The work

This January/Feb sees the joint release of my new album and book, both entitled Bird Head Son. At the moment I am on tour with the Spasm band throughout Europe and beyond in support of the album which was released in France in January. It will be simulteanously released with the new book in the UK on Feb 7.
Info on the UK album launch is included below.
Once again, thanks for all the support from fans, supporters and colleagues for making this all a reality. See the textology section of thie site for more info and excerpts and myspace.com/adjoseph for music samples and tour info, plus some eager graphics. New Time Shuffle!

Bird Head Son - the book published by Salt Publishing Feb 7.

Bird Head Son - the album, released Jan 20 in Europe, Feb 7 in the UK.

Album Launch gig & Party at Cargo:

Kartel are offering a special deal on this show. For purchasing tickets you also get the chance to pre-order the new album ‘BIRD HEAD SON’, for the very special price of only £5! (normal price £9.99 in store)

Order your tickets from :

Kartel Box Office/Shop

Bird Head Son the album is released on the 9th February 2009, along with the book of the same name.
For more info on the album and the Bird Head Son Tour see www.myspace.com/adjoseph

Beyone the linear narrative

Have a look at this new blog set up by Goldsmiths's Pinter center for their 'beyond the linear narrative' project. I'm one of 2 Phd students involved in the project.

http://thepintercentre.blogspot.com/

Anthony Joseph and the Spasm Band aux Transmusicales Dec 2008 ft Joe Bowie

Anthony Joseph and the Spasm Band
Uploaded by zazoom

Conductors - A poem from 'Bird Head Son'

Albert Joseph, Santa Cruz, Trinidad, August 2007. Photo by A. Joseph


Conductors of his Mystery is a poem inspired by my father. Its in the new Bird Head Son collection, as well as on the Bird Head Son album, due in January 2009. The song was recorded in Paris last spring and features The Spasm Band joined by the great Joseph Bowie on Trombone and David Neerman on electric vibraphone. You can hear an excerpt from the song at http://www.myspace.com/adjoseph

These are the lyrics of the poem :

Conductors of his Mystery
for Albert Joseph

The day my father came back from the sea
broke and handsome
I saw him walking across the savannah
and knew at once it was him.
His soulful stride, the grace of his hat,
the serifs of his name
~ fluttering ~
in my mouth.

In his bachelor's room in El Socorro that year
he played his 8-tracks through a sawed-off speaker box.
The coil would rattle an the cone would hop
but women from the coconut groves
still came to hear
his traveller's tales.

Shop he say he build by Goose Lane junction.
But it rough from fabricated timber string.
Picka foot jook wood
like what Datsun ship in.
And in this snackette he sold red mango,
mints and tamarind.
Its wire mesh grill hid his suffer well tough.
Till the shop bust,
and he knock out the boards
and roam east
to Enterprise village.

Shack he say he build same cross-cut lumber.
Wood he say he stitch same carap bush.
Roof he say he throw same galvanize. He got
ambitious with wood
in his middle ages.

That night I spent there,
with the cicadas in that clear village sky,
even though each room was still unfinished
and each sadness hid. I was with
my father
and I would've stayed
if he had asked.
Brown suede,
8 eye high
desert boots. Beige
gabardine bells with the 2 inch folds.
He was myth. The legend of him.
Once I touched the nape of his boot
to see if my father was real.
Beyond the brown edges of photographs
and the songs we sang
to sing him back
from the sweep and sea agonies
of his distance.
Landslide scars. He sent no letters.

His small hands were for the fine work of his carpentry.
His fingers to trace the pitch pine's grain.
And the raised rivers of his veins,
the thick rings of his charisma,
the scars — the maps of his palms —
were the sweet conductors
of his mystery.
Aiyé Olokun.
He came back smelling of the sea.

Caribbean Review of Books

I was honoured this month to have 2 poems - 'Blues for Cousin Alvin' and 'Bosch's Vision'- both from my forthcoming collection Bird Head Son included in the cuurent issue of the acclaimed Caribbean Review of Books, the regions foremost literary journal. See the CRB website for more info on the issue, its definately worth subscribing to the CRB if you want to keep up with Caribbean literature's past, present and future.

Bird Head Son - cover

This is the cover from my forthcoming poetry collection 'Bird Head Son', due from Salt in November 08. The image is of my brother and I one Carnival Monday, up Ramkissoon Trace, San Juan, circa 78/79, getting ready to go into Port of Spain in tracksuits we got from England. Dennis is in red with the gangster lean.

River Breakin Biche - from 'Bird Head Son' Audio

River breakin biche is a poem from my forthcoming collection 'Bird Head Son'(Salt 2008).
The poem speaks of 'breakin biche' or 'playing truant'. (Biche = fr -Bush) - So we left school and went to the river bush...it speaks of these adventures along the banks of the San Juan River...from San Juan Government Secondary.
I'll be posting more poems and audio here leading up to the books publication later this autumn, so check back often.