Amiri Baraka – The Johannesburg Review of Books

Poetry of social obliteration and intimacy—Vonani Bila reviews KwaNobuhle Overcast, the new collection by award-winning poet Ayanda Billie

March 5, 2020July 4, 2020Vonani BilaLeave a Comment

Vonani Bila considers KwaNobuhle Overcast, the latest book of poetry from Ayanda Billie, who won a South African Literary Award…

Essays

‘Baldwin the symbol of black transgression and global black anger is simply peerless’—Bongani Madondo on If Beale Street Could Talk, the book and Oscar-winning film

March 4, 2019April 30, 2019Bongani MadondoLeave a Comment

James Baldwin’s novel of half a century ago, If Beale Street Could Talk, now reissued by Penguin Random House, was…

Biography & Memoir

Illuminating a mighty poet and a total artist—Rustum Kozain reviews Dread Poetry and Freedom: Linton Kwesi Johnson and the Unfinished Revolution

March 4, 2019October 22, 2021Rustum Kozain2 Comments

The JRB Poetry Editor Rustum Kozain reviews David Austin’s new book Dread Poetry and Freedom: Linton Kwesi Johnson and the Unfinished Revolution, finding…

Biography & Memoir

We told her she was Nina Simone—Bongani Madondo reviews She Begat This: 20 Years of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill by Joan Morgan

November 5, 2018April 30, 2019Bongani Madondo2 Comments

As Bongani Madondo experienced tinges of nostalgia occasioned by the twentieth anniversary of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, HipHop Feminist…