{"product_id":"footprints-9780957172289","title":"Footprints","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003ePeter Blackman (1909-1993) was one of the early pioneers of Black-British poetry. His work has been unavailable for many years, a wrong made right by \u003cem\u003eFootprints\u003c\/em\u003e. The collection contains four long poems, ''My Song is for All Men'', ''Stalingrad'', ''Joseph'' and ''London'', plus a short elegy to Claudia Jones, Blackman''s friend, comrade and founder of the Notting Hill Carnival. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis is a book about empire and racism, resistance and struggle, from Korea to the US Civil Rights Movement. And it is a book about liberation, from Stalingrad to London.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003ePeter Blackman\u003c\/strong\u003e was a major figure in radical Caribbean politics and culture in post-war London. His friends included Paul Robeson (with whom he visited the Soviet Union in 1949), Nazim Hikmet, W.E.B. Du Bois and George Lamming. In the 1950s the composer Alan Bush used part of Blackman''s ''My Song is for All Men'' in his cantata \u003cem\u003eVoices of the Prophets\u003c\/em\u003e. In 1980 the ex-Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt recorded Blackman''s poem ''Stalingrad'' on the B-side of Stalin wasn''t Stallin'', released as a single by Rough Trade in 1981; the song also appears on Wyatt''s 1982 album \u003cem\u003eNothing Can Stop Us\u003c\/em\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eChris Searle\u003c\/strong\u003e''s most recent books include \u003cem\u003eForward Groove: Jazz and the Real World from Louis Armstrong to Gilad Atzmon\u003c\/em\u003e (Northway, 2008) and the poetry collection \u003cem\u003eLightning of Your Eyes\u003c\/em\u003e (Smokestack, 2006). He writes a weekly jazz column in the \u003cem\u003eMorning Star\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Smokestack Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":49406568169815,"sku":"9780957172289","price":7.55,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/footprints-9780957172289","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}