Tuesday 17 June 2014

This Week #RayRecommends The History Of The N - Word on Radio 4, Adam Kammerling & Out-Spoken

Ellah Allfrey at 8pm this Saturday (21st June)

There are some words in English that are so controversial that they are shortened to a single letter lest they cause offence. Perhaps the most inflammatory is the N-word. The proxy barely disguises the racial insult, "nigger", which has topped lists of ugly and hateful words since it was first uttered in the seventeenth century. It has regularly wounded black people, its target, down the ages. When, for instance, the African American boxer, Muhammad Ali, was asked why he resisted the draft in the Vietnam War, he is alleged to have said: "No Vietnamese ever called me nigger."
Ellah Allfrey looks at its evolution from its origins as a mispronunciation of the Spanish "negro" in the 17th century. She illuminates how and why the capitalised "Negro" became the more acceptable version of the word in the 1920s (the landmark adoption of Negro by the New York Times was in 1930); through to the subsequent re-appropriation of the N word in rap and hip-hop culture. But even when coming from the mouths of black people the N word continues to cause offence. There have been calls for the word to be banned. But is this possible or desirable? - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0474xdk
#RayRecommends Adam Kammerling
Adam Kammerling has been grafting lately, winning his last Don't Flop battle, dropping a brilliant album and spitting bars like this -- there is no stopping him!

LOOK AT THAT LINE UP AT OUT-SPOKEN! #RayRecommends
Musa Okwonga's poem, Monotony about Drones is powerful and disturbing, haven't got it out of my head.



Lastly, this article is essential reading for native Hackney residents and gentrifiers alike.


http://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/esmagazine/meg-hillier-hackney-may-be-achingly-cool-but-its-also-achingly-poor-9531697.html

Monday 2 June 2014

Raymond Antrobus at Glastonbury, Latitude and more...

I'll be appearing at Tagore Festival this month with One Taste, celebrating one of India's most renounced and profile poets, Rabindranath Tagore.
20th - 22nd June
Chill Pill's Deanna Rodger is Poet in Residence at Glastonbury this year and has just announced my appearance alongside Rob Auton, Chris Redmond, Sally Jenkenson and more...

25th - 29th June
http://poetryandwordsblog.wordpress.com/2014/05/28/the-first-famous-for-being-fantastic-five/

I'm also excited to be appearing alongside Michael Rosen and Scroobius Pip at Latitude Festival.


17th - 20th July
For Chill Pill festival dates of Camp Bestival, Now Festival, Hamswell and Wilderness check our site -

http://chill-pill.co.uk