Dub poetry star Linton Kwesi Johnson is one the highlights of this year’s StAnza international poetry festival, held in St Andrews this month.
Renowned as an activist as well as a writer that has revolutionized English verse, Jamaican-born and London-raised Linton began his career in the seventies.
First reggae poet
He became known especially for releasing albums such as Dread Beat An’ Blood, leading him to be known as the first reggae poet.
He takes to the stage of the town’s Byre Theatre on March 12.
This follows appearances by a range of poets including Helen Mort, five-times winner of the Foyle young poets award, and YouTube star Hollie McNish, famed for her achingly personal and political rhymes about motherhood.
Held over four days, much of the programme is based around the theme of Wild: forms of resistance, how poetry can encourage us to connect with nature and campaign more effectively to protect the environment.
Poetry and wildness
Guest curator Sasha de Buyl, herself a University of St Andrews graduate, now based in Ireland, explains her belief that we normally have too little time to explore our relationship with wildness, something that should be integral to our lives.
“Poetry can touch this place within ourselves, where we push back against what stultifies us,” she says. “And this is where our theme takes root.
“We stand at the precipice of irreversible damage to our earth’s climate and, through this year’s festival, we explore how poetry can help us make sense of the devastation of our biosphere and lead us to meaningful resistance and persistence in the face of mass ecological collapse.”
A global scope
As ever, StAnza prides itself on having a global scope, this year hosting wordsmiths from New Zealand, USA and Canada.
For 2023, there is a particular focus on Ireland, including Will Keohane presenting his epic sequence Boxing Day, which explores his experience of gender transition.
Look out also for work from Scottish writers at Bàrdachd Fhiadhaich: Wild Gaelic Poetry, a discussion on writing in the language featuring Beth Frieden, Eòghan Stiùbhart, Niall O’Gallagher, Martin MacIntyre and Peter Mackay.
The latter also presents Past and Present: Màiri Mhòr nan Oran, an exploration of the 19th Century author whose work scrutinised the Highland Clearances.
Many of the featured poets are also participating in a variety of workshops and masterclasses, alongside promising new talents from the Scottish Poetry Library’s New Generation Young Makars programme.
Two exhibitions
StAnza has also collaborated with arts organisation Fife Contemporary to bring two exhibitions to the town.
Connecting Through Form by jeweller and graphic designer Rebecca Boyle, who graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone last summer, is at St Andrews’ Heritage Museum, while a presentation of Portobello-based Juliana Capes’ film poems Rainforest Days, 2022 is to be held in the Byre.
Further visual elements for the festival come from a display of work by landscape artist Judith Tucker at Laidlaw Music Centre.
There’s also an exhibit, again, at the Byre, by Scottish writer Jenni Fagan based around her poetry collection The Bone Library.
The author of acclaimed works such as Luckenbooth is also known for engraving verses onto bones.
StAnza: Scotland’s International Poetry Festival runs March 9-12. See www.stanzapoetry.org for details.
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