Linton Kwesi Johnson

Linton Kwesi Johnson studied at Goldsmiths, University of London and Tulse Hill School. The recorded working language is English. The field of work recorded is poetry and music. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are dub poetry. Distinctions recorded are Golden PEN Award, Silver Musgrave Medal, Order of Distinction and Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

• Name — Linton Kwesi Johnson • Honorific Suffix — CD • Other Names — LKJ • Born — 24 August 1952 • Birthplace — Chapelton, Clarendon, Colony of Jamaica, British Empire • Occupation — Dub poet and activist • Years Active — 1978–present • Education — Goldsmiths College • Awards — Order of Distinction PEN Pinter Prize • Website — https: lintonkwesijohnson.co.uk/

Johnson was born in Chapelton, a small town in the rural parish of Clarendon, Jamaica. His middle name, "Kwesi", is a Ghanaian name given to boys who, like Johnson, are born on a Sunday. In 1963, he and his father went to live in Brixton, London, joining his mother, who had immigrated to Britain as part of the Windrush generation shortly before Jamaican independence in 1962. Johnson attended Tulse Hill School in Lambeth. While still at school, he joined the British Black Panther Movement, helped to organise a poetry workshop within the movement, and developed his work with Rasta Love, a group of poets and drummers. Johnson studied sociology at Goldsmiths College in New Cross, London, graduating in 1973. Speaking in a 2018 interview about his start as a poet, he said: "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." During the early to mid-1970s, he was employed as the first paid library resources and education officer at the Keskidee Centre, where his poem Voices of the living and the dead was staged, produced by Jamaican novelist Lindsay Barrett, with music by the reggae group Rasta Love. Johnson has recalled: "it was fantastic, you know, having written something and having it staged with actors and musicians. That was back in 1973 before I had a poem published anywhere. That was before anyone had ever heard of Linton Kwesi Johnson." Johnson wrote for New Musical Express, Melody Maker, and Black Music in the 1970s. As a freelancer for Virgin Records, he wrote biographies for their reggae artists, sleeve notes and copy for advertisements.

• Illustration — Johnson at Coachella, 2008 Most of Johnson's poetry is political, dealing mainly with the experiences of being an African-Caribbean in Britain: "Writing was a political act and poetry was a cultural weapon...", he told an interviewer in 2008. However, he has also written about other issues, such as British foreign policy and the death of anti-racist marcher Blair Peach. Johnson wrote "Reggae fi Dada" on the death of his father in 1982, blaming social conditions. His most celebrated poems were written during the government of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. The poems contain graphic accounts of the racist police brutality occurring at the time (for instance, "Sonny's Lettah"). Johnson's poetry makes clever use of the unstandardised transcription of Jamaican patois. Johnson's poems first appeared in the journal Race Today, which published his debut collection of poetry, Voices of the Living and the Dead, in 1974. Dread Beat An' Blood, his second collection, was published in 1975 by Bogle-L'Ouverture. A collection of Johnson's poetry was published in 2002 as Mi Revalueshanary Fren by Penguin Modern Classics, making Johnson one of only three living poets to be published in the series, where his editor was Ellah Allfrey.

Johnson's essays, spanning 50 years (1976–2021), are collected in the volume Time Come (Picador, 2023). As described by Colin Grant, "The writing is often flinty and flecked with passion; taut and reasoned, but on the edge of fury....the grace and power of LKJ's writing are as necessary as ever." Tomiwa Owolade's review of Time Come in the Sunday Times concludes: "this volume emphasises the fact that Johnson is a dedicated cultural critic rather than simply an activist who happens to write dub poetry."

• Illustration — Johnson on stage in Cardiff, 1980 Johnson's best-known albums include his debut Dread Beat an' Blood (1978), Forces of Victory (1979), Bass Culture (1980), LKJ in Dub (1980), and Making History (1983). Across them are spread classics of the dub poetry school of performance – and of reggae itself – such as "Dread Beat An' Blood", "Sonny's Lettah", "Inglan Is A Bitch", "Independent Intavenshan" and "All Wi Doin Is Defendin". His poem "Di Great Insohreckshan" is his response to the 1981 Brixton riots. The work was the subject of a BBC Radio 4 programme in 2007. Johnson's work, allied to the Jamaican "toasting" tradition, is regarded as an essential precursor of rap. Johnson's record label LKJ Records, launched in 1981, is home to other reggae artists, some of whom made up the Dub Band, with whom Johnson mostly recorded, and other dub poets, such as Jean "Binta" Breeze. Past releases on the label include recordings by Mikey Smith.

Linton Kwesi Johnson is recorded as having studied at Goldsmiths, University of London and Tulse Hill School.