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One of Britain’s best-loved poets was celebrated at the BAFTA Awards last week, with a win in the category of Best Entertainment Programme.
The self- described ‘poet, writer, lyricist, musician and naughty boy’ was born and raised in Birmingham, England and made a name for himself speaking out in poetic form about the social issues at the heart of his local communities growing up. Inspired by the music and poetry of Jamaica, his poetry has been heard at demonstrations, youth gatherings, outside police stations and on the dancefloor – and perhaps even over a festive dinner table, in the form of Talking Turkeys.
Writing in the Guardian in 2015, Benjamin Zephaniah is candid about his educational experiences: “I’m of the generation where teachers didn’t know what dyslexia was,” he explains. “At 21 I went to an adult education class in London to learn to read and write. The teacher told me ‘You are dyslexic’, and I was like ‘Do I need an operation?’ – She explained to me what it meant and I suddenly thought ‘Ah, I get it’. I thought I was going crazy.”
Life & Rhymes is described by Sky Arts as a socially-distanced celebration of the spoken word, shining a spotlight on British voices with inspiring performances from both new talent and established voices within the scene. The four-part series sees Zephaniah introduce a set of fresh poets who perform a work of their own composition on some of society’s biggest talking points – racism, gender equality, sexuality and mental health. Each episode also features an open mic slot where audience members selected at random have 60 seconds to share their own spoken word performance.
It’s the first show of its kind on UK television, focusing on the spoken word as a specific art form, and celebrating the modern poetic talent that the UK has to offer. In his acceptance speech, Zephaniah praised Sky Arts for their brave and pioneering attitude, handing the microphone to diverse people from all kinds of backgrounds in a time of national lockdown, and giving voice to a community that needed to be heard.
You can watch the whole speech at YouTube, and you can also catch up with Life & Rhymes at Sky Arts.