The story of Jamaican poet Ferdinand Levy, who brought to the grey streets of 1940s Ireland the rhythms and language of the Harlem Renaissance.

FORTHCOMING Sunday 11th October 2026, 6 pm, on RTÉ lyric fm

Presented by author and academic Emma Dabiri, this programme tells a hidden story from our literary history and our black history that reveals unexpected links between Ireland, Harlem and Jamaica.

In 1941, Jamaican poet Ferdinand Levy published Flashes from the Dark, which is believed to be the first ever collection by a black poet published in Ireland. Ranging in theme from life in Ireland to racism, colonialism, the beauty of the Caribbean and the vitality of Harlem, the poems bring to the grey streets of 1940s Ireland the rhythms and language of the Harlem Renaissance.

The contributors to the programme are Dr Karl O’Hanlon, who has researched and written about Ferdinand Levy, Ellen O’Flaherty, archivist at Trinity College Dublin, Brent Hayes Edwards, Professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University in New York and Director of the Scholars in Residence Program at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, Michael Kennedy, historian with the Royal Irish Academy and an expert on Ireland’s foreign policy, poet and playwright Dagogo Hart, playwright and member of the Painted Bird group Fiona McGeown, and Ferdinand Levy’s daughter, Belinda Levy. The reader is Romario Simpson (Granite Harbour, Small Axe).