Award-winning poet, novelist, academic & musician Anthony Joseph reads from his fictional biography of Calypso Icon Lord Kitchener.
Harrow Libraries are delighted to welcome the award-winning Trinidad-born poet, novelist, academic and musician Anthony Joseph on 22 June 2021 – Windrush Day – reading online from ‘Kitch’ – his fictionalised biography of Calypso Icon Lord Kitchener.
Born into colonial Trinidad in 1922 as Aldwyn Roberts, Lord Kitchener arrived in England on HMT Empire Windrush in 1948. He emerged in the 1950s at the forefront of multicultural Britain, acting as an intermediary between the growing Caribbean community, the islands they had left behind, and the often hostile conditions they encountered. In the process, Kitch single-handedly popularised the calypso in Britain, with recordings such as ‘London is the Place for Me’, ‘The Underground Train’ and ‘Ghana’.
Combining an inventive fictional structure with factual biography, Anthony Joseph’s novel presents a multifaceted view of the man behind the music and the myth.
The reading will be followed by a Q&A
Anthony Joseph is the author of four poetry collections and three novels. His 2018 novel Kitch: A Fictional Biography Of A Calypso Icon was shortlisted for the Republic of Consciousness Prize, the Royal Society of Literature’s Encore Award, and longlisted for the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature. His most recent publication is the experimental novel The Frequency of Magic. In 2019, he was awarded a Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship. As a musician, he has released eight critically acclaimed albums – including 2021’s The Rich Are Only Defeated When Running For Their Lives.
https://www.peepaltreepress.com/books/kitch
Portrait of Anthony Joseph courtesy of Bunny Bread/@icreatenotdestroy
Image of ‘Kitch’ courtesy of Peepal Tree Press
Presented on Windrush Day 2021 by Harrow Libraries as part of ”Harrow Is The Place For Me’, a borough-wide celebration of the Windrush pioneers & their legacy.
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