How Long Is “Dread Beat an' Blood”?

Profile of Linton Kwesi Johnson whose poetry is rooted very strongly in feelings of marginalisation and alienation found within urban black populations in the UK. Johnson, born in Jamaica in 1952, has deliberately chosen to align himself with the oral poetic tradition of the West Indies, in which the poet is not isolated and introspective, but has a definite social role as a commentator and interpreter, as a public voice around which people can gather. As he says in the film, "The spoken word has more immediacy: it reaches more people, than written poetry could ever do." The concerns of his poetry are the concerns of the community within which he moves: the young black working-class people of inner city London who, mainly unemployed, are disaffected and disillusioned. […] The film follows Johnson as he read his poems in a school, works at the Keskidee centre, records an LP, and recites at a march in Bradford. […] (British Universities Film & Video Council).