Linton Kwesi Johnson: Live performance of 鈥楧i Great Insohreckshan鈥�
Poet and musician Linton Kwesi Johnson performs his poem 鈥楧i Great Insohreckshan inspired by the New Cross Fire that killed 13 young black people during a birthday party in a house in New Cross, southeast London on Sunday January 18, 1981.
In the immediate aftermath of the fire, a New Cross Massacre Action Committee (NCMAC) was set up and Linton Kwesi Johnson was one of the organisers of the "Black People's Day of Action" which on 2 March 1981, saw around 20,000 people march through London, carrying placards that bore statements including: "13 Dead, Nothing Said鈥�.
At the time Kwesi Johnson鈥檚 poems were criticised for helping to create a generation of rioters and illiterates. Linton Kwesi Johnson laughs and tells Zeinab Badawi: 鈥淚 felt rather flattered.鈥�
