TIME COME, Selected Prose

312pp., illus., paperback, Reprint, Picador, London, (2023) 2024 

ISBN: 9781035006335

Introduction by Paul Gilroy.

Linton Kwesi Johnson has selected some of his most powerful prose – book and music reviews published in newspapers and magazines, lectures, obituaries and speeches - written over many decades. Drawing on Johnson’s Jamaican roots and on Caribbean history, these works explore the politics of race that inform the Black British experience.

The collection includes a tribute to Don Mattera and James Matthews and Johnson's honorary doctorate acceptance speech at Rhodes University in 2017.

"Gathers the real-life reportage roots of the dub poetry that makes LKJ our Bard of the Front Line, wherever it may be. His insights unite Black and diverse Britain, the Afro-Diaspora and those who dig it. Spare and deliberate, his dead-on prose critiques several decades of music, poetry, theatre and literature ... LKJ also chronicles the social and political progress of post-colonial Black Britons, building a culture and spaces of their own. Engagingly, he shares his personal artistic development, deftly guiding arts aspirants. A work of consistent commitment and courage." Vivien Goldman

"From rebel music to praisesongs for the ancestors, LKJ’s vibrant prose traverses the broad terrain of Black British culture and beyond ... LKJ’s prose, like his poetry, is a dread beat of resistance against systemic racism, affirming the capacity of Caribbean migrants to turn trauma into sustaining art." Carolyn Cooper

Linton Kwesi Johnson, also known as LKJ, is a Jamaican-born, British-based reggae poet and a deeply respected political, cultural activist and social critic.He lives in Brixton.