THE NEW Obsidian Foundation Collection at The Poetry Archive has been launched this week, with readings by Raymond Antrobus, Victoria Adebukwei Bulley, Inua Ellams, Nick Makoha, Nii Ayikwei Parkes and Roger Robinson.

This new, digital and audio-visual collection will capture the voices and writing of exceptional poets on an ongoing basis to explore the quality, influence and poetic lineage of contemporary Black British poets. 

This new Collection compliments an existing library of celebrated Black poets which includes Linton Kwesi Johnson, Benjamin Zephaniah and Bernardine Evaristo and will be added to each year.

The collection has been created through a partnership between Obsidian Foundation and The Poetry Archive.

Obsidian Foundation was founded in 2020 and hosts The Retreat for Black poets.

The Obsidian collection recognises the importance and relevance of the stories, social and cultural commentary and ideas that British Black poets bring to the UK’s poetry landscape and beyond.

All the poems featured in the collection have been selected by the poets themselves.

Alongside the poems, recordings of conversations between the selected poets will be available.

Nick Makoha, Founder and Director, Obsidian Foundation said: “Obsidian Foundation is a lighthouse for aspirational Black poets and so it’s an honour to be partnering with The Poetry Archive to curate this new collection.

“In selecting the initial seventeen poets we wanted to reflect the social importance of Black poetry while sharing contemporary voices that could resonate with everyone. The stories that are in the poems selected reflect a broad church of Black expression and add necessary nuance to the times we are living in.

“We look forward to working with The Poetry Archive over the next few years to expand the collection of living Black poets.”

The Poetry Archive was created to capture the voices of important poets reading their own work in order to preserve their uniquely valuable voices for future generations to research and enjoy.

The collection also launches a new look for The Poetry Archive website with new layout and home page, more intuitive ways to search for content and includes much more contextual information in collections like the Obsidian Collection.

Tracey Guiry, Director, The Poetry Archive said: “We believe poetry is for everyone, and we make our poetry recordings freely available so that visitors to our collections can hear how the authors read their own work.

“Working with Nick Makoha and Obsidian Foundation was the natural choice for us to find the most interesting and well regarded Black poets in the UK today.

“It has been wonderful to experience their works and we will continue to work with Obsidian Foundation to invite more Black poets into the collection in the future.

“There are fewer resources dedicated to the history and contemporary development of Black poets’ work and wanted to address this through this new Obsidian Foundation Collection to include recordings, interviews, interpretations, blog responses, academic responses and a timeline to build a ‘family tree’ of poetic lineage.”