While listening to a cultural program on radio, I heard the riveting words of poet Oku Onuora coming through my speakers. The bass of his voice as he spoke the words “…there will be no peace until equal rights and justice” reverberating and awakening the artist within me. 

One of my first poetic pieces was entitled, Pollution. It focused on multiple forms of pollution, including speech, garbage, scientific, nuclear, etc. My primary stage was the corners within the community. I was the youngest youth practicing the craft of Dub Poetry while most of my other peers where venturing into the new and more popular genre of Reggae music called Dancehall.

It was lonely in my community back home, however my notebook and pencil often carried me beyond my immediate surroundings. Over the course of my younger years, I would continue to learn and study with the originators of this growing traditional form of expression. As Jamaica endured a period of socio-political uprisings, the role of the poet became all the more vital to the authentic reporting of the conditions we were living through. READ MORE…