Linton Kwesi Johnson has just won the 2012 Golden PEN Award, one of Britain's benchmark literary prizes.
Now 60, the "dub poet" is honoured for his entire career, rich in landmark texts (sung in "patwa"), such as Inglan Is A Bitch and Di Great Insohreckshan, about the 1981 riots in Brixton.
Born in Chapelton, in the parish of Clarendon, Jamaica, he moved to London as a teenager, where he was struck by the racism directed at black people. This realisation, among other things, gave rise to several collections of poetry, as well as albums, including "Dread Beat An' Blood", "Forces of Victory" and "Bass Culture".
Gillian Slovo, president of Golden PEN, described LKJ as "an artistic innovator (…) who used poetry to speak about politics and who was the first to bear witness – and who continues to do so – to the experience of changing country."
LKJ, who points out in passing that he no longer writes much and hasn't for several years, said he was "surprised and honoured" to be rewarded in this way.
"I'm not exactly in the mainstream of the literary scene, but rather on the periphery. I hope that by giving me this award, English PEN will involve more black writers in its work, and that more black writers will support English PEN", added the man whose work in the 70s strongly influenced the early days of British bands such as Aswad, Steel Pulse and Misty In Roots.
LKJ follows Margaret Drabble and Sir Salman Rushdie, the two most recent winners of the Golden PEN Award.
Note that LKJ continues to play plenty of concerts with the Dennis Bovell Band. On 8 November, he passed through the Cabaret Sauvage in Paris.
Linton Kwesi Johnson's reaction
