The Alchemist’s Fire: an evening of Caribbean poetry with Poetry London

Poetry London and Goldsmiths Writers’ Centre present John Agard, Anthony Joseph and Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa.

Caribbean poetry has always been a coffer of urgent, evocative ideas – reshaping form, interrogating language, and crafting aesthetics for imagining new worlds and challenging the Western canon. Whether the vibrant surrealism of Aimé Césaire, the epic mythmaking of Derek Walcott, the gripping dub rhythms of Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze, or the archival examinations of M NourbeSe Phillip, Caribbean poets have pioneered some of poetry’s most significant leaps and bounds in the past century. In association with Poetry London, the Writers’ Centre hosted an evening celebrating Caribbean poetry past and present, with performances by three poets – John Agard, Anthony Joseph, and Safiya Kamaria Kinshasa – whose startling innovations represent just three illustrious generations of Caribbean poetry.

Drawing its title from a poem in Éduouard Glissant’s sequence ‘Monomagic’, the event was a magical and thought-provoking night, with the opportunity to hear the poets in conversation after their readings with chair Isabelle Baafi.