Black Brown and Beige : Surrealist Writings from Africa and the Diaspora

I have 2 prose poems included in this landmark anthology, which was probably the late great Franklin Rosemont's final testament. Its an incredible collection of surrealist writings from the Caribbean and the entire African Diaspora. Essential reading if ever there was.

Caribbean Erotic Anthology

I have some work included in this new anthology of Erotic Caribbean writing. Many years in the making. My contribution is called 'The RealTime Trajectory of Explicit Love'.

A wide-ranging anthology of poetry, short fiction, and critical essays designed to generate thought about what is still a conflicted area of Caribbean literature and culture, this revealing, in-depth examination explores the many facets of the erotic in contemporary Caribbean literature—from desire; the psychology of abusive relationships; the role of fantasy; and issues of infidelity, lust, rape, self-respect, self-love, and child-birth. This anthology also discusses the Caribbean frameworks of sexuality as a cultural construct, from the role of machismo, homophobia, and Protestant-fundamentalist sexual ideologies as specific forms of denial and hostility to the open expression of sexual desire. The essays then extend the book’s scope beyond literature and consider the impact of the erotic upon other aspects of Caribbean life, ranging from song lyrics to the general issues of female empowerment in Caribbean societies. Featuring the work of well-known writers such as Nalo Hopkins, Colin Channer, Kwame Dawes and the work of many fresh new talents such as Obediah Michael Smith, Christian Campbell, and Tiphanie Yanique, this anthology aims to create a new framework in which the full spectrum of the erotic in Caribbean literature and life can be freely explored.

Buy it from Peepal Tree : http://www.peepaltreepress.com/single_book_display.asp?isbn=9781845230890

Work included in two new anthologies

I was fortunate enough to be in included in the new anthology of contemporary British Poetry 'Identity Parade' (Bloodaxe) as well as in 'Red' the new anthology from Peepal Tree, both published this month.

"Riff for Morton" from "Rubber Orchestras"

This is the a poem from a new collection I'm working on, Rubber Orchestras. The collection will feature 100 poems, and will be published in early 2011 if all goes to plan. More soon.

Riff for Morton

Damper down

both phallic and acquainted

with African blues.

The hips suggest

good jazz )(i.e.sex)

Anita, 1900.

the african fiction of whiteness is absolute.

arcade saloons and dance halls

gambling down like evil or false notes

blue notes of white magic

Jelly roll morton

at the cadillac cafe

pimp or piano drunk and sick

on the bricktops of vancouver

Ragtime Billy

from Chicago

a clarinetist at the Regent

1923

went southwest with the wrath of poseidon

gambling down

in terrific storms which broke down

the pensacola kid

at the Paradise gardens

with the first three notes of Dead Man Blues

and The Pearls

yes he left mamanita, yes he left

yes he let his beard grow

spat blood in the broom closet

yes he let his beard grow

there were many diamonds

she left many diamonds

cash on cadillac cars

duke ellington

had swing bands

basie and calloway

had a cluster of tricks

which in fact were as spikes at kingpin sessions

and in the exact rooms of the kidworth hotel

where days passed like clinic cards

Morton left the sepia spot and took his body to the jungle inn

on 126 North West

Red Peppers and the attack of alibi, restless priests

listening to Pops Mabel

at the church of intercourse

Jelly you rascal

you minstrel

you lover

you bone meat of the creole caribbean

- vicious semen, Jelly

bake ‘em brown and break a banjo across their backs

jelly you blues talker

1930

the worried blues and the voodoo of your laughter

stepping lean in stove pipes

with the prestige of your father

to the very end.

NEWS: 'BIRD HEAD SON'S READING TOUR OF GERMANY/AUSTRIA 2009

From November 16 to 23 I will be embarking on a short German spoken word tour reading from my new 'Bird Head Son' collection. I will be mainly reading at universities, with a date in Austria on Nov 23. The last German tour, in 2007 was an incredible experience, so I'm really looking forward to this one.

The dates are :


Nov 16 - - JENA - Rosensale, University of Jena - 20.00

Nov 17 - SIEGEN - Kultur Cafe, University of Siegen - 18.00

Nov 18 - BOCHUM - GBCF 04/514 University of Bochum - 16.00

Nov 19 - DORTMUND - Sonnendeck, University of Dortmund - 19.00

Nov 20 - MAINZ - University of Mainz - 12.00

Nov 23 - VIENNA - University of Vienna - 19.00


For more info on the book see http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smp/9781844714353.htm

News Views and Reviews

Yes, I know, its been an incredibly long time since I updated this site. Fact is, I've been busy. Been on the road with the Spasm Band in Europe, touring relentlessly. Its been hectic, moving from place to plane, eating weird shit and drinking copious amount of Martiniquan rum but also performing some heavy shows with the guys. This leg of the tour goes on till Aug 9 when we fly in from Reunion Island to play the Big Chill. There are more gigs in September, October, then in November : I tour Germany promoting my Bird Head Son book. In terms of writing, I am working on 2 major texts. Firstly, my PHD project, a fictional biog of lord kitchener (not the English guy, the calypsonian), finally managing to get a rhythm going, getting through 1000 words a day, in 80 days I'll have a novel, well, at least a novel lenght thing. Wish me luck. Secondly, a new collection I'm hoping will get published next year, its an abstract, experimental work-100 poems based on a surrealistic technique I think I might have invented. Its a secret. But the book will be called 'Rubber Orchestras' (Ted Joans describing Bob Kaufman's work). Its a strangely haunting work that will either be deeply profound (concerning the slippages and dark spaces of language) or deeply odd. Either way, I'm enjoying the process of discovery. I've finished teaching for the summer : a great group of Birkbeck folks, amazing to see the transformation from beginner to writer by the end of the 22 week course. They even put together a booklet of their work as an end of course gift to me. Good stuff. Teaching resumes in September when I will be teaching a new Life Writing course. I designed the syllabus, looking forward to it. So, to make up for the lost time, here's a vid from a recent New Morning, Paris performance.

Découvrez Découvrez Mondomix.com, le magazine des Musiques et Cultures dans le Monde!

And here's a new review of the Bird Head Son album from Cyclic Defrost

The first thing that hits you is the funk, the throbbing urban grooves, taut, almost militant 70’s funk that drifts into the stirring power of spiritual and free jazz, even Afrobeat or bizarrely enough Calypso music. And then we meet Anthony Joseph. He is a poet. But you wouldn’t know it. He comes across like a New Orleans preacher, loud, proud, rousing, over the sweat and the sin of the music. His delivery is somewhere between Martin Luther King Jnr and Jimi Hendrix, these incredibly vivid spiritual street stories that build and swell with the music. Make no mistake he’s not thumbing earnestly through a dog eared excercise book, he’ll wail and sing, writhe and live the music. These are songs, not poetry put to music, where the music can just flow on instrumentally for long periods before Joseph will pop up with his unique wordplays. Jospeh is Trinidadian, based England, he even lectures in creative writing there, though it’s his super cool 7 piece band with horns, hand drums, wah guitar, organs and shakers that really takes this out of the classroom. They’ve really transcended the spoken word medium here, creating the kind of obscure rare groove record that crate diggers would go mad for if it was made thirty five years ago, like it sounds like it should have. Bob Baker Fish

SPATIAL AKA

On Tuesday March 10 2009 I performed at the Barbican Center, London with Jerry Dammers' Spatial AKA, here are a couple backstage pics.


Francine Luce, Anthony Joseph & Space Ape


Anthony Joseph & Jerry Dammers


Space is the place...