Exhibition to honour 'humble' actor and poet

An outdoor exhibition to celebrate the late writer and poet Benjamin Zephaniah is to take place this summer.

Zephaniah, from Handsworth in Birmingham, died in December at the age of 65, eight weeks after being diagnosed with a brain tumour.

The free exhibition, featuring more than 20 artworks, will be held in Victoria Square 5-31 July.

Other recent tributes to Zephaniah include a mural unveiled in April and an event at a podcast festival that starts on Wednesday.

Black-and-white photographs of Zephaniah taken by Birmingham artist Pogus Caesar, as well as images of a typewriter that he was given as a child, will feature.

The typewriter itself is now housed in the Birmingham Museums Trust’s collection.

The exhibition will also include flags bearing the late poet’s image on Colmore Row and poetry recitals at The Exchange on Broad Street.

The event is being funded by Colmore BID, an organisation that oversees the city centre’s commercial quarter, and is being put together with support from Zephaniah’s family.

Zephaniah, the son of a Barbadian postman and a Jamaican nurse, was dyslexic and unable to read or write when he left school aged 13.

He went on to have a career that spanned poetry, literature, music and acting, from writing poems for children to appearing in the BBC series Peaky Blinders.

“Through talent and sheer determination, Benjamin Zephaniah proved what was possible and claimed the title, ‘Son of Birmingham’,” said Mr Caesar, who is co-curating the show with art historian Ruth Millington.

“This exhibition, open to everyone, aims to tell one chapter in the multi-layered story of this humble man.”

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