Benjamin Zephaniah

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Benjamin Zephaniah

Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (born April 15, 1958 in Birmingham , England ) is a British- Jamaican Rastafarian , writer and dub poet. A well-known figure in contemporary English literature, he was named one of The 50 Most Great British Post-War Writers in 2008 by The Times newspaper .

Life

Zephaniah was born the son of a Barbadian postman and a Jamaican nurse in Handsworth, a borough of Birmingham. He called the suburb in which he grew up "the Jamaican capital of Europe" ("the Jamaican capital of Europe"). He had dyslexia and attended a so-called “approved school”, a school for difficult-to-educate children, which he left at the age of 13 without being able to read and write. He made his first appearance in a church when he was ten years old. Five years later his poetry was already well known in the Afro-Caribbean and Asian communities in Handsworth.

As a young man, he came into conflict with the law several times and also served a prison term.

At the age of 22, tired of the limitations as a black poet who only communicated with black people, he went to London . There he got involved in a workers' cooperative in Stratford . In 1980, Page One Books published his first volume of poetry, Pen Rhythm . There were three editions. Zephaniah said his mission is to combat the dead image of poetry in the academic world and get it everywhere people don't read books. That's why he turned his readings into concert-like performances.

From then on he regularly published new volumes of poetry and also wrote several plays. His second volume of poetry, The Dread Affair: Collected Poems (1985), contained a number of poems that attacked the British legal system. Rasta Time in Palestine (1990), composed after a visit to the Palestinian Territories , collected poems and travelogues. Many of the poems in Too Black, Too Strong (2001) were influenced by his position as "Poet in Residence" in the office of the London barrister Michael Mansfield QC , in the context of which he participated in the investigation of Bloody Sunday and the death of Ricky Reel, of an Asian student found dead in the Thames .

Furthermore, Zephaniah is a very successful children's book author. His first book of poetry for children, Talking Turkeys, had to be reprinted after just six weeks. In 1999 he wrote his first novel Face , which was also very successful. To date, four more novels have followed.

In addition to his literary work, Zephaniah also published music. His first album Rasta featured the Wailers' first recording after the death of Bob Marley . It earned him international recognition and reached the top of the Yugoslav charts.

Zephaniah lived in London for a long time. However, since 2008 he has been commuting between Beijing and a village near Spalding , Lincolnshire . He also lived in Indonesia for five years .

Views

Zephaniah is an honorary member of the Vegan Society , and has joined Amnesty International to campaign against homophobia in Jamaica. Zephaniah is Rastafarian. In 2003 he was offered the Officer's Cross of the Order of the British Empire , which he publicly rejected. Although he had already campaigned for a British republic and the abolition of the monarchy, he has been representing increasingly anarchist positions since 2014 .

Books

poetry

  • Pen Rhythm (1980)
  • The Dread Affair: Collected Poems (1985) Arena
  • City Psalms (1992) Bloodaxe Books
  • Inna Liverpool (1992) AK Press
  • Talking Turkeys (1995) Puffin Books
  • Propa Propaganda (1996) Bloodaxe Books
  • Funky Chickens (1997) Puffin
  • School's Out: Poems Not for School (1997) AK Press
  • Funky Turkeys (Audiobook) (1999) AB
  • White Comedy (Unknown)
  • Wicked World! (2000) Puffin
  • Too Black, Too Strong (2001) Bloodaxe Books
  • The Little Book of Vegan Poems (2001) AK Press
  • The Britain
  • Reggae Head (Audiobook) 57 Productions
  • talking turkeys cool
  • De Rong Song

Novels

  • Face (1999) Bloomsbury (published in adult and children's versions)
  • Refugee Boy (2001) Bloomsbury
  • Gangsta Rap (2004) Bloomsbury
  • Teacher's Dead (2007) Bloomsbury
  • Dartnell (2009) Bloomsbury

Children's books

  • We are Britain (2002) Frances Lincoln
  • Primary Rhyming Dictionary (2004) Chambers Harrap
  • J is for Jamaica (2006) Frances Lincoln

Plays

  • Playing the Right Tune (1985)
  • Job Rocking (1987)
  • Delirium (1987)
  • Streetwise (1990)
  • Mickey Tekka (1991)
  • Listen to Your Parents (contained in Theater Center: Plays for Young People - Celebrating 50 Years of Theater Center (2003) Aurora Metro, also published by Longman, 2007)
  • Face: The Play (with Richard Conlon)

Filmography

Discography

Albums

  • Rasta (1982) Upright (re-released 1989) Workers Playtime
  • Us An Dem (1990) Iceland
  • Back to Roots (1995) Acid Jazz
  • Belly of De Beast (1996) Ariwa
  • Naked (2005) One Little Indian
  • Naked & Mixed-Up (2006) One Little Indian (Benjamin Zephaniah vs. Rodney-P)

Singles, EPs

  • Dub Ranting EP (1982) Radical Wallpaper
  • "Big Boys Don't Make Girls Cry" 12-inch single (1984) Upright
  • "Free South Africa" ​​(1986)
  • "Crisis" 12-inch single (1992) Workers Playtime
  • "Empire" (1995) Bomb the Bass with Zephaniah & Sinéad O'Connor
  • "wak with the sup with the playstation sup" (Joey Tribiani)

Web links

Commons : Benjamin Zephaniah  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kate Kellaway: Dread poet's society . In: The Observer . November 4, 2001, ISSN  0029-7712 ( theguardian.com [accessed January 22, 2020]).
  2. ^ Honorary Patrons . Vegansociety.com. Archived from the original on September 28, 2011. Retrieved on May 10, 2011.
  3. ↑ Jamaica: Benjamin Zephaniah calls on Jamaicans everywhere to stand up against homophobia . Amnesty International. Archived from the original on September 3, 2012. Retrieved October 12, 2012.
  4. ^ Benjamin Zephaniah: Has Snoop Dogg seen the Rastafari light, or is this just a midlife crisis? . In: the Guardian .
  5. ↑ Merope Mills, "Rasta poet publicly rejects his OBE" , the Guardian , 27 November 2003; accessed 7 June 2012.
  6. ^ Statement of Principles . Republic. April 29, 2011. Archived from the original on August 3, 2009. Retrieved on May 10, 2011.
  7. ↑ 'I'm turning into an anarchist' - writer and poet Benjamin Zephaniah. In: darkpolitricks.com. March 9, 2014, accessed May 4, 2018 .
  8. ↑ Stephen Moss: Benjamin Zephaniah: 'I'm almost 60 and I'm still angry. Everyone told me I would mellow '. In: theguardian.com. February 22, 2018, accessed May 4, 2018 .
personal data
SURNAME Zephaniah, Benjamin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Zephaniah, Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British-Jamaican Rastafarian, writer and dub poet
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1958
PLACE OF BIRTH Birmingham , England