City Psalms

Fülszöveg

Rasta poet Benjamin Zephaniah hit the headlines when he was shortlisted for a fellowship at Cambridge University and later for Oxford Professor of Poetry. The Sun seethed: 'Would you let your daughter near this man?' The tabloids seized on his borstal background, omitting to mention that he now spends much time visiting schools, youth clubs, prisons, universities and teacher training centres.
Born in Birmingham in 1958, Zephaniah grew up in Jamaica and in Handsworth, where he was sent to an approved school for being uncontrollable, rebellious and 'a born failure', ending up in jail for burglary. After prison, he turned from crime to music and poetry: 'I started writing poetry because I didn't like poetry'. As a reggae DJ in Handsworth, he refused to mimic other toasters with their chants about Jamaican life, instead turning to Britain for his own native patter, comic stories and rhymes.
Zephaniah has since become a master of oral and performance art, with many appearances in... Tovább

Fülszöveg

Rasta poet Benjamin Zephaniah hit the headlines when he was shortlisted for a fellowship at Cambridge University and later for Oxford Professor of Poetry. The Sun seethed: 'Would you let your daughter near this man?' The tabloids seized on his borstal background, omitting to mention that he now spends much time visiting schools, youth clubs, prisons, universities and teacher training centres.
Born in Birmingham in 1958, Zephaniah grew up in Jamaica and in Handsworth, where he was sent to an approved school for being uncontrollable, rebellious and 'a born failure', ending up in jail for burglary. After prison, he turned from crime to music and poetry: 'I started writing poetry because I didn't like poetry'. As a reggae DJ in Handsworth, he refused to mimic other toasters with their chants about Jamaican life, instead turning to Britain for his own native patter, comic stories and rhymes.
Zephaniah has since become a master of oral and performance art, with many appearances in films, on TV and radio. His plays have been widely performed, and he has presented and been the subject of several TV documentaries. His records include Big Boys Don't Make Girls Cry, Free South Africa (with The Wailers), Rasta, Dub Ranting, Us an Dem, Back to Roots and Belly of de Beast. His books include two children's poetry books, Talking Turkeys and Funky Chickens, both published by Penguin, and Rasta Time in Palestine, The Dread Affair, and three collections from Bloodaxe, City Psalms, Propa Propaganda and Too Black, Too Strong. He lives in London.
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