Free Radicals

There is an excellent article (not available online - updated, both pieces by Brown-Martin mentioned in this post are now online at AMMO CITY) in the current issue of TRACE magazine (March/April) about poet Linton Kwesi Johnson.

Graham Brown-Martin writes:

Born in Chapleton, Jamaica, in 1952, Linton arrived in London in 1963 to join his mother who had emigrated there two years previously. He was educated at a state comprehensive school in Brixton before graduating with a sociology school from Goldsmiths University, which presented him with an honorary fellowship in 2003. As a young man he joined the Black Panthers, and inspired by the words of W.E.B. DuBois, organised a poetry workshop within the movement. He was first published in 1974 with his first volume of poems, Voices of the Living and Dead followed by a landmark second volume, Dread, Beat an’ Blood coinciding with a film made by the BBC of the same name. He is only the second living poet ever to appear in the Penguin Modern Classics series of books with Mi Revalueshanary Fren.

The interview is brief but illuminating, e.g.

The U.K. seems less preoccupied than the U.S. with the notion of race, why do you think that is?

The black experience in the U.S. is different from the U.K. Largely it's historical, despite getting rid of people like Jim Crow and all that, race is very much under the surface of American social life, politics and culture. They still fly the Confederate flag in some parts of the Southern states. A lot of African Americans are living in developing world conditions in the United States, and so like Jamaica you’ve got the gangsters as a consequence of poverty and despair who become role models for the kids.

Do you think that the visualization of such role models on television and in the media propagates the problem?

It’s another form of American cultural imperialism. We’re all subject to the effects of media but not all of its negative, and there are still conscious artists coming through. It’s too easy to assume that people do negative things as a consequence of negative images on television.

Other highlights of the issue include a lush photo essay about the city of Dakar, and another interesting, smart and personal article by Graham Brown-Martin on why he’s moving to Jamaica. About half the fashion spreads are weak (the bags in particular are a petty insult to the sighted), and the magazine’s definition (and designation) of “fashion personalities” makes me want to use them as tearsheets so I can commit them to memory and run in the opposite direction if I see any of them around town. The essay on Why Jeremy Scott* Matters, is sort of amusing, but earns double-negative points for calling him both an "international man of mystery” and a "zany designer" in the same sentence. All in all, an uneven but promising mix of intriguing subjects and sensibilities that’s still worth checking in with on a regular basis. The few things I liked were stellar enough to make the magazine well worth the cover price of $5. Pick it up.

*I saw Jeremy Scott speak on a fashion panel at Tokion’s Creativity Now conference, held at Cooper Union last year, and he was hilarious. He’s on of the most subversive and compelling designers working today, and between his tangents on the heartbreak he suffered to discover that Bill Cosby was no Cliff Huxtable to Lisa Bonet (he allegedly couldn’t stand her, or her outfits) and his raging mullet, he definitely kept it interesting. A few months later, when I read that he staged a fashion show that consisted of Staten Island cheerleaders doing routines - and no actual fashion show - I liked him even more.