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Praised by Joan Armatrading for 'his charm, his poetry, his revolutionary ways, his caring for people, his inclusiveness', Benjamin Zephaniah (1958-2023) was a poet who wouldn't stay silent, who didn't pull any punches, who wrote out of a sense of urgency and a commitment to social justice.
Benjamin was a writer and performer of extraordinary range: an oral poet, novelist, playwright, children’s writer, reggae artist, actor, television personality and political activist. Born and raised in Birmingham, England, he was sent to an approved school for being uncontrollable, rebellious and ‘a born failure’, ending up in jail for burglary and affray. After prison he turned from crime to music and poetry. He was later nominated for Oxford Professor of Poetry, and voted Britain’s third favourite poet of all time (after T.S. Eliot and John Donne) in a BBC poll.
Known for his performance poetry with a political edge for adults as well as his poetry with attitude for children, he had his own rap/reggae band. He was the first person to record with the Wailers after the death of Bob Marley, in a musical tribute to Nelson Mandela, which Mandela heard while in prison on Robben Island.
Dis Poetry brings together all the poems from Benjamin’s three Bloodaxe collections, City Psalms (1992), Propa Propaganda (1996) and Too Black, Too Strong (2001), as well as some from The Dread Affair (1985), along with previously unpublished work and lyrics from various recordings. The book includes a QR code giving access to Pamela Robertson-Pearce's feature film To Do Wid Me originally released as a DVD-book in 2015 – enabling you to see and hear Benjamin performing in full over 20 of the poems in Dis Poetry on your phone while reading the book.
‘He's left us with his charm, his poetry, his revolutionary ways, his caring for people, his inclusiveness.’ – Joan Armatrading, on BBC Two’s Newsnight
‘He’ll be remembered as a poet of justice, of peace, of people power – as someone who was profoundly principled and lovable and full of soulful integrity. For me, Benjamin has been a sounding board, a model, a shrine, a cultural touchpoint throughout my entire life. If I had a poetry father, it really was him.’ – Raymond Antrobus, leading British poet, in The Observer
‘The man was a force, an energy, a blast… Benjamin took everything life threw at him and turned it into poetry… His poems encourage us to never give up, to keep the flame of hope burning.’ – Jackie Kay, leading British poet and former Scots Makar, the i paper
‘Benjamin was somebody who could speak to everybody and to anybody. He could speak with passion, wisdom and beauty about the way life is, the way he wanted life to be and the way he saw us all as human beings. He could not stand hierarchy. He could not stand discrimination, oppression or exploitation. He wanted to say that, and he could say it in so many different ways – ironically, humorously, angrily and he could say it to children, adults, on television, radio.’ – Michael Rosen
‘… Black British poets kick-started new kinds of poetry by importing African, African-American, Afro-Caribbean and Indian sub-continent oral, performance and musical traditions and by insisting on the ‘mean’ language of everyday living. No poet exemplifies this better than the late Benjamin Zephaniah, whose Dis Poetry: Selected Poems and Lyrics is just published by Bloodaxe Books. It’s a huge book, in every sense. […] huge also in its ambition and its linguistic range. Put together within the covers of a single book, Zephaniah’s work adds up to something really extraordinary.’ – Andy Croft, Chainlink Journal
‘The new selection Dis Poetry will acquaint Anglophone readers the world over with four decades of Zephaniah’s poems and lyrics—the former so ear-catching with anaphora and tumbling-over rhymes, the latter so thick with discourse and chitchat, that it can be hard to tell one from the other, or why the distinction even matters on the page.’ – Christopher Spaide, Literary Hub (Seven Poetry Books to Read This June)
Benjamin Zephaniah (1958-2023) was a writer and performer of extraordinary range: an oral poet, novelist, playwright, children’s writer, reggae artist, actor, television personality and political activist. Born in Birmingham, England, he grew up in Handsworth, where he was sent to an approved school for being uncontrollable, rebellious and ‘a born failure’, ending up in jail for burglary and affray. After prison he turned from crime to music and poetry. In 1989 he was nominated for Oxford Professor of Poetry, and received honorary doctorates from several English universities, but famously refused to accept a nomination for an OBE in 2003. He appeared in a number of television programmes, including the hit series Peaky Blinders. He was voted Britain's third favourite poet of all time (after T.S. Eliot and John Donne) in a BBC poll in 2009.