Red collects poems that engage ‘red’, poems by Black British poets writing with the word “red” in mind—as a kind of leap-off point, a context, a germ—the way something small, minor, or grand might spur a poem. It offers the reader the freedom to come to whatever conclusions they want to about what writing as a poet who is also Black and British might mean. The result is a book of poets ranging from well established and published writers to first time poets. Red does find its usual associations with blood, violence, passion, and anger. Sometimes it is linked with sensuality and sexuality. But there are surprises, when red defines a memory or mood, the quality of light in a sky, the color of skin, the sound of a song, and much, much more. The anthology, therefore, succeeds in producing poems that seem to be first about image, and only then about whatever else fascinates the poet. In this sense,
Red is a different kind of anthology of Black British writing, and the richness of the entries, the moods, the humor, the passion, the reflection, the confessional all confirm that Black British poetry is a lively and defining force in
Britain today.
Peepal Tree Press:2010