Songbook

Poetry Book Society Recommendation

"The poet laureate of UK jazz." The Guardian

"One of the most important writers working today." Dr Obaro Ejimiwe aka Ghostpoet

Joshua Idehen's collected works has been a long time coming. Songbook comprises verses from Mercury-nominated and MOBO-winning albums by Sons of Kemet and The Comet Is Coming, alongside watershed poems of spoken word legend, newly captured in book form. From Poejazzi and Benin City to a string of supreme collaborations, Idehen's impact resonates far and wide across the landscapes of poetry and jazz/electronica. Cross-examining colonialism, Brexit Britain, masculinity, mental health and ways of healing, his writing is an essential provocation, a comedy roast, an intervention, a cannonball from which no one is safe, least of all himself.

"Songbook feels like a large, black, tattered flag, running at enemy hordes, screaming, It's on." Roger Robinson

"A few Idehen songs before bedtime will leave you feeling revolutionary." Leone Ross

"A writer whose poems leap from the page. Idehen's indomitable spirit shines through in Songbook." Yomi Sode