Mi Revalueshanary Fren [With CD]

by Linton Kwesi Johnson

Book Overview

Linton Kwesi Johnson is one of the most influential black poets in Britain. The author of five previous collections of poetry and numerous record albums, he is known worldwide for his fusion of lyrical verse and reggae. Much of his work is written in the street Creole of the Caribbean communities in which he grew up in England. Mi Revalueshanary Fren includes all of his best-known poems, which concern racism and politics, personal experience, philosophy,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1931337292
• ISBN13: 9781931337298
• Release Date: September 2006
• Publisher: Ausable Press
• Length: 96 Pages
• Weight: 0.53 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.6" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Excellent introduction to dub poetry

Linton Kwesi Johnson, also known as LKJ, is the most celebrated of the dub poets, and Mi Revalueshanary Fren is an excellent introduction to LKJ and dub poetry. He was born in Jamaica, and moved to Britain as a child in the early 1960s, a period in which thousands of Jamaicans and other West Indians migrated to the UK. The new arrivals experienced a great deal of culture shock and prejudice, and most had to work in menial and degrading jobs. During the Thatcher administration there were several notable clashes between the residents of Brixton, a London neighborhood that was home for many of these immigrants, and the police, including the 1981 Brixton Riot. LKJ describes the simmering tension in Brixton in "All Wi Doin Is Defendin", which was written before the Brixton riot. Other poems in this volume provide a history and commentary of the experiences of West Indian immigrants in London, both good and bad. There is a great deal of humor and joy in LKJ's poetry, along with the anger and bitterness that the community experienced. "New Crass Massakah" describes the tragic New Cross fire of 1981, in which 13 young blacks died during a house party, which many in the community felt was an act of arson. LKJ is widely admired in the UK, and he is the second living poet to be published in the Penguin Classics series. In addition to writing poetry, LKJ, along with other dub poets, reads his work over reggae music, and has released several albums under his label LKJ Records. This book also includes a CD, "A Cappella Live", which includes 14 poems from this volume.

Palliticks ar the vowels `i,' `a,' and `e'

Linton Kwesi Johnson's work, My Revalueshanary Fren, beats with the rhythm of reggae and dub but rocks with the non-stop thrum of the real, down-to-earth, local politics of Afro-Caribbean life in urban "Ingland." Is it coincidence that Johnson chooses to rework the first letter and first vowel of the place name of his own personal diaspora? No, because Johnson's poetry is so local and personal that the "I-" shouts to be heard and the "In-" is the inclusiveness that the narrative voice demands, repeating "we are here to stay/inna Ingland/inna disya time yah . . . / (p. 23). The repetition of the "in" sound makes the reader hear that Johnson is in England and yes, to stay. Johnson uses the sound and inflection of this initial vowel to convey purely political intention, not an easy task since a listener can easily miss the poetry amidst the sheer brutality of the events he recants in "Five Nights of Burning." Another initial vowel sound that he employs is the use of the letter `a." Few other words delineate a Jamaican voice from another Carib voice than the way the simple preposition `or' is pronounced, and written by Johnson, as "ar." This hard, clipped semi-guttural usage of the letter a contrasts with the soft o sound of the long double `aa' of `waaking' or the softer, often used `pan.' These two words do not connote political overtones but rather infuse the poems with the melody of street voice, providing a much-needed counterbalance to the "showah every howah" of "people powah" (p. 67). As the street voice blends with the politicized, the sections of the book meld. The sometime melancholy narrative of the last section reads as milder ballast against the shower of rage in the previous sections, notwithstanding the litany of fallen heroes in "Liesense Fi Kill." However, the power of Johnson's word-play to still polemicize in this more ruminant section is apparent by the addition of the letter `e.' Official proclamations surrounding these `sus' deaths turn the government's own use of the word `suspicion' upon itself, accentuating the `lie."