You may recall that October was Black History Month. It was a very busy time for publishers and authors, so much so that I’m still waiting for feedback from some of them! However, a trawl through my own library produced three particular books I’d like to share.
The first is Propa Propaganda by the late Benjamin Zephaniah, writer, dub poet, actor and musician as well as professor of poetry and creative writing at Brunel University London. It was a huge loss to the world when he died aged 65 less than a year ago.
Propa Propaganda (Bloodaxe Books 1996) is a few years old now, but right from the start carries the distinctive BZ voice we all came to know. This collection is short treasure, if you’ve never read any of his poems: Terrible World based on Louis Armstrong’s memorable song, White Comedy (I waz whitemailed/ By a white witch,/Wiz white magic), De Queen an I and his three part Acts of Parliament which loses nothing with time and could have been written yesterday!
Acknowledging Black Authors: A couple of years ago I met Garfield Robinson at an event and spent some time talking about the work of black authors, poets, songwriters, all types of storytellers.
His book Keepers of the Flame (POH Books, 2022) is an excellent collection saluting the work of 100 Black authors – all the way from Shirley Anstis, a mental health counsellor, to Lyndon Wissart a professional chef. Every one of the hundred has a story to tell – inspirational, heart-warming, inquisitive, passionate. The illustrations, printed like engravings or woodcuts, provide an image to accompany the voice explaining their reasons for writing. Some writers you may know, many you will not.
If you want to investigate further, this is the place to start. A ready-made reference compile by Garfield Robinson – bookseller, author and publisher.
My third choice is The Perseverance by British-Jamaican poet Raymond Antrobus. I had the pleasure of interviewing Raymond back in 2019 at the London Book Fair, where he was performing readings from this debut collection.
Beginning with his deafness he merges masculinity, race his mother’s dementia and his father’s death – with a lot of focus on his father. There’s a wonderful series of poems ‘Samantha’ based on an interview he did with a deaf Jamaican woman about her arrival in England. As we might expect his own deafness and communication, his identity (Jamaican British or Jamaican, British? choose) run throughout these poems.
The Perseverance is published by Penned in the Margins 2018.
That’s just a small but belated contribution to Black History month. All well worth a read.
deilibri 