UKC

Sad news. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-67646607

Sad indeed. He will be missed.

Describing his reaction to the unexpected arrival of a letter from the House of Commons earlier this month, he wrote: "Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought. I get angry when I hear the word 'empire'; it reminds me of slavery, it reminds me of thousands of years of brutality, it reminds me of how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalised."

Heard a facinating interview with him when he talked about this and turning down the knighthood. But at the same time he laughed at himself as he now lived in the countryside surrounded by lovely middle class people who weree great neighbours in a beautiful village and he had a good giggle to himself about the paradox.

Very sad.

An honest voice. And what a voice!

Peace man.

Absolutely gutted. Only saw him once but he was brilliant. And he bigged up Nestor Makhno in his autobiography! 

youtube.com/watch?v=WJCSyYS5j2M&

Yes, what a lovely bloke. Humane, civilised, personable.....and made the most of his talents. 

Ah, shocking news.  Benjamin Zephaniah...a big and exotic name from my youth.  Seemed like a lovely, thoughtful geezer.

Shocking news, very sad indeed.

indeed very sad

He was one of the good ones. A truly likeable, thoughtful and talented man.

Sad indeed.

Browsing some of his poetry today it was scary to realise just how much of a threat he clearly was to some traditionalists... proper culture war stuff. See the comments after this poem!??

https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/dis-poetry/

Yes, there are some depressingly small-minded and wrong-headed comments there. Anyone who doesn't enjoy the rhythms of Zephaniah's verse is dead from the ears in. But something tells me that a critic who dismisses Zephaniah's ouvre (sic) is far from as smart as he pretends. And even if he could spell it I'm sure he hasn't read it all!

He was good at domestic violence as well 

For context:

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/books/2018/may/02/benjamin...

That sounds like he learnt the error of his ways and changed. I'd say that shows huge strength of character. It's hard to reflect on your own short comings and change for the better. Well done to him for acknowledging who he was, and deciding to be and do better.

When I was a young English teacher starting out in a tough inner-city comp I used both Benjamin Zephaniah and Linton Kwesi Johnson to get the kids into writing poetry. Both an absolute joy to perform and both made a strong connection with the kids...

No no no

it don't matter if you're black no more

then it matters if you're white

we are forced into a corner

where we must all unite

because we are the youth we are strong

we must make a stand

and we must tell our children

so they can understand,

the boat is sinking we're going down

we're not going to sit here while preachers keep on

preaching creating colour bar,

the boat is sinking we're ago drown

the youth will not just sit here and let them keep us down

we stand to tell them who we are.

A bit more than that.... he was very open about his youthful criminality and seemed genuinely sorry about it and spent his life campaigning for a better life for others, especially those at risk of falling into similar traps. He was almost a model of criminal redemption.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/jan/28/benjamin-zephaniah-abuse-crim...

Again it's worrying such a life is written off by some and his inspirational art regarded as useless. It stinks of bigotry or worse and maybe those people so keen to emphasise the bad in such a life need a mirror.

Still relevent:

I come from a musical place
Where they shoot me for my song
And my brother has been tortured
By my brother in my land.

I come from a beautiful place
Where they hate my shade of skin
They don't like the way I pray
And they ban free poetry.

I come from a beautiful place
Where girls cannot go to school
There you are told what to believe
And even young boys must grow beards.

I come from a great old forest
I think it is now a field
And the people I once knew
Are not there now.

We can all be refugees
Nobody is safe,
All it takes is a mad leader
Or no rain to bring forth food,
We can all be refugees
We can all be told to go,
We can be hated by someone
For being someone.

I come from a beautiful place
Where the valley floods each year
And each year the hurricane tells us
That we must keep moving on.

I come from an ancient place
All my family were born there
And I would like to go there
But I really want to live.

I come from a sunny, sandy place
Where tourists go to darken skin
And dealers like to sell guns there
I just can't tell you what's the price.

I am told I have no country now
I am told I am a lie
I am told that modern history books
May forget my name.

We can all be refugees
Sometimes it only takes a day,
Sometimes it only takes a handshake
Or a paper that is signed.
We all came from refugees
Nobody simply just appeared,
Nobody's here without a struggle,
And why should we live in fear
Of the weather or the troubles?
We all came here from somewhere.

  surely Inna city?

 Anyway he’s up to meet his maker who will supply him with green erb and sheet of Rizla paper 

and ina babylon

It is only a couple of weeks ago that he was on a Radio 4 program, live, with Roger McGough, and he sounded just human, and lovely: From whence his poem about being in love with a hedgehog.

I could not initially believe that he had died.

I'm so upset that he's gone, gone in a trice.

Could you clarify this, to me, very ambiguous post?