Patricia Meschino (The New York Times, July 25, 2026; updated July 28, 2026) writes about a newly restored 1979 film— Dread Beat an’ Blood, directed by Franco Rosso— that “examines how Linton Kwesi Johnson’s dub-infused poetry documented the challenges faced by Britain’s Black Caribbean population.” The documentary was re-released on July 24, 2026. The film is available through BFI Player in the United Kingdom. According to JustWatch, the film is not available for streaming in the United States.

Here are excerpts of Meschino’s interview with Johnson, who discusses the film and his own artistic trajectory, followed by the film trailer. Read the full article at The New York Times. [Many thanks to Peter Jordens for bringing this item to our attention.]

Early in the 1979 documentary “Dread Beat an Blood,” the 27-year-old poet Linton Kwesi Johnson recites a verse that sketches the challenges facing Brother Buzza, a Jamaican-born character living in London: “De bredda say him broke, him say him nah work / him say his woman a breed, him say him don’t even have a stick of weed.”

Noting Johnson’s Jamaican roots, a British reporter asks him if he plans to remain in Brixton, the South London neighborhood where the poet has lived since 1963. “England is as much my country as Jamaica,” Johnson replies with a genteel tone that belies the intensity of his words. “Most Blacks who come here have a dream of returning home. But we have a very important struggle in this country at this time, and I want to be a part of that struggle.”

The newly restored documentary, directed by Franco Rosso, opened last week in New York and will get a theatrical run in several U.S. cities. It sees Johnson performing and recording verses from his poetry collection and album of the same title, with lyrics that vividly depict the racism and marginalization of Black Caribbean immigrants in Britain. His recitation is supported by intricately layered, dub-infused reggae grooves that established the subgenre he called “dub poetry,” a cousin of hip-hop that originated in collaboration with the bassist Dennis Bovell and his stellar Dub Band. The works presaged the violent clashes between Brixton’s Black immigrants and the police in 1981 and after.

Johnson’s work continues to connect with modern audiences. In 2002, he became only the second living poet, and the first Black poet, to have his work included in the Penguin Modern Classics series with the volume “Mi Revalueshanary Fren: Selected Poems.” And Johnson was asked to perform his “New Craas Massakah,” about the 13 Black youths who died in the New Cross fire in 1981, for the director Steve McQueen’s 2020 film series “Small Axe.” Over two conversations, in Brooklyn last September and by phone from Brixton this month, Johnson, 73, discussed the documentary, his work now and what it’s been like to witness younger generations discover him. [. . .]

In “Dread Beat an Blood,” you explain that your poetic cadence is built around reggae bass lines. When writing, do you hear the bass line first or do the words dictate the musical flow?

I’ve always been interested in the language of music and the music in language. When I write my verse, I try to bring out the musicality within the language and I build everything around the bass lines. On my first three albums, “Dread Beat an Blood,” “Forces of Victory” and “Bass Culture,” my late school friend Vivian Weathers played bass and on a few tracks, it was Floyd Lawson. After that it was Dennis Bovell — Dennis was the producer, he did the mixing, and we worked out the songs’ arrangements together. People think Dennis’s bass lines are wonderful [laughs]. They’re my bass lines, but I couldn’t make them sound as good as he does. [. . .]

How did growing up in Chapelton, Jamaica, shape your early life?

I was raised in the hills of Clarendon until age 11 when I moved to England, and everyone there was involved in farming. We all had responsibilities, even if it was just feeding the chickens. It was the best time of my life. That’s where I absorbed elements of Jamaican folk culture that have stayed with me ever since. Folk songs, church songs, riddles, and at Christmas time, Jonkonnu [a traditional parade of costumed dancers accompanied by goatskin drums, shakers and bamboo fifes]. We had no radio, television or electricity so we had to entertain ourselves. [. . .]

When did you last sit down to write a poem?

Steve McQueen made a series of films called “Small Axe”; he asked me to write a poem for a piece about the New Cross fire. That was in 2021 and it was very short, about eight lines. Before that I wrote “Reggae Fi Mama,” an elegy for my mother who was dying. Seeing my mother in Jamaica in 2019 and realizing that would be the last time I would see her alive was the inspiration for that piece. Some poets have to write a couple of lines every day but I’ve only ever written when there’s something that moves me to write. [. . .]

For full article, go to https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/25/arts/music/dread-beat-an-blood-linton-kwesi-johnson.html

The documentary was rereleased on July 24, 2026; see more information at https://screendollars.com/movie/dread-beat-an-blood

Watch trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCPWl0ll_pY

[Shown above: Linton Kwesi Johnson in “Dread Beat an’ Blood.” Credit: Seventy-Seven.]