Lillian Allen Demo
Lillian Allen is no stranger to border crossing. Born in Spanish Town, Jamaica, Allen moved to New York City in 1968 before settling in Canada in the early 1970s. But as this compilation of performances at two disparate locations--the Canadian League of Poets Benefit (1990) and the 15th Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (1990)--illustrates, Allen's border crossings also transcend institutional, political, and aesthetic enclosures. Through both form and content, Allen's dub poetry speaks a language of political intersectionality. Often credited with opening up the dub form to feminist content and sensibilities, Allen has also been at the forefront of the struggle to have dub poetry recognized as a literary form. Just six year's prior to her reading at the Canadian League of Poets, Allen and fellow dub poets Clifton Joseph and Devon Haughton were refused membership in the League on the grounds that they were performers rather than poets. The League's refusal of membership exposes the ways in which normative assumptions about poetry and literature construct borders of inclusion and exclusion based in hierarchical norms of class, culture, and race. Notably, in 1992, the League awarded Allen the Foremother of Canadian Poetry prize. The documentation of performances at the Canadian League of Poets Benefit includes readings of the poems "Dark Winds" and "Jazz Poem," while the documentation of the 15th Michigan Womyn's Festival includes the Reggae Dub Poetry pieces (with musical backup) "Fine Mary," "Nellie Belly Swelly," and "Birth Poem."
Lillian Allen is recognized as a key originator and a leading exponent of dub poetry--a highly politicized form of poetry that is sometimes set to music and is considered a literary godmother of rap, hip-hop and spoken word poetry. Originally from SpanishTown, Jamaica, Allen has been an influential figure on the global cultural landscape for over four decades. She is credited with opening up the form of dub poetry to enlist and engage feminist content and sensibilities. Her albums Revolutionary Tea Party and Conditions Critical won Juno awards in1986 and 1988 respectively. Allen's multi-disciplinary and experimental creativity extends across many genres. In addition to being an award-winning and internationally renowned poet and writer of short stories and plays, Allen was the instigator, co-producer and host of WORDBEAT, CBC's national radio show on poetry and the spoken word; she is featured in the films Revolution from de Beat (1995); Unnatural Causes (1989); Rhythm and Hardtimes (1998); and co-produced/co-directed Blak ... Wi Blakk' (1994), a documentary film on Jamaican dub poet Mutabaruka which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. She is a professor of creative writing at Ontario College of Art and Design University (OCADU). www.lillianallen.ca