Lindsay Johns on The Evening Standard

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Lindsay Johns

Ghetto grammar robs the young of a proper voice

In the wake of the riots, last Thursday evening, there was only one topic of conversation among the young people I mentor in Peckham. Thankfully, none of my mentees were involved in the disturbances. Yet almost all told me they had received the mass BBM broadcasts, written in street slang, inviting them to join in the thuggery.

16 August 2011 11:06 AM

Express yourself: It's carnival time in the Dominican Republic

"Ay, papi!" The mellifluous accent of the lithe mamacita I politely ask to dance is enticing in its playfulness. She smiles coyly, which makes me smile too. They often say that dancing is the vertical expression of a horizontal desire.

17 March 2011 03:11 PM

Get HIV-tested

Today, on World Aids Day, somebody somewhere in London will get the results of an HIV test. A few weeks ago that somebody was me. I was starting a relationship with a new partner. Even as a straight guy in my early thirties, even though I keep my proverbial "game" tight and always take precautions, and even though I don't fall into any of the high-risk categories, I still felt the need to get tested.

01 December 2010 01:18 PM

The secret world of gang slang

The murder of teenager Marvin Henry in a gang brawl last week elicited an outpouring of emotion in his Mill Hill community. Flowers were heaped against a fence near the crime scene but the R.I.P notes stood out for another reason: they were peppered with words such as "liccle" and "peak" — street slang terms in common usage among London's gang culture.

01 November 2010 10:44 AM

Culture down under

If I'm honest, Sydney is not normally a city that I would readily associate with art and culture.

21 October 2010 12:27 PM

Whiter shades of pale that provoke black racism

Call me old-fashioned but "mixed-race bastard" and "half-breed mongrel" are racial insults I'm more accustomed to hearing spew from the lips of BNP chavs in Bermondsey than Yardies in Thornton Heath. Yet a couple of days ago, after a road rage altercation, a mixed-race American friend of mine was berated in that way by a "hot ghetto mess" of a black Caribbean woman.

08 October 2010 10:45 AM

Blaxploitation movies destroy Barack Obama's mesage

Black Dynamite, a new blaxploitation spoof film, is released in cinemas today. Despite being billed as "the funniest blaxploitation spoof ever" and "a loving homage to the genre", I for one won't be encouraging people to don their platform heels, grab their pimp sticks and run to see it.

13 August 2010 10:42 AM

Let’s all go back to our roots and support Ghana

When mercurial Ghanaian striker Asamoah Gyan rocketed the ball past American goalie Tim Howard in the 93rd minute of last Saturday's crucial match, the Ghanaian BBQ party where I was with friends erupted in delight. From Streatham to Stratford, via Brixton, Tottenham, Norbury and Northolt, London's Ghanaian community was ecstatic.

30 June 2010 10:34 AM

Take a bite out of the Big Apple

It's Restaurant Week here in New York — this twice-yearly culinary event occurs in winter and in summer. My mission is simple. Seven nights, seven restaurants. So here I am, ready to indulge my palate and take a healthy bite out of one of the world's greatest cradles of culinary culture.

18 March 2010 10:38 AM

The truth is a prostate cancer test can save our lives

The call came through from Cape Town late. Gone was the usual joie de vivre from my Uncle Victor's voice. He had just been diagnosed with prostate cancer. After telling him I loved him, I hung up but, numbed and pensive, couldn't get back to sleep.

17 March 2010 11:51 AM