by Jessie Jones
Our Literature Editor Jessie Jones spoke to Kayo Chingonyi about his new poetry collection A Blood Condition. Kayo has also published his debut collection Kumukanda, which won the Dylan Thomas Prize and a Somerset Maugham Award.
He is the author of two pamphlets Some Bright Elegance and The Colour of James Brown’s Scream. He was the poetry editor for The White Review, is a fellow of the Complete Works programme and is an assistance professor of Creative Writing at Durham University. You can buy his debut collection, and A Blood Condition here and visit his website for updates on his other passion project which is writing about the poetics of grime.
Along with a reading of some of the wonderful poems from A Blood Condition, Jessie and Kayo discuss his impressive list of accolades, what poetry has meant, and how it has changed, during the global pandemic, and where art and literature can go from here.
Founded in 2017, the Radical Art Review is a volunteer-run culture platform and magazine where art meets activism. We believe creativity is the most powerful tool for social change, and we aim to showcase how art and ideas are being used to transform lives and tackle injustices. We are reader-funded and publish digital content every weekday, two monthly newsletters, and biannual print issues.