Tuning in…
Tuning in…
Castaway
1 appearance
A poet known for performance poetry, children's bestseller 'Talking Turkeys', and nomination for Oxford Professor of Poetry.
On the island
Eight records
I could have picked any Shanelo kind of record, really. I could have picked the one that me and her did together. But, um, I just think she's a real gem and she's just a woman with integrity. She's someone who I really respect for not allowing the um business to corrupt her.
Keep Your Ukulele in Your Hand
Little ukulele joyed for me. And yeah, I just I just love the comedy in it and I love I love that. kind of northern Yuma.
when I first heard this. poem I should call it. I was just amazed by it and I Went to all my friends and said, Have you ever heard of this guy called Leonard Cohen? and they said, Yeah, it's music to commit suicide to, you know. I just thought it was just so poetic.
Vincent Rodney. Um has like dedicated his whole whole musical career to promoting the name of Marcus Carvey and this is was one of his most well known kind of Rastafarian anthem really.
Michael Smith, a very important Jamaican poet who unfortunately was stoned to death for his political beliefs in Jamaica. I think it was around about 1984. But um this poem is probably one of his most well known poems, a very kind of Jamaican poem, but what he's trying to do here is describe the kind of poverty and the things that he sees in everyday life in Jamaica and he's just saying that he cannot believe what he's seeing, but he sees it every day.
It's a great record and the reason why I've chose it because it just says a lot about the time we're in now, the multicultural nature of Britain.
Take FiveFavourite
I just love it. Uh you know, I just love it. And when I'm um Auditioning saxophone players in my band, you know, I say play that. If you can't play that, I won't even talk to you, you know, if this is the starting point. So here's something I'm just doing for the fun of it.
I remember it because it it takes me back to those days in the 70s, although we didn't actually have the Klutos Klan here. We had the National Front and we still have the BNP. And it was one of the Tunes that was in my life when I really became a kind of a political animal.
In conversation
Presenter asks
5:44How did you write [your first book] when you could hardly read or write?
First of all, I wrote it… the way it sounded to me phonetically. But then when I gave it to someone else to look at. I also kind of made sure that they didn't just translate it to standard English. You know, I always knew what I wanted to say, so I didn't have a that problem at all.
Presenter asks
8:41Do you think that your poetry has saved you from a life of crime?
I'm not sure. No, I think what really saved me from a life of crime is… I had this energy. And I just found a way of channeling it. It was as simple as that.
Presenter asks
16:57What does [being a Rastafarian] mean beyond the dreadlocks?
There's three things that I think all Rastafarians have in common. Um one is that they recognize Haile Selassie and his lineage as that lineage of David and Solomon… two that they recognize um Ethiopia or Africa as their spiritual homeland, and free that they recognize a person called Marcus Garvey as a kind of prophet, as a kind of modern-day John the Baptist.
The keepsakes
The book
The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
I've always loved Shelley. I don't claim to kind of fully understand him, but um the poet I really, really love.
The luxury
somebody could make me a set of the law, put it up in a plaque somewhere where I can see the law every day. ... The rules of the island, the law of the land. So I could break it at least once a day,'cause I I believe that it's quite healthy to break the law at least once a day. Especially when you're hurting nobody, you know.
Presenter asks
19:46How did Nelson Mandela get to know about your work?
What happened was that somebody gave him a parcel of my works, some of my books and poetry and tapes and things like this… The reason was because I'd done a fundraising tour… to pay for A radio transmitter that the apartheid regime had smashed… So he read it and listened to it. I'm told that he passed it around his little government that was in prison.
Presenter asks
24:47How much does it depress you that you can't have children?
A lot. You know, it's it's these little moments… where I was just watching people playing with their children. for some reason it just struck me then. I really just felt like crying and I've always wanted these very simple things in life and one of them has just been a baby and it's like the one thing that I can't have no control over really.
Presenter asks
26:46What happened with the artist in residence post at Trinity College, Cambridge?
I think that the people at Cambridge backed down because there was just so much um media interest because of me getting this post. I mean all the press went crazy about it and And all they were concerned about was the fact that, you know, I was black, you know, and I was a Rastafarian and that I'd been in trouble with the police.
“I always thought of poetry as something to communicate to people, not as something that I wanted to put into books. In fact, putting poetry into books was The last thing on my agenda, when I published my first book I couldn't read and write, so I wanted to reach people like myself.”
“My poetry I always describe it as like being gay. I didn't tell anybody. It was something that I kind of kept to myself.”
“I think because of my ability to meditate I'd be able to stay on top of it.”