This hospital ward is name after Benjamin Zephaniah. We have reason to believe that this is the only hospital ward named after a living person that is not royalty. Benjamin often visits the ward to talk to patients, perform poetry, and play football! He writes that his poetry is strongly influenced by the music and poetry of Jamaica and what he calls "street politics". His first performance was in church when he was eleven, and by the age of 15, his poetry was already known among Handsworth's Afro-Caribbean and Asian communities. [8] The Life And Rhymes of Benjamin Zephaniah". BBC Sounds. 30 April 2018 . Retrieved 12 February 2023. Merope Mills, "Rasta poet publicly rejects his OBE", The Guardian, 27 November 2003. Retrieved 7 June 2012.

Face by Benjamin Zephaniah | Waterstones Face by Benjamin Zephaniah | Waterstones

They campaign for social change: advocating for more integrated health services; influencing schools and workplaces to create more inclusive environments; and lobbying for anti-discrimination protection and enforcement . Prenczina, Sabine (27 March 1991). "Farendj" (Drama). Tim Roth, Marie Matheron, Matthias Habich, Joe Sheridan. River Films, Sofica Lumière, Trimark Entertainment . Retrieved 28 April 2021.Handsworth was where Zephaniah began to make a name for himself. When he wasn’t doing straight poetry you would find him ‘toasting’ on various sound systems in the area. Toasting was an early form of rap, but rap that was related to reggae music rather than Hip Hop music; it was about entertaining the crowd and chanting words of wisdom. Zephaniah did all this, but he also became known for his social commentary. He started performing poetry in the school playground when he was 6 years old, his first real public performance was in church when he was 11 years old, but when he started on the sound systems his ability to comment on the world became apparent.

Face by Benjamin Zephaniah - Crofton Academy Face by Benjamin Zephaniah - Crofton Academy

Benjamin Zephaniah on fighting the far right: 'If we did nothing we would be killed on the streets' ". The Guardian. 28 February 2016 . Retrieved 29 April 2021.

Bankes, Ariane (8 January 2018). "Why we need to free art by prisoners from behind bars". Apollo Magazine . Retrieved 31 January 2019. So it is rather to Martin's surprise, that he finds himself having a great time at a rap club. Leaving the club later, Martin is offered a ride home by someone he knows vaguely from school. He doesn't know the car is stolen though, and it isn't a ride home, it's a ride to self-destruction. In the inevitable accident Martin suffers terrible burns to his face. In the nineties his book publications, record releases and television appearances increased in Britain, although he has concentrated on performing outside Europe. He feels at home anywhere the oral tradition is still strong and lists South Africa, Zimbabwe, India, Pakistan and Colombia as some of his most memorable tours. In fact life has been one long tour but this is the only way the oral tradition can live. Over a 22-day period in 1991 he performed on every continent on this planet. I had not seen him for many years then in May 2011 he came to tour China. This was something I thought I would never see, the original rasta Dub Poet, dubbing it in China. The tour saw him performing solo in schools, clubs and bookshops. He was now also a novelist and a professor. He didn’t look very different from how he looked in 1978, and his passion for poetry and the issues he cared about had not diminished at all, if anything he seemed more fired up than ever. I was keen to see how Chinese audiences would take to his dub poetry and I was amazed to see how easy he connected with them. Over a two month period he performed in kindergartens, schools, dance clubs, universities, and two hospitals. He was able to converse with intellectuals and street vendors with ease, and when it came to expressing his ideas his ability to communicate complex ideas in a direct uncomplicated way, without talking down, or talking up to people, won him admirers wherever we went. At a performance in Chengdu, a woman who had just been blessed with a conversation with him told me that she thought he was the most approachable star in the universe.

Face by Benjamin Zephaniah | Goodreads Face by Benjamin Zephaniah | Goodreads

a b "Brighton Magazine – Benjamin Zephaniah: Well Read Rastafarian Poet Comes To Lewes". Magazine.brighton.co.uk. 21 June 2023. Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah (born 15 April 1958) [1] is a British writer and dub poet. He was included in The Times list of Britain's top 50 post-war writers in 2008. [2] Early life and education There was one girlfriend that I had, and I actually hit her a couple of times, and as I got older I really regretted it. It burned my conscience so badly. It really ate at me, you know. And I'm a meditator. It got in the way of my meditation." 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. Zephaniah's first book of poetry for children, called Talking Turkeys (1994), was reprinted after six weeks. [11] [12] In 1999, he wrote a novel for teenagers, Face, the first of four novels to date. [13] [14] [15]

Zephaniah became a vegetarian at age 11, [28] and then became a vegan at the age of 13 [29] [30] when he read poems about "shimmering fish floating in an underwater paradise, and birds flying free in the clear blue sky". [ citation needed] Ungaged is a peaceful international animal protection organisation based in Sheffield, England. Its main campaigns are against animal experiments (vivisection); against xenotransplantation animal to human transplants.