World Of Music Art and Dance Festival (WOMAD) : Lillian Allen

Co-founded by Peter Gabriel in England in 1982, WOMAD -- World ofMusic, Art and Dance -- became a vehicle for introducing "World Music"to western audiences. This 1988 festival at Toronto's Harbourfront Centrewas the first WOMAD festival to take place in North America andforegrounded Toronto's strong multicultural community with performancesfrom local artists of Caribbean, African, Asian and Native Canadiandescent. Performing tracks from her Juno Award winning Reggae/Calypsoalbums, Revolutionary Tea Party (1986) and Conditions Critical (1988), Lillian Allen powerfully demonstrates the political power of stylisticfusion within a diasporic setting. With "Rub a Dub Style Inna RegentPark" Allen integrates Jamaican English with specific Toronto geographyand contemporary urban influences to illustrate how diasporic spaces bothcall for and produce subversive new musical and textual styles. Similarly, with "I Fight Back" Allen enacts a code-switching style that fights theimposition of Standard English as an indicator of hierarchical knowledgestructures and situates Jamaican English as linguistically displaced andyet empowered. And, as always, Allen brings to the highly politicized genreof dub poetry her woman-identified perspective with performances of"Birth Poem," "Nelly Belly Swelly," and "Sister HoldOn"--Works that use sound and music as visceral mediums to break taboosabout women's lived experiences. This documentation includes anintroduction by Clifton Joseph, and the following reggae dub poetry pieces:"I Fight Back," "Birth Poem," "Nellie Belly Swelly," "NaturalRights," "Sister Hold On," "Rub-a-Dub Style inna Regent Park, ""Conditions Critical," and "The Subversives."

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