NORRIS ‘BUZZ’ JOHNSON
Publisher • Author • Activist
Tobago-born radical publisher and author Norris ‘Buzz’ Johnson (1951–2014) was a literary pioneer who founded Karia Press in the early 1980s, establishing one of the UK’s most prolific Black African-Caribbean-led publishing houses from a council flat in Hackney.
Driven by an unyielding commitment to his community, he fiercely opened doors for progressive Black writers, carving out a vital space for Caribbean and African diaspora voices that championed literature centred on community, race relations and political struggle.
Why Hackney Matters
Johnson’s work was deeply embedded within the social history and community of Hackney. He worked closely with grassroots organisations like the Hackney Black People’s Association and the Institute of Race Relations, championing Black community organising and activism; the promotion and preservation of culture, race relations and struggle. In 1982, he was instrumental in co-founding Stoke Newington’s Claudia Jones Organisation, a sanctuary dedicated to supporting women and families of African-Caribbean heritage. For Buzz hackney was the home of a thriving cultural, literary and political ecosystem that he intimately breathed life into.
Did you know?
Buzz Johnson’s dedication as an educator of Black youth is also connected to the preservation of the history of Black supplementary education. In 1986 he published We Are Our Own Educators! a detailed history of the Josina Machel Supplementary School based in Clapton, Hackney, in the 1970s. The book was a key piece of work, highlighting the critical role of Black-led education in challenging the mainstream British schooling system that frequently neglected Black children and their histories.