The Department of Literatures in English at the UWI, Mona will host a poetry reading by Dr. Roy Kahn Johnston on Sunday, October 3 at 11 am at the Philip Sherlock Centre for the Creative Arts. Dr. Johnston will read selections from his four books of poetry: Dissonance & Consonance (2009), Kenosis San Luis Obispo (2007), Seeds of Tolerance (2006) and The System is Broken (2004). 

Dr. Roy Kahn Johnston is an accomplished American musician and published poet of Jamaican parentage. Additionally he is  graduate of The Juilliard School in New York City and the University of Southern California Thornton School Of Music, Dr. Johnston is also a former Dean of the Boston Conservatory and former Associate Dean of the University of Southern Mississippi School of Fine Arts. He was Principal Clarinetist with the Atlanta Symphony from 1966-68 and has also performed with the New York City Ballet and the Woody Herman, and Glenn Miller and Tommy Dorsey Bands.

Dr. Johnston is currently the President and Chief Executive Officer of Creative Development Associates in Los Angeles. In 2004 he was recognized by the City of Los Angeles for 35 years of honourable service as performer, professor, poet and pioneer in the field of cultural integration, and was again recognized by the California Legislature Assembly in August of this year. 

Johnston’s poetry deals mostly with the present, which he has referred to as “the wonders of now”. He uses his poetry as a means of addressing societal injustice and as a medium to express his political beliefs. His poems are described as semi-abstract and themed around peace and promoting good deeds.

The university community and the public are invited to attend the Reading. For more information interested persons may telephone 927-2217.