Avsnitt 6 – COHENPODDEN INTERNATIONAL #1 Michael X, revolutionary friend of Cohen with John L Williams

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"People who live in port-towns are always fascinated to find out where the ships go".

Arvida Svenske, out of Stockholm, Sweden talks to John L Williams out of Cardiff, Wales about a fleeting friend of Leonard Cohen (out of Montreal, Canada): Michael X, out of Port of Spain, Trinidad.

In a very alternative timeline, Leonard Cohen could have been the Minister of Tourism in a revolutionary government, seated firmly in the republic of Trinidad & Tobago. At least, that's one offer he got in his time in London, just before he got to Hydra and the world became a place where the TV-set could portray colour. The offer came from one sparkplug, idea-machinegun and revolutionary troublemaker of a man, who would go on to start the Notting Hill festival, the Black Power commune known as Black House – and get John and Yoko to cut off their hair to benefit said commune, a "boy who was drawn to the streets", the Trinidadian trickster Michael de Freitas, later known publicly by the name of Michael X (as well as Abdul Malik.

Detailing his life, from growing up in the poor (but not the poorest) parts of Port of Spain (Belmont, at the foot of the Laventille Hills), to attending one of the two private schools in Trinidad in the 1930's, then travelling to Barbados, the Caribbean and finally ending up in the capital of the crumbling empire: London. From there the roads would cross with revolutionaries (namely Malcolm X, who would inspire him to further activism), musicians and people in all walks of life who would agree that the remnants of a worldwide empire founded on racism had inherited... racism. What they fought were institutions and power structures who basically agreed with that... but that it wasn't such a bad thing. Follow us through the life and times of a controversial revolutionary who would define and find himself in many of the strifes and opportunities that the mid 1900's offered.

Come gather round, and hear the tale of Michael X, a tale that like (for many revolutionarys) would end in a noose in the Royal Gaol.

Further reading:

Michael X, book by John L Williams

https://www.amazon.se/-/en/John-L-Williams/dp/1846050952

Michael X, the Wikipedia-site and the man

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_X