Episode 7: Benjamin Zephaniah
Broadcast date: 24 November 2022
In the last episode of this season of Why Dance Matters, we meet a poet – the resonant, rousing, heart-stopping Benjamin Zephaniah. Benjamin’s specific dance connection is that he’s recorded the narration for Rambert’s acclaimed new stage production based on Peaky Blinders, the cult period crime drama. As a celebrated performance poet, he’s used to making language, voice and physicality fuse in the most memorable of ways. His writing for young people as well as adults has been transforming, inspiring generations of readers. He will explore words and bodies, and the way that creativity can change a life.
Benjamin Zephaniah
Benjamin Zephaniah was a pioneer of the performance poetry scene in Britain. He has spent most of his life performing around the world in schools, universities, concert halls, and other public spaces. He is also an actor, a TV and radio presenter, and a novelist, who has written over 20 books. He has his own band, The Revolutionary Minds, but he has also worked musically with Sinead O’Connor, Moby, and Bob Marley’s Wailers. He has his own poetry show on Sky Arts, called Life and Rhymes, and he was born and bred in Birmingham.
Peaky Blinders: The Redemption of Thomas Shelby will tour during 2023.
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