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Dub poetry

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Poetry written to be spoken over a reggae rhythm, or written with that rhythm already in it. The name is generally credited to Oku Onuora, and the form runs through Linton Kwesi Johnson, Mutabaruka, Michael Smith and Jean Binta Breeze — political, spoken in Jamaican language, and taking the deejay's relationship to a rhythm somewhere the dancehall was not going.

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Every time I hear di sound: a short history of dub poetry

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The Wire. Reference only.

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In stories

Story · Well supportedThe women of dub poetry and the spoken word

Jamaican-born women carried dub poetry's reasoning voice from Kingston yards to Toronto stages and a Halifax poet laureateship.

Story · Well supportedDub poetry and the reggae page

Dub poetry put Jamaican speech and reggae bass on the page and the stage at once, and made a form that belongs equally to Kingston, London and Toronto.

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Compiled and researched by The Jamaica Music Atlas music desk. The sources that informed it are credited above.

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