VisionTV documentary tells the story of unsung Canadian hero Kenneth Leslie, poet and political activist

He waged a public war against fascism and anti-Semitism, published critically acclaimed poetry, dined with movie stars and was watched by the FBI.

Not bad for a guy from Pictou, Nova Scotia.

Though barely remembered today, Kenneth Leslie was one of the most remarkable Canadians of the 20th century. An award-winning poet and an influential political activist in the U.S. during the 1930s and 40s, he lived with a rare, furious passion that found expression in everything from his writings to his turbulent personal life.

God’s Red Poet: The Life of Kenneth Leslie tells his story. The hour-long documentary, produced and directed by Halifax filmmaker Chuck Lapp (Fishing on the Brink, Clearing the Waters), makes its world television premiere on VisionTV, airing Wednesday, July 2 at 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT.

God’s Red Poet is the first in VisionTV’s “Unsung Heroes” summer series of documentary presentations, which celebrate women and men who have changed the world in ways both large and small, yet whose stories have gone largely untold. (For more “Unsung Heroes” titles, please see below.)

Born in 1892, Kenneth Leslie was a child prodigy, attending Dalhousie University in Halifax at age 14. At the city’s First Baptist Church, he embraced the principles of the Christian social gospel. Leslie would go on to study theology and philosophy in the U.S. – his masters dissertation dealt with Christianity, mysticism and socialism – and served for a time as assistant preacher at a church in Rhode Island.

But it was the writer’s life that truly fired his imagination – an aspiration nurtured by his mentor, Nova Scotia-born poet Robert Norwood, who was also the renowned rector of St. Bartholomew’s Church in New York. Leslie published the first of several acclaimed volumes of poetry in 1934, earning the Governor General’s Award for his work just four years later.

Deeds, though, mattered as much to Leslie as words. Troubled by American isolationism and the rising tide of pro-fascist and anti-Semitic sentiment in the U.S. during the late 1930s, he chose to take a public stand, launching the Protestant Digest (later The Protestant), a progressive journal of religion and politics. With contributions from the leading public intellectuals of the day, the magazine called for a declaration of war against the Axis powers, and stood firmly against the oppression of Jews.

By the early 1940s, Leslie’s organization had produced numerous offshoots, including a national organization of anti-fascist Protestant clergy and an initiative to eliminate anti-Semitic references from American educational texts. Leslie himself was in constant demand as a speaker, and earned endorsements from the likes of Eleanor Roosevelt. But his leftist politics and pointed criticism of the Catholic Church (which in his view had enabled Europe’s fascists) earned him enemies as well.

The Cold War era was not a congenial time to be a socialist in the United States. Leslie attracted the scrutiny of the FBI and Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist crusade. He made Life Magazine’s list of the top 50 Communist “fellow travelers and innocent dupes,” in such illustrious company as Albert Einstein, Norman Mailer, Leonard Bernstein, Arthur Miller and Langston Hughes. In 1949, he left the U.S. and returned to his native Nova Scotia for good.

Though Leslie continued to write poetry and publish periodicals for the next two decades, he had drifted to the margins of history; few noted his passing in 1974. Chuck Lapp’s film, however, takes the full measure of the man. Drawing on exhaustive research and previously unreleased sources (including Leslie’s FBI file), God’s Red Poet makes a convincing case for Kenneth Leslie as one of Canada’s unsung heroes.

For more information on VisionTV’s documentary programming, please visit www.visiontv.ca.

VisionTV’s “Unsung Heroes” Summer Documentary Lineup:
(July-August, Wednesdays, 10 pm ET/7 pm PT)

God’s Red Poet: The Life of Kenneth Leslie
Wednesday, July 2, 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT
See above for details.

Captive:  The Story of Esther
Wednesday, July 9, 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT
This documentary tells the remarkable story of Esther Wheelwright, an 18th-century English Puritan settler who was abducted as a child by Abenakis warriors. A pawn in the struggle between France and England for control of North America, she would eventually convert to Catholicism, enter the convent and achieve extraordinary influence as the first English-born Mother Superior of the Ursulines in Quebec. Produced and directed by Penny Wheelwright, one of Esther’s present-day descendants.

Fighting Words: The Social Crusades of Joseph E. Atkinson
Wednesday, July 16, 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT
For Toronto’s poor, the dawn of the 20th century was the very worst of times. Few members of the wealthy elite showed any concern for their plight – and so it fell to a shy, Bible-quoting newspaperman to champion the cause of the disadvantaged and destitute. Joseph E. Atkinson would spend a lifetime preaching social justice from his pulpit at Canada’s largest daily paper, The Star. This hour-long documentary examines the life and legacy of the legendary “Holy Joe” Atkinson.

Nettie Wiebe: A Voice for the Farmer
Wednesday, July 30, 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT
Raised in a large Mennonite family from Saskatchewan, Nettie Wiebe was taught that women should be demure. But somewhere along the way, this soft-spoken mother of four became a rabble-rousing activist bent on holding back the powerful economic forces that threaten to destroy the traditional family farm. This hour-long documentary offers an intimate profile of an unlikely warrior in the battle against globalization.

Long Haul, Big Hearts
Wednesday, Aug. 6, 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT
Peter Bruno, a long haul trucker from Bowmanville, Ont., was in Memphis when Hurricane Katrina lashed the Mississippi Gulf Coast three years ago. Heartbroken by the devastation and determined to help, he set about mounting a one-man relief mission. This hour-long documentary tells the story of his extraordinary errand of mercy.

Swedenborg: Mystical Cowboy
Wednesday, Aug. 13, 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT
Eighteenth-century philosopher Emanuel Swedenborg interpreted the Bible in a whole new light, inspiring a maverick religious movement that would establish deep roots in the Canadian prairies. In this documentary, filmmaker Michael Hamm (whose grandfather was a founder of the Swedenborgian faith in Western Canada) examines the legacy of the spiritual trailblazer who has been called the “Buddha of the North.”

Soferet: A Special Scribe
Wednesday, Aug. 20, 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT
Through the centuries, women have commanded armies, governed empires, scaled mountains and ventured into space. But Aviel Barclay plans to accomplish something no other woman has ever done: to create a Torah scroll. Why has this soft-spoken Vancouver artist and calligrapher taken on a task that challenges centuries of Jewish tradition? That’s the question posed by this documentary – an account of one woman’s spiritual journey, and a portrait of a faith community struggling to balance progress with tradition.

Call It Karma
Wednesday, Aug. 27, 10 p.m. ET / 7 p.m. PT
In 1995, a young Tibetan monk named Gyalten Rinpoche traveled 1,000 miles on foot from Tibet to India, on a quest to bring Buddhist teachings to the Western world. This haunting documentary by Vancouver filmmaker Geoff Browne recreates Rinpoche’s journey, recounting the incredible but true story of a serene, simple man who walked across the very rooftop of the world for his faith.