Benjamin Zephaniah

Professor Benjamin Zephaniah was one of the pioneers of the performance poetry ‘scene’ in Britain. He was part of the ‘school’ known as the ‘Dub Poets’, these were poets that work alongside reggae music. He has spent most of his life performing around the world in schools, universities, concert halls, and in public spaces.

His poetry is noted for mixing serious issues with humour, and being accessible to a wide range of people. He is able to perform in children’s nurseries or political rallies, and his strongest area of interest is looking at how poetry works in performance and its relationship to music.

He has also written novels for young adults, and plays for radio and stage. Although his music is rooted in reggae, his recordings now have many influences including, Jazz, Hip Hop, and Dubstep. He contributes to many radio programmes and has presented documentaries on radio and television concerning literature, culture, race and politics.

He has been writer in residence at Keats House (London), Memphis State University, Ohio State University, and also worked at Shanghai Tongji University, The Women’s University Seoul, Pyongyang University North Korea, University of Witwatersrand Johannesburg, and he worked with The Open University encouraging young people to take up higher education.

Research Overview

Teaching Activity

Publications

Journal Papers

(2012) Zephaniah, B., The Police Don't Work for Us, The Guardian - Download publication

(2012) Zephaniah, B., Youth Unemployment; I Wanted To Use Poetry To Speak For Myself., Huffington Post

(2012) Zephaniah, B. and Zephaniah, B., Has Snoop Dogg seen the Rastafari light, or is this just a midlife crisis?, The Guardian

(2011) Zephaniah, B., Time of my Life, The Independant Magazine -

(2009) Asare, M., Ellis, D., Hoffman, M., Johnson, C., Laird, E., Lloyd, E., Machado, AM., Moriuchi, S., Onyefulu, I., Rai, B., Wilkins, V., Wilson-Max, K. and Zephaniah, B., When We Were Young, WASAFIRI 24 (4) : 54- 58

(2006) Zephaniah, B., 'Rong radio', BOUNDARY 2-AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF LITERATURE AND CULTURE 33 (2) : 34- 36

(2001) Zephaniah, B., 'Breakfast in East Timor', POETRY REVIEW 91 (1) : 74- 75

(2001) Zephaniah, B., 'Appeal Dismissed', POETRY REVIEW 91 (4) : 44- 44

(1984) ASTLEY, N., BARKER, J., BAYLEY, J., BERRY, J., BROWNJOHN, A., CAREY, J., EWART, G., HOROVITZ, M., LUCAS, J., MCGUCKIAN, M., MCMILLAN, I., MOTION, A., OSBORNE, C., RAINE, C., REDGROVE, P., SHUTTLE, P., WILLIAMS, H. and ZEPHANIAH, B., THE BEST POETRY BOOKS OF OUR TIME + POETS AND CRITICS CHOICE OF 13 BEST BOOKS OF VERSE SINCE 1939, POETRY REVIEW 74 (1) : 42- 45

(Accepted) Zephaniah, B. and Zephaniah, B., Pass on your Passion, Teach Primary (61) : -

Books

(2012) Zephaniah, B., Liam. Collins Educational

(2012) Zephaniah, B. and Zephaniah, B., Sweet Beats For Keats. London Metropolitan Archives

(2011) Zephaniah, B., Benjamin Zephaniah. My Story. Collins

(2011) Zephaniah, B., When I Grow Up. Francis Lincoln

(2011) Zephaniah, B. and Zephaniah, B., Kung Fu Trip. Bloomsbury Publishing PLC

(2008) Zephaniah, B., Face. The Play. Heinemann