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
You can easily help raise money for the fund by shopping online for food, DIY, movies, clothing or items via over 8,000 brands including Amazon, Western Union, eBay and many other outlets.
Newly published photographic evidence, alongside archived testimonies from a public inquiry, documents a pattern of systemic abuse inflicted on Iraqi civilians by British soldiers in 2003.
While fewer women than men are incarcerated, their numbers are rising faster and most often for non-violent offences. Experts warn of ‘global crisis’ as number of women in prison nears one million.
A new Learning Lessons bulletin from the Prisons & Probation Ombudsman summarises research from investigations where a prisoner’s death was caused by epilepsy or was diagnosed with epilepsy.
Since becoming the Children’s Commissioner, I have travelled across the country meeting children whose lives are shaped by decisions made far away from them, whose voices are rarely heard.
"To the world Benjamin was the renowned writer, poet, human rights activist and more'. To us, his family, he was also all of these things, but most importantly he was family."
