http://www.theworld.org/2013/05/creating-caribbean-music-in-london-anthony-joseph-and-the-spasm-band/

In advance of the Spasm Band’s ‘Live in Bremen’ album which is out in June, here’s our new video! Directed by Alain Rimbert.

Thanks from Anthony & Meshell, to everyone who’s gotten on board so far. Still a way to go but we’re getting there.

A prose poem for Kitch
Published: Sunday, March 3, 2013
Shivanee Ramlochan

(read the full article here)

When Anthony Joseph reflected afterwards on the work he shared at the Reader’s Bookshop, St James, on February 16, right in the wake of Carnival, he said he was grateful for the intensity of the event. Via Skype from London, he described reading his fiction and poetry to a packed house that included attendees such as Marina Salandy-Brown, founder and director of the NGC Bocas Lit Fest; author Earl Lovelace; and one of Joseph’s self-avowed personal all-time heroes, David Rudder.

At the reading, Joseph read extensively from his recently-finished second novel, Kitch: A Fragmented, Fictional Biography of the Calypsonian Lord Kitchener, which represents the basis of his doctoral studies in creative and life writing at Goldsmiths College, University of London. The writer is Trinidad-born and has lived in England since his early 20s; Salt Publishing issued his debut novel, The African Origins of UFOs, in 2006.

While “growing up in Trinidad in the 1970s and 80s,” Joseph said, “Kitchener was a major part of the culture, the fabric of the country.” While in London he experienced the veteran calypsonian’s death in Trinidad in 2000; it hit Joseph at his emotional centre. Despite Kitchener having been involved in the local music industry for around 60 years, Joseph noted there has been no seminal published work about this cultural icon. It was here that the genesis for writing the book began, a creative project that would span more than a decade of Joseph’s life.

We are happy to invite you
to a reading of poetry by the acclaimed London based, Trinidadian poet Anthony Joseph,
at the Reader’s Bookshop, # 1 Middle Street St James, on Saturday 16th February 2013.
8:15 pm.
A prolific writer and musician he is also the lead vocalist in his band, The Spasm Band, whose 2011/12 album “Rubber Orchestras” was claimed by Spanish film Director Pedro Almodovar as his favorite album of 2012.

Joseph, who returns to Trinidad periodically and has been here for the Carnival celebrations
will share excerpts from his second novel ‘Kitch’ and from his latest collection of poems entitled “Rubber Orchestras”.

Hosted by
Che Lovelace &
Christopher Mendes of the The Reader’s Bookshop

for more info
628 7221
readersbookshop@gmail.com

Anthony Joseph was born in Trinidad. He teaches creative writing at Birkbeck College and has recently completed a PhD in Creative and Life writing at Goldsmiths College. In 2004, he was chosen by Decibel, Renaissance One and The Arts Council of England as one of 50 writers who have influenced the Black-British writing canon over the past 50 years, appearing in the historic ‘A Great Day’ photo. In 2005, he was the British Council’s inaugural poet-in-residence at California State University, Los Angeles. He is the author of four poetry collections: Desafinado, Teragaton, Bird Head Son and Rubber Orchestras, and a novel The African Origins of UFOs. He is currently working on his second novel Kitch, a fictional biography of the calypsonian Lord Kitchener which also forms the basis of his PhD thesis. He performs internationally as the lead vocalist for his band The Spasm Band with which he has released three critically acclaimed albums. In 2012, he represented Trinidad and Tobago at the Poetry Parnassus Festival on London’s South Bank. He lives in London. For more information, please visit: www.anthonyjoseph.co.uk