Anthony Joseph

Anthony Joseph

Anthony Joseph is a British-Trinidadian poet, novelist, academic and musician from Port of Spain, born in 1966. He moves to the UK in 1989 and works across spoken word, funk, poetry, jazz and jazz fusion.

Writing and academic work

Joseph writes three collections of poetry and a novel, The African Origins of UFOs. In 2004 he is selected by renaissance one, Decibel and the Arts Council of England as one of fifty Black and Asian writers recognised for major contributions to contemporary British literature, and appears in the Great Day photograph. In 2005 he becomes the British Council’s first poet in residence at California State University, Los Angeles. He also lectures in creative writing at Birkbeck College, University of London, and is an AHRC scholar and doctoral candidate at Goldsmiths College.

Music

As a musician, Joseph releases three albums with Anthony Joseph and The Spasm Band, each tied to one of his book publications. Leggo de Lion appears in 2007 and uses lyrics taken from The African Origins of UFOs. Bird Head Son follows in 2009 with lyrics from the Bird Head Son collection. Rubber Orchestras is released in 2011 alongside a poetry collection of the same name.

Collaborations

He collaborates with Archie Shepp, Joseph Bowie, Laurent Garnier, Othello Molineaux, Malcolm Catto, Mop Mop, Robert Aaron, Roger Raspail, Keziah Jones and Jerry Dammers. His work with Dammers includes the Spatial A.K.A. Orchestra, and he is also associated with Red Seal.