“Here’s a poet whose work means so much to our communities’ fight to decolonize Canadian culture. A poet for the people, Chet Singh’s poetics are incisive and illuminating. His brilliant analysis and political assertions are stylized into language and riddim-flow that create a powerful voice for resistance and transformation.”
– Lillian Allen, Dub Poet and Juno Award winner
“Chet Singh’s “poeletic,” in other words his poetic and political sensibility, is one deeply in tune with the profound rhythms of a global and environmental dynamic, of collaborations, of forming alliance with like-minded people who are doing the work of social justice in other ways, an observation that is startlingly apparent in his engagements with other cultural workers… Don’t be surprised if his words incite you in a wake up call to respond, one that says to those of you listening in from elsewhere [to]… “get up, get up” and do something. Because his words openly rebel against many forms of oppression and put forward, maybe even demand, settled commitments from each of us…”
– Phanuel Antwi, Canada Research Chair in Black Arts and Epistemologies
Jamaican born Chet Singh is a dub poet, educator and social activist. Historical and cultural processes in the Caribbean such as anti-colonial movements and the hybridization of peoples ultimately led him to embrace the revolutionary art form of dub poetry. He performed with the Peterborough based band One Mind during the first wave of Canada’s dub poetry movement. The band’s dub poetry focus was a catalyst for organizing around issues of racism and sexism in the community, the anti-apartheid movement, and US imperialism in Latin America and the Caribbean. Three decades later he resumed performing with Dub Trinity community engagement was also a focus.
Chet believes in the productive blurring of musical and cultural territories to create spaces of political solidarity that generate possibilities for transformative change. He continues to explore new forms of expression within dub poetry working with musicians from various genres such as jazz and trip hop. His work has been featured on CBC Radio, two albums have charted on Canada’s indie music chart for Global music and two of his pieces appear on the sound track for the documentary, Capitalism is the Crisis
Over the years, he has worked closely with his mentor Lillian Allen on a number of equity and organizational change initiatives in education and arts organizations, including organizing the first International Dub Poetry Festival in 1993, founding member of Canada’s Dub Poets Collective and serving on the board of the Ontario Arts Council. His contributions to decolonizing and critical education have been acknowledged with Canadian and North American awards for curriculum development and educational leadership.
His 7th album, Age of Rage, a collaboration with musicians based in the Ukraine has been delayed because of the war. It revisits topics such as the alienation, ecology, decolonization fascism and capitalism.
Contact:
[email protected]