Free-to-use Facebook and Twitter Banners in memory of Professor Benjamin Zephaniah.
Please credit: The family of Benjamin Zephaniah and @msoulfires
Benjamin Zephaniah: The Brighter Flame exhibition celebrates poet
4WardEverUK • 11 July 2024
source: Colmore Business District
first published: 3 June 2024
Image Credit: Ruth Millington www.x.com/ruth_millington
This summer a special exhibition celebrating the life of Birmingham poet and activist Benjamin Zephaniah will take place in the city centre.
(Exhibition Extended - See more here).
The outdoor exhibition called ‘Benjamin Zephaniah – The Brighter Flame’ will take place between July 5-31, 2024. Created with the support and acknowledgment of the Zephaniah family, the exhibition will feature more than 20 specially curated artworks displayed in cabinets located in Victoria Square, Birmingham, as part of the 100 Days of Creativity programme.
In addition, flags designed in his memory will fly high on Colmore Row, the heart of Birmingham, while a Q&A with David O Springer, Zephaniah’s brother, plus poetry recitals from spoken-word performers will take place at The Exchange on Broad Street.
Zephaniah was recognised as champion of the people and his death on December 7, 2023, aged 65, drew tributes from across the world.
Born in Handsworth and influenced strongly by what he described as ‘street politics’ and the music and poetry of Jamaica, Zephaniah was gifted an old typewriter as a child, which inspired him to become a writer. In recent years, the typewriter has been housed in the collection of Birmingham Museums Trust and photographs of it will feature in the exhibition.
Through his work, Zephaniah was inspired by music, his lived experiences in Birmingham and his Barbadian-Jamaican heritage. In 2008, he was included in The Times list of Britain’s top 50 post-war writers and won numerous awards and honorary doctorates for his literature. Zephaniah also made numerous acting and media appearances, most recently as the preacher Jeremiah Jesus in BBC’s Peaky Blinders.
share this article on social media
On March 26, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied political prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal permission to appeal a September 2024 denial of his latest petition to reverse his conviction.
The mother of a man shot dead by police in a London Underground station after being mistaken for a terrorist has said “everyone should watch” a new dramatisation of her son’s killing.
New rules giving anonymity to firearms officers accused of murder put police above the scrutiny faced by the rest of the public, the head of the charity Inquest has warned.
A significant step by SA's legal system in confronting the atrocities of its past. A judge approved the trial of police officers for their involvement in the 1982 assassination of three activists.
Protests in West Yorkshire and elsewhere have mobilised against the Teledyne arms factory. Palestine solidarity rallies and marches took place across Britain in a national day of action.
South Carolina executed Mikal Mahdi by firing squad on 11 April. Mahdi had been convicted and sentenced for the 2004 killing of an off-duty law enforcement officer, and others followed.
