Professor Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah was born and raised in Birmingham, England. By the time he was fifteen he had developed a strong following in his home town of Handsworth, where he had gained a reputation as a young poet who was capable of speaking on local and international issues.
At the age of twenty-two he headed south to London where his first book Pen Rhythm was published by Page One Books. The book was printed in three editions, but it was in performance that the Dub (Reggae) Poet would cause a revolution.
In the early 1980s, Zephaniah’s poetry could be heard on demonstrations against the SUS laws, high unemployment, homelessness and the National Front, at youth gatherings, outside police stations and on the dance floor.
By the mid-1980s, Zephaniah’s work as a playwright was being developed by Riverside Studios, which he referred to as a “home from home”. It was at Riverside that Zephaniah collaborated with the Black Theatre Cooperative to produce the play Playing the Right Tune in 1985 and, two years later, the ‘dub opera’ Job Rocking.
Zephaniah’s profile as a writer, musician and activist grew throughout the 1980s and 1990s, as his book publications, record releases and television appearances increased.
Having become one of the most celebrated creative and political voices in Britain, Zephaniah returned to Riverside Studios in 2023 for an on-stage conversation organised as part of Riverside’s NLHF-funded heritage project. That same year, he died as the result of a brain tumor at the age of sixty-five.
