Benjamin ZephaniahBenjamin Zephaniah
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Biography
Poet, novelist and playwright Benjamin Zephaniah was born on 15 April 1958. He grew up in Jamaica and the Handsworth district of Birmingham, England, leaving school at 14. He moved to London in 1979 and published his first poetry collection, Pen Rhythm, in 1980.
He was Writer in Residence at the Africa Arts Collective in Liverpool, and was a candidate for the post of Professor of Poetry at Oxford University. He holds an honorary doctorate in Arts and Humanities from the University of North London (1998), was made a Doctor of Letters by the University of Central England (1999), and a Doctor of the University by the University of Staffordshire (2002). In 1998, he was appointed to the National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education to advise on the place of music and art in the National Curriculum and in 1988 Ealing Hospital in London named a ward after him.
His second collection of poetry, The Dread Affair: Collected Poems (1985) contained a number of poems attacking the British legal system. Rasta Time in Palestine (1990), an account of a visit to the Palestinian occupied territories, contained poetry and travelogue.
His other poetry collections include two books written for children: Talking Turkeys (1994) and Funky Chickens (1996). He has also written novels for teenagers: Face (1999), described by the author as a story of 'facial discrimination'; Refugee Boy (2001), the story of a young boy, Alem, fleeing the conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea; Gangsta Rap (2004); and Teacher's Dead (2007).
In addition to his published writing, Benjamin Zephaniah has produced numerous music recordings, including Us and Dem (1990) and Belly of de Beast (1996), and has also appeared as an actor in several television and film productions, including appearing as Moses in the film Farendg (1990). His first television play, Dread Poets Society, was first screened by the BBC in 1991. His play Hurricane Dub was one of the winners of the BBC Young Playwrights Festival Award in 1998, and his stage plays have been performed at the Riverside Studios in London, at the Hay-on-Wye Literature Festival and on television. His radio play Listen to Your Parents, first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 2000, won the Commission for Racial Equality Race in the Media Radio Drama Award and has been adapted for the stage, first performed by Roundabout, Nottingham Playhouse's Theatre in Education Company, in September 2002.
Many of the poems in Too Black, Too Strong (2001) were inspired by his tenure as Poet in Residence at the chambers of London barrister Michael Mansfield QC and by his attendance at both the inquiry into the 'Bloody Sunday' shootings and the inquiry into the death of Ricky Reel, an Asian student found dead in the Thames. We Are Britain! (2002), is a collection of poems celebrating cultural diversity in Britain.
He has recently been awarded further honorary doctorates by London South Bank University, the University of Exeter and the University of Westminster.
Genres (in alphabetical order)
Children, Drama, Fiction, Poetry, Screenplay
Bibliography
Pen Rhythm Page One Books, 1980
The Dread Affair: Collected Poems Arena, 1985
Black Plays : Two (includes 'Job Rocking' by Benjamin Zephaniah) Methuen, 1987
Inna Liverpool Africa Arts Collective, 1988
Rasta Time in Palestine Shakti, 1990
City Psalms Bloodaxe, 1992
Out of the Night: Writings from Death Row (editor with Marie Mulvey Roberts) New Clarion Press, 1994
Talking Turkeys Viking, 1994
Funky Chickens Viking, 1996
Propa Propaganda Bloodaxe, 1996
School's Out: Poems Not for School AK Press, 1997
Face Bloomsbury, 1999
The Bloomsbury Book of Love Poems (editor) Bloomsbury, 1999
A Little Book of Vegan Poems A. K. Press, 2000
Wicked World Puffin, 2000
Refugee Boy Bloomsbury, 2001
Too Black, Too Strong Bloodaxe, 2001
We Are Britain! (with photographs by Prodeepta Das) Frances Lincoln, 2002
Chambers Primary Rhyming Dictionary Chambers, 2004
Gangsta Rap Bloomsbury, 2004
J is for Jamaica (World Alphabet) (with photographs by Prodeepta Das) Frances Lincoln, 2006
Listen to Your Parents Playscript Longman, 2007
Teacher's Dead Bloomsbury, 2007
Face: The Play (with Richard Conlon) Heinemann Educational, 2008
Prizes and awards
1988 BBC Young Playwrights Festival Award Hurricane Dub
2001 Commission for Racial Equality Race in the Media Radio Drama Award Listen to Your Parents
2002 Portsmouth Book Award (Longer Novel category) Refugee Boy
2005 British Book Awards Decibel Writer of the Year (shortlist)
2006 Manchester Book Award (shortlist) Gangsta Rap
Critical Perspective
Benjamin Zephaniah's facility with rap and ballad forms has made him one of the most popular poets in the county and his assured performances have made him a TV favourite. His two Bloodaxe collections, City Psalms (1992) and Propa Propaganda (1996) have established his reputation on the page. He ranges easily over domestic and international concerns: 'We have Big Bombs / You have little bombs / You should sign a dotted line / Saying your bombs will stay small'.
Zephaniah's great assets are his wide-ranging curiosity and his sense of humour. He likes to parody - 'Terrible World' is a parody of Louis Armstrong's Wonderful World (with a footnote declaring his admiration for the original). 'De Queen and I' puns on the word 'subject':
'Me is de Queen's book at bedtime
Her morning service
Her vocal muse...
One is humble
One is honoured
One will never object
I am so happy
Dat she choose me
I am de Queen's subject.'
In 'I have a Scheme' he gives a twist to Martin Luther King's famous speech:
'Black employers will display notice-boards proclaiming,
"me nu care wea yu come from you know
So long as you can do a good day's work, dat cool wid me".'
In 1999, in an inspired Poetry Placement by the Poetry Society, he spent six months in the chambers of Michael Mansfield QC soon after the Steven Lawrence enquiry had reported. Zephaniah was fascinated and appalled by the way that legal language cuts across our natural ideas of justice, and the poems he wrote then reflect this:
'You have been the victim of an act of depravity
And you may never love again,
Nevertheless you have only been raped
And in the books that I have read
Rape does not constitute torture.'
The Placement poems appear in his latest collection, Too Black, Too Strong (2001). Unusually for a poetry book it has a substantial opening prose essay by Zephaniah explaining his attitude. Despite the horrors of oppression detailed in much of Zephaniah's work, this introduction and some of the poems are optimistic: he has made good use of the opportunities for travel afforded by his poetic fame but his conclusion is to be reinforced in his love for Britain, and especially London, despite all their flaws. He sees London as potentially a great melting pot:
'I love dis concrete jungle still
With all its sirens and its speed
The people here united will
Create a kind of London breed.'
His poetry for children in Talking Turkeys (1994) is exuberant and playful. He likes making lists of favourite things 'Vegan Delight' is a delightful stew of rhyme:
'Ackees, chapatties
Dumplins an nan,
Channa and rotis
Onion uttapam'
He has recently written very successful novels for young people. Face (1999) is a story of inner-city youth and of one boy's struggles after his face is badly disfigured in an accident. His latest novel, Refugee Boy (2001) deals with political asylum.
Peter Forbes, 2002
Further reading on this site
Cambridge Seminar
The Cambridge Seminar takes place every two years. It was last held over a week in mid-July 2009. The British Council's Cambridge Seminar on contemporary literature has influenced discussion, performance... more... (30/06/2003)
Contact information
Related links
http:/ / www.benjaminzephaniah.com
http:/ / www.britishcouncil.org/ arts-literature-publications-and-resources-poetryquartetshome.htm
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