Benjamin Zephaniah

“I used to think nurses Were women, I used to think police Were men, I used to think poets were boring, Until I became one of them.”

THE BASICS

Born: Birmingham, 1958
Jobs: Poet, Musician, Actor, Playwright, TV Presenter, Novelist
Lives: South Lincolnshire
First Book for Young People: Talking Turkeys, 1994

THE BOOKS

Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah was born in Birmingham in 1958. He spent some of his early years in Jamaica and absorbed much of the island culture which was later to have a dramatic effect on his work.

“I think I have the world record for going to different schools. I went to about 15 or more. I went to one school in London for just two days”. At the age of 12, he was taken out of comprehensive school and sent to an approved school on the grounds that he was uncontrollable, rebellious and, as the teacher put it, "a born failure". Later, he would find out that he was dyslexic. He was a troubled teenager and after approved school ended up in a couple of Her Majesty’s institutions.

Going to prison proved, Benjamin says, a significant turning point. “It was when I was a young prisoner that I decided ‘I’m going to use this energy differently. I’ve got the talent to be a poet.’ I realised that not all white people hated us, not all teachers were the enemy. I wanted to educate myself, be a bit more spiritual, a bit more political. I wasn’t sure how to go about it, but I started to collect books on black consciousness and different religions.”

After prison, aged 22, Benjamin moved to London. His first book for adults, Pen Rhythm, was published soon after. There was a long gap before his second book as “I wanted to reach people who didn’t read books, so I started performing with bands.” Later, adult collections include The Dread Affair, In A Liverpool, Rasta Time in Palestine, City Psalms and Propa Propaganda.

Benjamin’s first collection for children, Talking Turkeys, was published in 1994. It had such an immediate impact that it was reprinted after just six weeks. Funky Chickens followed in 1996. Both books changed perceptions of what poetry for children might be. Wicked World!, to be published in August 2000, is a similarly rich and challenging collection of PWA – Poetry With Attitude!

Millions of people know Benjamin’s voice. He has given readings around the world, from Palestine to Argentina, as well as throughout Britain – in schools, colleges, youth clubs, prisons, theatres and music venues. A master of oral and performance art, he has released several records, including one with the Wailers.

Benjamin has written plays for radio, TV and theatre. In Dread Poets Society, broadcast on BBC TV, he imagined himself in a series of encounters with Mary Shelley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Lord Byron and Keats.

He has presented, appeared in or been the subject of numerous TV programmes ranging from The South Bank Show to Eastenders; from The Tube to The Bill.

In 1989, he was nominated for Oxford Professor of Poetry but was pipped to the post by Seamus Heaney.

Benjamin is actively involved in numerous organisations, including the Hackney Empire Theatre, Umoja Housing Co-Op, the Irie Dance Company, VIVA (Vegetarians International Voice for Animals), Market Nursery - Hackney, Newham Young People's Theatre Scheme, the Chinese Women's Refuge Group, Musicworks - Brixton, SARI (Soccer Against Racism in Ireland), SHOP (Self-Help Organisation for ex-Prisoners) and the Central Park Girls Football Team. When asked how he finds the time for all this, he says, “I care about all these things passionately.”

In 1999, Benjamin’s first novel, Face, was published. In the novel, Benjamin explores the issue of prejudice from an unusual and powerful angle. Writing the book was a new challenge for Benjamin who confesses “I haven’t read that many novels… I had an idea in my mind what I wanted to do and I did it. Sometimes I broke the rules, and if it worked, it worked”. It worked. Face has received rave reviews and was shortlisted for the Children’s Book Award 2000.

One of Benjamin’s most famous fans is Nelson Mandela. “While he was in prison, he read some of my work,” Benjamin says, “then someone gave him some tapes of mine. When he came out of prison he invited me to host a concert at the Albert Hall in his name. Then he invited me over to South Africa to work with some returning refugees and township children.”

Benjamin is a vegan and says that “it was the poet in me that made me a vegetarian. Hearing people talk lyrically about the birds in the air and the fish in the sea inspired me… I believe passionately in leaving animals alone and poetry enables me to get the message over creatively, without preaching.”

Benjamin’s passions include collecting money (“not money that’s in use! I collect banknotes from around the world”), tai chi, kung fu and renovating old English sports cars. He owns a ‘mixed race’ TR7 – “The engine is from the racing version of a Dolomite Sprint, the running gear is from a Rover V8 and the interior is done out in the Ferrari Boxer style”. “When I really feel like freaking people out,” says Benjamin, “I take the car down Green Street in East London, where there are gangs of guys posing with their BMWs playing heavy dub, and I blast out George Formby.” An iconoclast to the very end.

WHAT HE SAYS... "I was one of those kids that kept asking Why? Once I received some of the answers, I realized that those in authority were not right, so I could not go along with them.”

“Poets should thrive on freedom, should thrive on the right to criticise, the right to ask questions that scratch you the wrong way.”

“My mother tells me there was a time when she thought I was disturbed… because I didn’t play with toys, and she would find me sitting in the corner nodding my head. I was playing word games in my head. I was doing poetry even before I knew what the word meant.”

“My first public performance was at the age of 11 in a small community centre. I used to create poems about characters from the place where I lived in Birmingham, such as the local bobby.”

“Up until I was 19 or 20 was a bad period in my life. I was in and out of hospital as a kid; my dad wasn’t good to my mum, I was in trouble a lot. But I always had a questioning mind.”

“I didn’t really learn to read and write until I was in my 20s. But I was always rapping and toasting along to music. I just wish I could have had a teacher who said, ‘Hey, I don’t think you’re a waste of space; what do you really want to do?’ I would have gone, ‘Can I do poetry?’ But the people I did mention it to just laughed.”

“Poetry is like a tree with many branches: metaphysical, oral, protest, love. And once you’re in the tree, you can climb from one branch to another.”

“I can’t say anything about the rules of poetry because I’ve broken them all. Everyone says you shouldn’t do this or that, but I do it!”

WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH...

“He’s a real messenger, unlike anyone in Britain in his stand against the mystification of culture. I defy anyone to listen to a performance of his poetry and not come away uplifted. Brecht would have loved him.” Poetry Review

“Zephaniah is the reigning king of children’s poetry... He has an unselfconscious relish for language and word-play that never strays into the patronising dee-dum-dee-dum-dee-dum territory of so much of children’s poetry: his are poems that bounce up from the page and demand to be read, rapped, sung and hip-hopped aloud.” Independent on Sunday

"Benjamin Zephaniah’s poems are short, funny and modern. This is poetry with attitude.” The Times

“Britain’s best known Rasta poet, famous for his hypnotic readings.” Mail on Sunday

“He brings Jamaican rhythms, the patois of the streets, the perception that… poetry can be powerful, provocative, street-wise… He takes poetry off the page and into urban mouths, turns verse into sassy, beat-filled performance.” The Scotsman

“Benjamin Zephaniah writes poems that tickle your imagination and make you think.” Meg@ (The Times)

“His wit is devastating and his well aimed shafts of satire rarely miss their mark.” Junior Bookshelf

“An irreverent, high-speed tour of anything from vegetables to the Queen, from sewage to the sun.” Independent on Sunday on Funky Chickens

“Wonderfully fresh and invigorating.” Junior Education on Funky Chickens

“Zephaniah, whose verses about poetry itself are among his most satisfying, offers young readers a glimpse of that secret world where ‘every pencil needs a hand/and every mind needs to expand’.” TES on Funky Chickens

“Funky Chickens and Talking Turkeys play with typeface and orthography, pulse with irreverent energy and joie-de-vivre.” The Scotsman

“Talking Turkeys… relates to different religions and cultures so every child can feel they are a part of society and not feel left out… The book is for children but the grown ups will be sneaking off with it.” Black Literature Project

“If rap and rhythm are your bag, then Talking Turkeys will be right up your street. This book is sure to get you clucking along with delight.” Young Telegraph

“A collection that works well on the page and is a delight to read aloud.” Brian Patten on Talking Turkeys

“Funny, vulnerable and provocative… a vivid outspoken view of life.” Oxford Times on Talking Turkeys

“A wild collection of street wit.” Liverpool Echo on Talking Turkeys

“The liveliest looking (and sounding) poetry for teenagers…the issues and targets, the humour and music of the lines are an invitation to read and read aloud.” Books For Keeps on Talking Turkeys

“A brilliant, funny and inventive collection.” Weekly Journal on Talking Turkeys

“The book is wild; the illustrations madcap… poems with high energy and an urban edge.” Junior Education on Talking Turkeys

“Punchy, straight-talking, highly original and wonderfully stimulating.” Books For Keeps Multicultural Guide on Talking Turkeys

“Just right for a boisterous poetry class, with plenty of opportunity for participation.” Children’s Books in Ireland on Talking Turkeys

“He makes poetry accessible for all ages.” Herald Express (Torquay) on Talking Turkeys

“Face is not a poet’s novel. Not one of those weird flights of fancy à la Bob Dylan’s Tarantula. Not an exercise in evocation rather than narrative. It is a strongly plotted story for teenagers, expertly constructed, containing as much psychological tension as the work of established children’s novelists such as Malorie Blackman.” Michael Thorn, TES

“Irreverence for the academic trappings of traditional written poetry, a loose-foot, streetwise approach to form and to content and a large-hearted humanity, permeate his poetry, and this should ensure his popularity with school children – natural inconoclasts – for years to come.” Errol Lloyd, quoted in Books For Keeps

AWARDS

Shorlisted for the Children’s Book Award 2000 for Face