England’s celebrated black poet turns down a knighthood to protest evil, racist England.
There lives in London a certain George Mpanga, age 29, who is the son of Ugandan immigrants and who calls himself George the Poet. Unlike most poets, he has been widely celebrated for his work. He was nominated for a BRIT Award (the UK equivalent of the Grammys), elected to Arts Council England (rather like the NEA), and chosen to read a poem at the beginning of the BBC coverage of Prince Harry’s wedding to Meghan Markle. In 2019, his podcast was nominated for the British Podcast Awards (yes, that’s a thing) in six categories.
