Twenty-Two Years On – Project HEAL film premier remembers Mikey Powell
source: National Memorial Family Fund
republished: 31 August 2025
Image Credit: Ken Fero at www.vimeo.com/migrantmedia
The 7th September 2025 will mark the 22nd anniversary of the brutal and needless death of father of three, Michael Lloyd Powell (commonly known as Mikey, and a cousin of the renowned late poet and writer, Dr Benjamin Zephaniah) at the hands of West Midlands Police in Lozells, Birmingham. Mikey was experiencing a psychotic episode.
Mikey's 22nd year commemoration will be marked with a special screening of a Project HEAL film in his honour at a joint event to be held at Everyman Cinema in Birmingham on 7 September 2025. The film entitled 'Mikey, A Story by Tippa Naphtali', is one of the four docufilms in the Project HEAL series from Black Thrive Haringey. The film is a deeply personal and urgent story about injustice, grief, and the fight to heal.
In November 2023 an event, entitled 40:20:01, combined a celebration of INQUEST's 40th year, a dedication to Mikey's life, as well as the first ever National Mikey Powell Memorial Family Fund Annual Gala Activists Awards.
The National Mikey Powell Memorial Family Fund (NMPMFF)
is the main legacy to Mikey.
It is the first permanent national resource of its kind specifically for those affected by deaths and killings in custody or state neglect. The NMPMFF makes small grants available for families and their campaign groups across the UK to provide practical domestic assistance and campaign support. They also run (or are developing) a range of other support services for families, children and young people that are affected.
Since it was developed in 2015, the NMPMFF (working in conjunction with the United Families & Friends Campaign) has awarded over £64,000 in grants and awards, and delivered several events including; 'Looking Back : Moving Forward' in Birmingham (September 2021), and 'Families Matter : Caring Matters' in Manchester (May 2023).
Family and Friends; (from Mikey's 10th Anniversary)
Mikey's Sister, Sieta Lambrias said; - “Whilst we appreciate the apology received by the WMP for the pain and anguish caused to my family as a consequence of Mikey’s death, we would be far more appreciative of an apology acknowledging that it was the actions of their officers that caused the death, as found by the inquest jury in 2009.”
Mikey's cousin, the late Dr Benjamin Zephaniah said; - “An apology for the death of my cousin ten years after the event is cold comfort. We have been asking questions for ten years, protesting for ten years, writing letters, and poems, and statements for ten years, but most of all we have been collectively grieving for ten years. What is important is that we let it be known that although we accept this apology, we are intelligent enough to know that it is just an apology, and it is not justice.”
Mikey's cousin, Joyce Springer-Amadedon said; - “From the beginning we thought we wouldn’t get a guilty verdict in the criminal courts, but we took it so far so that there would be some scrutiny, in particular for West Midlands Police, who have had a poor record in the past and need to be seen to be accountable. It was not just for us but for all the other families who don’t know how their loved ones came to die while in custody.”
Family supporter and radical filmmaker, Ken Fero said; - “Over the ten years of the struggle that this anniversary of the death of Mikey Powell marks it has been a real privilege to know and work with the family. Not only have they run an exemplary individual campaign on the legal and political fronts to get justice for Mikey, they have also worked to support other families that have experienced the brutality of a death in custody.
“They have shown resilience and insight and this has led to real change at different levels. What all families want when they lose a loved one under these circumstances is fairness in the justice system and for those responsible to be punished. 10 years on Mikey can be proud that the unrelenting daily work, particularly of his cousin Tippa Naphtali, has made sure his death wasn't in vain.”
For 2024 and beyond, Tippa Naphtali said;
"While we will never forget what happened on the night of my cousin, Mikey's, killing, but it is his life and how he lived it, that will continue to inspire us to develop mental health and wellbeing initiatives, and continue to fight for an end to deaths, killings and abuse at the hands of the state."
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