Papillote Press invites you to the launch of Black Man Listen: The Life of JR Ralph Casimir by his granddaughter Kathy Casimir MacLean. The launch will take place at the Dominica High Commission at 4:00pm on July 31, 2022 (the book’s official publication date).

Description: “I wanted to write Black Man Listen to honour my grandfather and to tell his story as until now it has been omitted from our island’s history,” says Kathy Casimir MacLean.

This is the first biography of the pioneering life of JR Ralph Casimir (1898-1986), a Pan Africanist and poet from Dominica. Calling himself a “New Negro”, for more than half a century he confronted not just colonial rule, but his island’s elites. It explores his political activism, in particular his role in Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA) of which he was a founding member, organiser, and also agent for Garvey’s Black Star Line. A teacher, bookbinder, and lawyer’s clerk, he was a prolific poet and editor of Dominica’s first poetry anthologies. This finely researched biography by his granddaughter sheds light on little known aspects of Dominica’s march to independence.

• “An intimate portrait of a man who dedicated himself to the liberation of his people.” Geoffrey Philip
• “I feel so much better informed for having read this book!” Margaret Busby
• “He strove against great personal odds to fight for change and respect for black people.” Lennox Honychurch

Black Man Listen: The Life of JR Ralph Casimir, ISBN: 9781838041526
Original paperback
Publication date: July 31, 2022 Price: £8.99

For more information, see https://www.papillotepress.co.uk/

Also see previous post https://repeatingislands.com/2022/06/30/black-man-listen-the-life-of-jr-ralph-casimir-by-her-granddaughter-kathy-casimir-maclean/