Lillian Allen

Award-winning writer, recording artist, Dub and Spoken Word performance artist Lillian Allen is a leading Black feminist poet and educator. She is celebrated as the mother of dub poetry in North America. She is VIU’s 2021 Gustafson Distinguished Poet. She is a two time JUNO award winner and has received the City of Toronto Cultural Champion Award. Allen is Professor of Creative Writing at OCADU, Ontario College of Art and Design University.

She is an inventor and leading innovator in a genre of 20th century English literature called Dub poetry. Dub poetry is a highly politicized form of poetry with a distinctive emotional quality and inherent musicality of words. She is also known as the literary godmother of Rap, Hip Hop and Spoken Word. She also writes plays, fiction, non-fiction, children's works and experimental writing forms. Her album Revolutionary Tea Party was named a Ms Magazine Landmark Album.

Allen has worked in film and video as a featured artist, script writer, and producer/director. She was a co-producer and host of a CBC National Radio show on poetry and spoken word. She is the founder of Toronto's iconic Fresh Arts Youth Program and is preparing new books and recordings for release in 2021. Lillian Allen's artistic and activist work remains crucial to the transformation and growth of Canada's cultural landscape.