Remembering Mikey Smith
THE Poetry Society of Jamaica paid tribute to influential poet Mikey Smith Tuesday, during its monthly fellowship at the Edna Manley College Amphitheatre in St Andrew.
The event commemorated the 30th anniversary of Smith’s death. He was stoned to death in Stony Hill, St Andrew on August 17, 1983.
Smith, along with Oku Onuora, Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze and Mutabaruka, are pioneers of Jamaican dub poetry, an idiom made famous in the mid-1970s by England-based, Jamaica-born Linton Kwesi Johnson.
Johnson released some of Smith’s poems on his LKJ label, among them, Mi Cyaan Believe It and Roots. In 1978, Smith represented Jamaica at the World Festival of Youth and Students in Cuba.
On Tuesday, poet/teacher/actor Owen ‘Blakka’ Ellis, poet/musician Mbala, president of the Poetry Society of Jamaica, Tommy Ricketts, and host Yashika Graham paid homage to Smith.
Ellis recalled that, “It began here and it ended here. Thanks to all who are here tonight, it continues. He concluded his reflection by reciting Mi Cyaan Believe It.
An emotional Ricketts recalled the intense discourse on the Edna Manley campus when he and Smith attended the school.
He closed by repeatedly chanting I Like it Like This from Bob Marley and The Wailers’ Rock My Boat.
— Basil Walters