David Austin

VIDEO: The 1968 Congress of Black Writers

In this short video, David Austin, editor of the new book Moving Against the System, talks about one of the most important political events in the history of Black radicalism, which took place in Montreal in October 1968.

VIDEO: Radical Politics and the Poetry of Linton Kwesi Johnson

What is the relationship between poetry and social change?

In this short video David Austin, author of Dread Poetry and Freedom: Linton Kwesi Johnson and the...

Black Power in the U.S.A.
At the 1968 Congress of Black Writers

Against a backdrop of racism in the West and colonialism and imperialism in the Global South, Stokeley Carmichael speechifies at the 1968 Congress of Black Writers, the most important gathering of black radicals of the era.

The Radical Politics and Poetics of Linton Kwesi Johnson

Linton Kwesi Johnson fought ‘sus’ laws, stood on picketlines, and put pen to paper to refute W.H. Auden’s claim that ‘poetry makes nothing happen’. In this blog, David Austin considers the relationship between his poetry and politics.