Riddim & Riddles

The poems in Riddim & Riddles throb with the heartbeat and drum beat of Jamaica. From the cool, majestic Blue Mountains to the hot, bloodied streets of Kingston it paints vivid and vibrant images of contemporary Jamaica. The poems in this collection move from urgent social insights about masculinity, the environment, and how the bony fingers of history reach into the present. The poetry collection also includes the personal, the romantic, erotic, and the comic—including Owen Blakka Ellis' "Gateman". They mark Owen Blakka Ellis as a clear inheritor of dub, poetry, and music, but with a distinctive voice of his own.

Owen Blakka Ellis explores Caribbean Black masculinity, childhood trauma, Jamaican history and how art can create healing. Herein breathe the rhythms and the riddles of life…and maybe even some revelations.

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