Jump to content

Black Ink Collective

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Black Ink Collective
Founded1978; 46 years ago (1978)
Country of originEngland
Headquarters locationBrixton, London
Publication typesBooks

Black Ink Collective was a British publishing company founded in 1978 to publish the work of young Black writers in the UK.

The Collective started as a publisher, their first book Black Ink, published in 1978, was an anthology of work by local school pupils. The Collective also established The Black Writers' Workshop, who met weekly at their premises at 258 Coldharbour Lane, Brixton, south London. The writers' workshop incorpated readings, performances and aimed to "incorporate African and Caribbean orality into a Black British poetic voice".[1] The Workshop was attended by writers including Benjamin Zephaniah, S. I. Martin, Desmond Johnson, Fred D'Aguiar and Michael McMillan.[2][3] Their second book was a play by 16-year-old Michael McMillan, originally performed at the Royal Court Theatre Young Writer's Festival,[4] about the plight of an unemployed school-leaver.

Selected works

[edit]
  • Black Ink - an anthology of plays, poems and prose by young Black Londoners.
  • McMillan, Michael. The School Leaver (1978), ISBN 9780950624815
  • Wasted Women Friends and Lovers: an anthology by young writers (1978), ISBN 9780950624822
  • Black-Eye Perceptions (1981), ISBN 0950624837
  • Livingroom (1983), ISBN 0950624845 – anthology with an introduction by John Agard

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Sander, Reinhard (1995). Dictionary of Literary Biography: Twentieth-Century Caribbean and Black African Writers. p. 65. ISBN 9780810393523.
  2. ^ Thomson-George, Desrie (7 November 2016). "The legacy of Black Ink". www.thebookseller.com. Retrieved 5 October 2017.
  3. ^ Sandhu, Sukhdev (2014). London Calling: How Black and Asian Writers Imagined a City. Harper Collins. p. 312. ISBN 9780007397495.
  4. ^ Scafe, Suzanne (2002). "McMillan, Michael". In Donnell, Alison (ed.). Companion to Contemporary Black British Culture. p. 189. ISBN 9781134700257.