Transcript: In conversation with Linton Kwesi Johnson
Paul Gilroy: Hello, I m Paul Gilroy, Director of the Sarah Parker Remond Centre at University College London. I m joined today by Linton Kwesi Johnson, poet and activist; somebody whose voice has been absolutely fundamental to presenting and to interpreting the consciousness of Black people in this country for many, many decades now. In the vernacular philosophical language of the 20th century Black freedom movement, to which Linton’s work as a poet has made such notable contribution. The idea of truth gets linked to the pursuit of right and rights. The pairing that results has often been associated with loud and unruly demands for justice. It’s a mix that has endured far beyond the historical circumstances from which it emerged. Those demands for truth, right and justice reverberate very loudly in the context of the year we’ve just lived through - the Covid pandemic and the forms of inequality and conflict that it has reve