The event: “It was in April 1981/down inna de ghetto of Brixton. That Babylon caused such a friction/that it bring about a great insohreckshan. And it spread all over the nation/ it was truly an historical occasion. It was the event of the year and I wish I had been there/when we run riot all over Brixton.” It is to this event that the work (music/poems) in the peak period (1979 to 1984) of Linton Kwesi Johnson’s long (but not prolific) career leads to and away from. The riots of Brixton mark the event that he is faithful to. It is a social and political sequence that is for him what the Cultural Revolution was to the French Maoists of the late 60s. For LKJ, the Brixton riots broke from the state of the situation; the break presented an opening to the truth of the matter. The state was revealed and challenged; and in the chaos of the opening, the break, there was a search/hope for a new order or social arrangement. The riots of Brixton—an opening to a truth that revealed “de wicked man’s plans” and presented an opportunity for actual justice—were challenged and eventually stopped by state force. But the restoration of the official order did not mean the sudden death of or an end to the feelings inspired by that insurrection. LKJ was deeply loyal to these feelings in the 80s. The only way to truly understand the power and beauty of his poetry and music of this period is to understand the glory of “de great insohreckshan.” Even his anti-Rasta “Reality Poem” must be seen in the light of the Brixton riots.