A Jamaican Poet in Dublin

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BBC Radio 4 - A Jamaican Poet in Dublin

Jason Allen-Paisant goes to Ireland on the trail of Jamaican poet Ferdinand Levy.

In 1941, Jamaican poet Ferdinand Levy published his only poetry collection in Dublin. Over 80 years later, Jason Allen-Paisant goes to Ireland in search of Levy.

In 1941, while a medical student in Dublin, Jamaican poet Ferdinand Levy published his only poetry collection, Flashes from the Dark. Positively reviewed at the time, the book and poet subsequently vanished from the history of Irish poetry. 

Over 80 years later, Jamaican poet Jason Allen-Paisant goes to Ireland in search of Levy. 

Born in Jamaica in 1904, Levy spent time in New York during the Harlem Renaissance before heading for Europe. He threw himself into the cultural life of 1930s Dublin, and found in Ireland kindness and friendship, but also racist attitudes. 

His wide-ranging poetry collection looks at Dublin through migrant eyes, considers themes of race, racism and anti-colonialism, harks back to his home country of Jamaica, and paints vivid pictures of Harlem. The collection was unlike anything else published in Ireland at the time and is thought to be the earliest by a black poet published in Ireland. The work of Ferdinand Levy adds to the richness of the story of Irish poetry and perhaps hints that there are many other voices still to be re-discovered.

Contributors to the programme are poet and academic at Maynooth University Karl O'Hanlon, Trinity College Dublin archivist Ellen O'Flaherty, Professor Brent Hayes Edwards of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, poets Jessica Traynor, Nandi Jola and Raquel McKee, and Ferdinand Levy's daughter, Belinda Levy. The reader is Romario Simpson.

The presenter, Jason Allen-Paisant, is an award-winning poet and Senior Lecturer in the Department of English, American Studies and Creative Writing, University of Manchester. 

Consultant: Karl O'Hanlon
Producer: Claire Cunningham
Executive Producer: Regan Hutchins

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