Lillian Allen

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For the painter and photographer, see Lillian B. Allen.

Lillian Allen
Lillian Allen à La Vitrola.png
Background information
Born (1951-04-05) 5 April 1951 (age 70)
Kingston, Jamaica
Genres
Occupation(s)
  • Poet
  • Singer-songwriter
  • writer
  • activist
  • Professor
InstrumentsVocals
Years active1969–present
LabelsVerse to Vinyl
Associated acts
Websitewww.lillianallen.ca

Lillian Allen (born 5 February 1951) is a Canadian dub poet, reggae musician, writer and Juno Award winner.[1]

Biography[]

Born in Spanish Town, Jamaica, she left that country in 1969, first moving to New York City, where she studied English at the City University of New York.[2] She lived for a time in Kitchener, Ontario, before settling in Toronto, where she continued her education at York University, gaining a B.A. degree.[3] After meeting Oku Onuora in Cuba in 1978, try of Lillian Allen, in 1983.[citation needed]

Allen won the Juno Award for Best Reggae/Calypso Album for Revolutionary Tea Party in 1986 and Conditions Critical in 1988.[3]

In 1990, she collaborated on the one-off single "Can't Repress the Cause", a plea for greater inclusion of hip-hop music in the Canadian music scene, with Dance Appeal, a supergroup of Toronto-area musicians that included Devon, Maestro Fresh Wes, Dream Warriors, B-Kool, Michie Mee, Eria Fachin, HDV, Dionne, Thando Hyman, Carla Marshall, Messenjah, Jillian Mendez, Lorraine Scott, Lorraine Segato, Self Defense, Leroy Sibbles, Zama and Thyron Lee White.[4] Two years later, she organized a collective of artists, including Ahdri Zhina Mandiela and Afua Cooper, prompting Toronto's First International Dub Poetry Festival.[5]:103​

In 2006, Allen and her work were the subject of an episode of the television series Heart of a Poet, produced by Canadian filmmaker Maureen Judge. She is a Faculty of Liberal Studies Professor at the Ontario College of Art and Design University, where she teaches creative writing. She

Publications[]

  • 1983 Rhythm an' Hardtimes[6]
  • 1984 The Teeth of the Whirlwind
  • 1987 If You See Truth
  • 1991 Why Me
  • 1993 Women Do This Every Day[7]
  • 1993 Love & Other Strange Things (stage play)[8]
  • 1999 Psychic Unrest

Discography[]

  • Dub Poet: The Poetry of Lillian Allen (1983)
  • De dub poets (1985)
  • Curfew Inna B.C. (1985)
  • Revolutionary Tea Party (1986)
  • Let the Heart See (1987)
  • Conditions Critical (1988)
  • Nothing But a Hero (1992)
  • Freedom & Dance (1999)
  • Anxiety (European release) (2012)

References[]

  1. ^ "Lillian Allen". Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  2. ^ Dawes, Kwame (2000), Talk Yuh Talk: Interviews with Anglophone Caribbean Poets, University of Virginia Press, ISBN 978-0-8139-1946-1, pp. 148–160.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b Henry, Krista (2007) "Lillian Allen fights back with words", Jamaica Gleaner, 3 June 2007. Archived 12 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved 31 October 2010.
  4. ^ "Urban Music". Encyclopedia of Music in Canada. Retrieved 25 August 2019.
  5. ^ Robertson, Clive (2004). "Lillian Allen: Holding the past, touching the present, shining out the future". In Householder, Johanna; Tanya Mars (eds.). Caught in the Act: An Anthology of Performance Art by Canadian Women. Toronto: YYZ Books. pp. 102–110. ISBN 9780920397848.
  6. ^ "Lillian Allen". Poetry Foundation. 11 March 2017. Retrieved 11 March 2017.
  7. ^ "Lillian Allen". poets.ca. Archived from the original on 16 March 2011. Retrieved 20 January 2011.
  8. ^ Smith, Mary Elizabeth (1997). ""One Must Please to Live": The Survival of Harry Lindley in Atlantic Canada". Theatre Research in Canada / Recherches théâtrales Au Canada. 18 (2).

External links[]

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