Benjamin Zephaniah (1958-2023) was a writer and performer of extraordinary range: an oral poet, novelist, playwright, children’s writer, reggae artist, actor, television personality and political activist. Born and raised in Birmingham, he was sent to an approved school for being uncontrollable, rebellious and ‘a born failure’, ending up in jail for burglary and affray. After prison he turned from crime to music and poetry. He was later nominated for Oxford Professor of Poetry, and voted Britain’s third favourite poet of all time (after T.S. Eliot and John Donne) in a BBC poll.
Benjamin was a poet who wouldn't stay silent, who didn't pull any punches, who wrote out of a sense of urgency and a commitment to social justice. Known for his performance poetry with a political edge for adults as well as his poetry with attitude for children, he had his own rap/reggae band. He was the first person to record with the Wailers after the death of Bob Marley, in a musical tribute to Nelson Mandela, which Mandela heard while in prison on Robben Island.
Dis Poetry brings together all the poems from Benjamin’s three Bloodaxe collections, City Psalms (1992), Propa Propaganda (1996) and Too Black, Too Strong (2001), as well as some from The Dread Affair (1985), along with previously unpublished work and lyrics from various recordings.
The book includes a QR code giving access to Pamela Robertson-Pearce's feature film To Do Wid Me originally released as a DVD-book in 2015 – enabling you to see and hear Benjamin performing in full over 20 of the poems in Dis Poetry on your phone while reading the book. The eight-minute trailer below includes snippets from the 103-minute film.
‘Benjamin was somebody who could speak to everybody and to anybody. He could speak with passion, wisdom and beauty about the way life is, the way he wanted life to be and the way he saw us all as human beings. He could not stand hierarchy. He could not stand discrimination, oppression or exploitation. He wanted to say that, and he could say it in so many different ways – ironically, humorously, angrily and he could say it to children, adults, on television, radio.’ – Michael Rosen
'This collection honours Benjamin Zephaniah’s lifelong commitment to speaking truth to power. The selected poems include everything from anarchist satires on our “green unpleasant land”, to refugee retellings of Scottish folk tales, and verses raging against the racist murders of Black people and oppressed people everywhere. With links to live recordings embedded in the book, these poems of power and protest demand to be read aloud, so they can march off the page in search of justice.' – Tayiba Sulaiman, Poetry Book Society Summer Bulletin 2025, on Dis Poetry: Selected Poems & Lyrics
‘He’ll be remembered as a poet of justice, of peace, of people power – as someone who was profoundly principled and lovable and full of soulful integrity. For me, Benjamin has been a sounding board, a model, a shrine, a cultural touchpoint throughout my entire life. If I had a poetry father, it really was him.’ – Raymond Antrobus, The Observer
‘He's left us with his charm, his poetry, his revolutionary ways, his caring for people, his inclusiveness.’ – Joan Armatrading on BBC Two’s Newsnight
‘The man was a force, an energy, a blast… Benjamin took everything life threw at him and turned it into poetry… His poems encourage us to never give up, to keep the flame of hope burning.’ – Jackie Kay, The i paper
Benjamin Zephaniah (1958-2023) was a writer and performer of extraordinary range: an oral poet, novelist, playwright, children’s writer, reggae artist, actor, television personality and political activist. Born in Birmingham, he grew up in Handsworth, where he was sent to an approved school for being uncontrollable, rebellious and ‘a born failure’, ending up in jail for burglary and affray.
After prison he turned from crime to music and poetry. In 1989 he was nominated for Oxford Professor of Poetry, and received honorary doctorates from several English universities, but famously refused to accept a nomination for an OBE in 2003. He was voted Britain's third favourite poet of all time (after T.S. Eliot and John Donne) in a BBC poll in 2009. In 2011 he was poet-in-residence at Keats House in 2011, and then made a radical career change by taking up his first ever academic position as a Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University in West London.
His many acting roles included preacher Jeremiah ‘Jimmy’ Jesus in Peaky Blinders, and he played Gower in a BBC Radio 3 production of Shakespeare’s Pericles in 2005. He was a regular panellist on BBC One's Question Time.
Best known for his performance poetry with a political edge for adults – and his poetry with attitude for children – he had his own rap/reggae band. He produced numerous recordings, including Dub Ranting (1982), Rasta (1983), Us and Dem (1990), Back to Roots (1995), Belly of de Beast (1996), Naked (2004) and Revolutionary Minds (2017). He was the first person to record with the Wailers after the death of Bob Marley, in a musical tribute to Nelson Mandela, which Mandela heard while in prison on Robben Island. Their later meetings led to Zephaniah working with children in South African townships and hosting the President’s Two Nations Concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 1996.
His first book of poems, Pen Rhythm, was produced in 1980 by a small East London publishing cooperative, Page One Books. His second collection, The Dread Affair, was published by Hutchinson’s short-lived Arena imprint in 1985. He published three collections with Bloodaxe, City Psalms (1992), Propa Propaganda (1996) and Too Black, Too Strong (2001), the latter including poems written while working with Michael Mansfield QC and other Tooks barristers on the Stephen Lawrence case. His DVD-book To Do Wid Me: Benjamin Zephaniah live and direct (filmed by Pamela Robertson-Pearce) followed from Bloodaxe in 2013. His posthumous retrospective Dis Poetry: Selected Poems & Lyrics – published 15 April 2025 – brings together all the poems from Benjamin’s three Bloodaxe collections, City Psalms, Propa Propaganda and Too Black, Too Strong, as well as some from The Dread Affair, along with previously unpublished work and lyrics from various recordings.
His other titles include his poetry books for children, Talking Turkeys (1994), Funky Chickens (1996) and Wicked World (2000), all from Puffin/Penguin; his novels for teenagers, Face (1999), Refugee Boy (2001), Gangsta Rap (2004) and Teacher’s Dead (2007), all from Bloomsbury; The Bloomsbury Book of Love Poems (1999); Schools Out: Poems Not for School (1997) and The Little Book of Vegan Poems (2001) from AK Press; and We Are Britain (Frances Lincoln, 2003). He published his autobiography, The Life and Rhymes and Benjamin Zephaniah, with Simon & Schuster in 2018. Benjamin Zephaniah’s poetry book for young children, Leave the Trees, Please, illustrated by Melissa Castrillon, was published by Magic Cat Publishing in April 2025.
