of poetry written by people from the Caribbean region and the diaspora.

Yasus Afari is a Jamaican dub poet.

Race Today was a monthly British political magazine. Launched in 1969 by the Institute of Race Relations, it was from 1973 published by the Race Today Collective, which included figures such as Darcus Howe, Farrukh Dhondy, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Leila Hassan and Jean Ambrose. The magazine was a leading organ of Black politics in 1970s Britain; publication ended in 1988.

Michael Richards, better known as Adisa Andwele, is a rhythm poet from Barbados. Adisa has performed at many different places such as, pubs, theatres, music and literature festivals, schools, day centres for senior citizens and Buckingham Palace. He has earned many achievements during his career; Hackney Poet Laureate and a winner of 'New Performance Poet of the Year'. In 2009 and 2010, Adisa toured England with his one-person show: '1968 - The Year That Never Ended'. Some of the countries he has performed in are, Switzerland, Botswana, Italy, Nigeria and Sweden.

<i>Tings an Times</i> 1991 studio album by Linton Kwesi Johnson

Tings an' Times is an album by the Jamaican dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson, released in 1991. It was Johnson's first album in six years. Tings an' Times also served as the title of a book of Johnson's poetry.

<i>More Time</i> (Linton Kwesi Johnson album) 1998 studio album by Linton Kwesi Johnson

More Time is an album by the Jamaican-British musician Linton Kwesi Johnson. It was released in 1998 through Johnson's LKJ Records. "Liesense fi Kill", about police brutality, was released as a single. Johnson supported the album with an international tour. The lyrics to many songs were reproduced in Johnson's book of poetry Mi Revalueshanary Fren.

References

  1. ↑ Chris Roberts, Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind Rhyme, Thorndike Press, 2006 ( ISBN   0-7862-8517-6)
  2. 1 2 Dub Poetry Archived 2011-12-11 at the Wayback Machine , Allmusic last on-line access in 9/17/2012.
  3. ↑ Dave Thompson, "History of Dub Poetry" Archived 2012-08-30 at the Wayback Machine in roots-archives.com, last on-line access in 9/17/2012.
  4. ↑ Neigh, Janet (2017). Recalling Recitation in the Americas. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. p. 130. ISBN   978-1487501839 . Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  5. ↑ Morris, Mervyn (1997). "'Dub Poetry'?". Caribbean Quarterly. 43 (4): 1–10. doi:10.1080/00086495.1997.11671853. ISSN   0008-6495. JSTOR   40654004.
  6. ↑ Doumerc, Eric. "Dub Poetry: From the Straightjacket of Reggae Rhythms to Performance Poetry". Unknown.
  7. 1 2 Habekos, Christian (1993). Verbal Riddim: The Politics and Aesthetics of African-Caribbean Dub Poetry. Brill Rodopi. p. 21. ISBN   978-9051835496 . Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  8. ↑ Collier, Gordon (1992). Us/them: Translation, Transcription and Identity in Post-colonial Literary Cultures. Rodopi. ISBN   9789051833942.
  9. ↑ Zephaniah, Benjamin. "Dread Beat an' Blood". BBC. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  10. ↑ Rawlinson, Nancy. "Linton Kwesi Johnson : Dread Beat An' Blood : Inglan Is A Bitch". Spike Magazine. Retrieved 4 December 2017.
  11. ↑ Brennan, Ali. "Sound, Rhythm, and Power: Legends of Dub Poetry". Debate Central. University of Vermont. Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  12. ↑ Hirsch, Edward (2014). A Poet's Glossary. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. p. 185. ISBN   9780151011957 . Retrieved 5 December 2017.
  13. ↑ Sfetcu, Nicolae. Poetry Kaleidoscope. Lulu.com. ISBN   978-1-312-78020-0.
  14. ↑ Sakolsky, Ron (Summer 2004). "Summer Festivals 2004: International Dub Poetry Festival". The Beat (5): 36–37, 41 – via ProQuest.
  15. 1 2 Antwi, Phanuel (2015-12-02). "Dub Poetry as a Black Atlantic Body-Archive". Small Axe. 19 (3): 65–83. doi:10.1215/07990537-3341825. ISSN   1534-6714. S2CID   147304159.

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