Roger Robinson (poet)

Roger Robinson is a writer, musician and performer who lives between England and Trinidad.[1] He describes himself as "a British resident with a Trini sensibility".[2] He was chosen by arts organisation Decibel as one of 50 writers who have influenced black-British writing over the past 50 years.[1][2] He was a spoken-word performer in London in the early 1990s, before branching out to start performing poetry with bands he would meet, including Techno Animal, Flytronix, The Bugz, Attica Blues and Speeka.[3] Robinson is the lead vocalist for musical crossover project King Midas Sound, whose critically acclaimed debut album Waiting for You was released on Hyperdub Records,[4][5] becoming number 10 in the top 50 releases of 2009 in Wire Magazine.[6]

Biography

Robinson was born in Hackney, London, and at the age of four went with his parents to live in Trinidad, returning to England when he was 19[7] in the 1980s.[8]

Robinson has toured extensively with the British Council, travelling to Vietnam, the Philippines, Argentina, Bulgaria, Greece, India, the Czech Republic and Mozambique, among other places.[8] As well as performing, he has led workshops and lectured on poetry and performance.[1] His one-man shows The Shadow Boxer, Letter from My Father's Brother and Prohibition all premiered at the British Festival of Visual Theatre at Battersea Arts Centre.[1] Until 2000, Robinson was programme co-ordinator of the performance poetry organisation Apples and Snakes. In 1999 he was one of 30 poets chosen for the New Generation Poets collection at the National Portrait Gallery, London.[1]

Commissions he has received include from Theatre Royal Stratford East, the National Trust, London Open House, the National Portrait Gallery, LIFT and the Tate. His workshops have been a part of a shortlist for the Gulbenkian Prize for Museums and Galleries and were also a part of the Webby Award-winning Barbican Centre's Can I Have A Word.[9]

In 2010 his poetry collection Suckle won the People's Book Prize.[4][8] His 2013 collection The Butterfly Hotel was one of three poetry titles shortlisted for the 2014 OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Literature.[10]

His solo album of spoken folk, illclectica, was released on Altered Vibes records in 2004;[1] it was named by Mojo Magazine as "number eight in the top 10 electronic albums for that year.[11] In 2015 he released Dis Side Ah Town, which has been described as "an album that lyrically recalls the most incisive and suggestive lyricists in dub and roots reggae".[12]

Bibliography

  • Suckle (poetry), Waterways Books, 2009. ISBN 978-190-523-3212
  • Suitcase (poetry), Waterways Publishing, 2004.
  • Adventures in 3D (short fiction), Lubin & Kleyner, 2001.
  • The Butterfly Hotel (poetry), Peepal Tree PressFbri, 2013. ISBN 978-1845232191

Albums

  • illclectica (Altered Vibes, 2004)
  • Dis Side Ah Town (Jahtari, 2015)
  • Dog Heart City (Jahtari, 2017)

References

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