Continuing our series of cross-generational conversations between black British artists, poets Roger Robinson and Rachel Long discuss the prejudices of the white publishing world and the power of today’s youth
Roger Robinson, 52, is the 2020 winner of the TS Eliot prize and the Ondaatje prize for his latest collection A Portable Paradise. Having previously explored his memories of Trinidad, where he moved to from Britain when he was four, his fifth collection focuses on the lives of black Britons, from Grenfell to the birth of his son. Rachel Long, 31, has recently published her debut, My Darling from the Lions, and in 2015 set up Octavia, a poetry collection for women of colour hosted monthly at the Southbank Centre in London.
Roger Robinson: I wanted to start with a poem. It is called Won’t You Celebrate With Me by Lucille Clifton:
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