Dub poetry

{{short description|Form of performance poetry}} {{more citations needed|date=September 2012}} {{Infobox music genre | name = Dub poetry | image = Linton Kwesi Johnson.jpg

| caption = Linton Kwesi Johnson performing in 2008 | stylistic_origins = Dub - spoken word | cultural_origins = 1970s, Jamaica | derivatives = | subgenres = | fusiongenres = | other_topics = }}

'''Dub poetry''' is a form of performance poetry of Jamaican origin,<ref>Chris Roberts, ''Heavy Words Lightly Thrown: The Reason Behind Rhyme'', Thorndike Press, 2006 ({{ISBN|0-7862-8517-6}})</ref> which evolved out of dub music in Kingston, Jamaica, in the 1970s,<ref name="AMG">[http://allmusic.com/explore/style/dub-poetry-d250 Dub Poetry] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111211063609/http://allmusic.com/explore/style/dub-poetry-d250 |date=2011-12-11 }}, ''Allmusic'' last on-line access in 9/17/2012.</ref><ref>Dave Thompson, [http://www.roots-archives.com/poetry/ "History of Dub Poetry"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120830152752/http://www.roots-archives.com/poetry/ |date=2012-08-30 }} in ''roots-archives.com'', last on-line access in 9/17/2012.</ref> as well as in London, England, and Toronto, Canada, cities which have large populations of Caribbean immigrants.<ref name="Recalling Recitation">{{cite book|last1=Neigh|first1=Janet|title=Recalling Recitation in the Americas|date=2017|publisher=University of Toronto Press|location=Toronto|isbn=978-1487501839|page=130|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=du9ADwAAQBAJ&q=dub+poetry+canada+UK&pg=PA130|access-date=4 December 2017|ref=Recalling Recitation}}</ref> The term "Dub Poetry" was coined by Dub artist Linton Kwesi Johnson in 1976,<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Morris|first=Mervyn|date=1997|title='Dub Poetry'?|journal=Caribbean Quarterly|volume=43|issue=4|pages=1–10|issn=0008-6495|jstor=40654004|doi=10.1080/00086495.1997.11671853}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Doumerc|first=Eric|title=Dub Poetry: From the Straightjacket of Reggae Rhythms to Performance Poetry|url=http://marauder.millersville.edu/~resound/vol3iss2/dubpoetry/|journal=Unknown}}</ref> and further popularized by artist Oku Onoura, which consists of spoken word over reggae rhythms, originally found on the backing or "version" side of a twelve- or seven-inch vinyl record.

Unlike deejaying (also known as toasting), which also features the use of the spoken word, the dub poet's performance is normally prepared, rather than the extemporized chat of the dancehall dee jay.<ref name="AMG" /> In musical setting, the dub poet usually appears on stage with a band performing music specifically written to accompany each poem, rather than simply performing over the top of dub plates, or riddims, in the dancehall fashion. Musicality is built into dub poems, yet dub poets generally perform without backing music, delivering chanted speech with pronounced rhythmic accentuation and dramatic stylization of gesture. Sometimes dub music effects such as echo and reverb are dubbed spontaneously by a poet into live versions of a poem. Many dub poets also employ call-and-response devices to engage audiences.

==Political nature== Dub poetry has been a vehicle for political and social commentary,<ref name="Verbal Riddim" /> with none of the braggadocio often associated with the dancehall. The odd love-song or elegy appears, but dub poetry is predominantly concerned with politics and social justice, commonly voiced through a commentary on current events (thus sharing these elements with dancehall and "conscious" or "roots" reggae music).

==Notable albums== Dub poetry has established itself as a major form of black popular art and its breakthrough was made through Linton Kwesi Johnson's (LKJ)'s seminal album ''Dread Beat an' Blood'',<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DjTO-ULUvfcC&q=%22Dub+poetry%22+-wikipedia&pg=PA231|title=Us/them: Translation, Transcription and Identity in Post-colonial Literary Cultures|last=Collier|first=Gordon|date=1992|publisher=Rodopi|isbn=9789051833942|language=en}}</ref> which was released in the UK in 1978.<ref name="Dread Beat an' Blood-BBC">{{cite web|last1=Zephaniah|first1=Benjamin|title=Dread Beat an' Blood|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00cm9kz|publisher=BBC|access-date=4 December 2017}}</ref><ref name="Spike Magazine">{{cite web|last1=Rawlinson|first1=Nancy|title=Linton Kwesi Johnson : Dread Beat An' Blood : Inglan Is A Bitch|url=https://www.spikemagazine.com/1298kwes.php|publisher=Spike Magazine|access-date=4 December 2017}}</ref> Oku Onuora's ''Reflection In Red'' in 1979 was the first Jamaican recording of a dub poem,<ref name="Verbal Riddim">{{cite book|last1=Habekos|first1=Christian|title=Verbal Riddim: The Politics and Aesthetics of African-Caribbean Dub Poetry|date=1993|publisher=Brill Rodopi|isbn=978-9051835496|page=21|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GNXMnX6ZMEgC&q=Oku+Onuora%27s+Reflection+In+Red&pg=PA21|access-date=4 December 2017}}</ref> followed by Lillian Allen's ''Revolutionary Tea Party''<ref name="Sound, Rhythm, and Power">{{cite web|last1=Brennan|first1=Ali|title=Sound, Rhythm, and Power: Legends of Dub Poetry|url=https://debate.uvm.edu/dreadlibrary/Alexandra%20Brennan.htm|website=Debate Central|publisher=University of Vermont|access-date=5 December 2017}}</ref> and Benjamin Zephaniah's ''Rasta'',<ref name="A Poet's Glossary">{{cite book|last1=Hirsch|first1=Edward|title=A Poet's Glossary|date=2014|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|location=New York|isbn=9780151011957|page=185|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1flJAQAAQBAJ&q=Benjamin+Zephaniah%27s+Rasta+dub+poet&pg=PA185|access-date=5 December 2017}}</ref> both produced in 1983, and many others from the early 1980s onwards such as Anti Social Workers 'Positive Style' produced by leading dub producer The Mad Professor on Ariwa Records.

==Toronto== Toronto, Ontario, Canada, has the second-highest concentration of dub poets, preceded by Jamaica and followed by England.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Sfetcu |first=Nicolae |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6VjoCQAAQBAJ&dq=concentration+of+dub+poets&pg=PA264 |title=Poetry Kaleidoscope |publisher=Lulu.com |isbn=978-1-312-78020-0 |language=en}}</ref> Lillian Allen, Afua Cooper, and Ahdri Zhina Mandiela are among the founding mothers of the Canadian dub-poetry legacy.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Sakolsky|first=Ron|date=Summer 2004|title=Summer Festivals 2004: International Dub Poetry Festival|journal=The Beat|number=5|pages=36–37, 41|id={{ProQuest|}}}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Antwi|first=Phanuel|date=2015-12-02|title=Dub Poetry as a Black Atlantic Body-Archive|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/602411|journal=Small Axe|language=en|volume=19|issue=3|pages=65–83|issn=1534-6714|doi=10.1215/07990537-3341825|s2cid=147304159|url-access=subscription}}</ref> The Dub Poets Collective, established in Toronto in 2003, organized a total of five dub-poetry festivals, three national and two international, between the years of 2004 and 2010.<ref name=":1" />

==United Kingdom== LKJ still runs LKJ Records in the UK, a label that publishes both his own books and music, and that of other musicians and poets.

Benjamin Zephaniah continued to publish in the UK. He wrote novels as well as poetry. He was put forward for the post of Oxford Professor of Poetry in 1989 and British Poet Laureate in 1999, and in 2003 was also offered an OBE, which he declined.

Many dub poets have published their work as volumes of written poetry as well as albums of poetry with music.

==References== {{reflist}}

==Further reading== * Mervyn Morris, "Dub Poetry?", in ''Is English We Speaking and Other Essays'' (Kingston: Ian Randle Publishers, 1998).

==External links== * Kei Miller, [http://smallaxe.net/wordpress3/discussions/2013/11/18/a-smaller-sound-a-lesser-fury/ "a smaller sound, a lesser fury: A Eulogy for Dub Poetry"], ''Small Axe'' 14, November 2013.

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dub Poetry}} Category:Jamaican styles of music Category:Reggae genres Category:Genres of poetry