synergy777
19-07-2007, 02:13 PM
OFFICIAL WEBSITE
http://www.benjaminzephaniah.com/index.html
Benjamin Zephaniah - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rejection of OBE
In November 2003, Zephaniah wrote in The Guardian [2] that he was turning down the invitation to accept the honour of the position of Officer of the Order of British Empire (OBE) award from Queen Elizabeth II since it reminded him of "how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalized". He continued to say "Stick it, Mr. Blair and Mrs. Queen, stop going on about empire." It was unusual to do so publicly, since the convention for rejecting the award is to do so privately.
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1094011,00.html
'Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought'
An invitation to the palace to accept a New Year honour... you must be joking. Benjamin Zephaniah won't be going. Here he explains why?
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth105
http://www.benjaminzephaniah.com/rhymin.html
Who's Who
(from 'Talking Turkeys')
"I used to think nurses
Were women,
I used to think police
Were men,
I used to think poets
Were boring,
Until I became one of them."
Bought and Sold
(from 'Too Black, Too Strong')
"Smart big awards and prize money
Is killing off black poetry
It’s not censors or dictators that are cutting up our art.
The lure of meeting royalty
And touching high society
Is damping creativity and eating at our heart.
The ancestors would turn in graves
Those poor black folk that once were slaves would wonder
How our souls were sold
And check our strategies,
The empire strikes back and waves
Tamed warriors bow on parades
When they have done what they’ve been told
They get their OBE's."
What Stephen Lawrence Has Taught Us
(from 'Too Black, Too Strong')
"We know who the killers are,
We have watched them strut before us
As proud as sick Mussolinis’,
We have watched them strut before us
Compassionless and arrogant,
They paraded before us,
Like angels of death
Protected by the law."
Ride
(from 'Too Black, Too Strong')
"We first met on a golden night
As the moon radiated love light
On the dock of the bay.
Somewhere between the real deal and an illusion
We lay unapologetically
Stroking each others lack of responsibility."
What Stephen Lawrence Has Taught Us
(from 'Propa Propaganda')
"We Black men of England
Too proud to cry for shame,
Let’s cry a sea
Cry publicly,
Expose our very pain,
For Babylon the bandit
Is on our sisters trail,
The bad talk
And the cool walk
Will not keep us out of jail."
Neighbours
(from 'Propa Propaganda')
"I am the type you are supposed to fear
Black and foreign
Big and dreadlocks
An uneducated grass eater.
I talk in tongues
I chant at night
I appear anywhere,
I sleep with lions
And when the moon gets me
I am a Wailer."
The British
Serves 60 million
(from 'Wicked World')
"Take some Picts, Celts and Silures
And let them settle,
Then overrun them with Roman conquerors.
Remove the Romans after approximately 400 years
Add lots of Norman French to some
Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings, then stir vigorously.
Mix some hot Chileans, cool Jamaicans, Dominicans,
Trinidadians and Bajans with some Ethiopians, Chinese,
Vietnamese and Sudanese
Vegan Steven
(from 'A Little Book of Vegan Poems')
There was a young vegan
Called Steven,
Who just would not kill for no reason,
This kid would not eat
No cheese or no meat
And he hated the foxhunting season
Eat Your Words
(from 'A little Book of Vegan Poems')
"I am a veggie table
A table made of veg,
There’s so much fruit upon me
All living on the edge,
Life is hard
But so are plates
And tea can be quite hot,
And vegetarian poets
Make me nervous quite a lot."
We Refugees
(from 'Wicked World')
"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.
Dis Poetry
(from 'City Psalms')
"Dis poetry is like a riddim dat drops
De tongue fires a riddim dat shoots like shots
Dis poetry is designed fe rantin
Dance hall style, big mouth chanting,
Dis poetry nar put yu to sleep
Preaching follow me
Like yu is blind sheep,
Dis poetry is not Party Political
Not designed fe dose who are critical."
http://www.benjaminzephaniah.com/index.html
Benjamin Zephaniah - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rejection of OBE
In November 2003, Zephaniah wrote in The Guardian [2] that he was turning down the invitation to accept the honour of the position of Officer of the Order of British Empire (OBE) award from Queen Elizabeth II since it reminded him of "how my foremothers were raped and my forefathers brutalized". He continued to say "Stick it, Mr. Blair and Mrs. Queen, stop going on about empire." It was unusual to do so publicly, since the convention for rejecting the award is to do so privately.
http://arts.guardian.co.uk/features/story/0,,1094011,00.html
'Me? I thought, OBE me? Up yours, I thought'
An invitation to the palace to accept a New Year honour... you must be joking. Benjamin Zephaniah won't be going. Here he explains why?
http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth105
http://www.benjaminzephaniah.com/rhymin.html
Who's Who
(from 'Talking Turkeys')
"I used to think nurses
Were women,
I used to think police
Were men,
I used to think poets
Were boring,
Until I became one of them."
Bought and Sold
(from 'Too Black, Too Strong')
"Smart big awards and prize money
Is killing off black poetry
It’s not censors or dictators that are cutting up our art.
The lure of meeting royalty
And touching high society
Is damping creativity and eating at our heart.
The ancestors would turn in graves
Those poor black folk that once were slaves would wonder
How our souls were sold
And check our strategies,
The empire strikes back and waves
Tamed warriors bow on parades
When they have done what they’ve been told
They get their OBE's."
What Stephen Lawrence Has Taught Us
(from 'Too Black, Too Strong')
"We know who the killers are,
We have watched them strut before us
As proud as sick Mussolinis’,
We have watched them strut before us
Compassionless and arrogant,
They paraded before us,
Like angels of death
Protected by the law."
Ride
(from 'Too Black, Too Strong')
"We first met on a golden night
As the moon radiated love light
On the dock of the bay.
Somewhere between the real deal and an illusion
We lay unapologetically
Stroking each others lack of responsibility."
What Stephen Lawrence Has Taught Us
(from 'Propa Propaganda')
"We Black men of England
Too proud to cry for shame,
Let’s cry a sea
Cry publicly,
Expose our very pain,
For Babylon the bandit
Is on our sisters trail,
The bad talk
And the cool walk
Will not keep us out of jail."
Neighbours
(from 'Propa Propaganda')
"I am the type you are supposed to fear
Black and foreign
Big and dreadlocks
An uneducated grass eater.
I talk in tongues
I chant at night
I appear anywhere,
I sleep with lions
And when the moon gets me
I am a Wailer."
The British
Serves 60 million
(from 'Wicked World')
"Take some Picts, Celts and Silures
And let them settle,
Then overrun them with Roman conquerors.
Remove the Romans after approximately 400 years
Add lots of Norman French to some
Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Vikings, then stir vigorously.
Mix some hot Chileans, cool Jamaicans, Dominicans,
Trinidadians and Bajans with some Ethiopians, Chinese,
Vietnamese and Sudanese
Vegan Steven
(from 'A Little Book of Vegan Poems')
There was a young vegan
Called Steven,
Who just would not kill for no reason,
This kid would not eat
No cheese or no meat
And he hated the foxhunting season
Eat Your Words
(from 'A little Book of Vegan Poems')
"I am a veggie table
A table made of veg,
There’s so much fruit upon me
All living on the edge,
Life is hard
But so are plates
And tea can be quite hot,
And vegetarian poets
Make me nervous quite a lot."
We Refugees
(from 'Wicked World')
"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.
Dis Poetry
(from 'City Psalms')
"Dis poetry is like a riddim dat drops
De tongue fires a riddim dat shoots like shots
Dis poetry is designed fe rantin
Dance hall style, big mouth chanting,
Dis poetry nar put yu to sleep
Preaching follow me
Like yu is blind sheep,
Dis poetry is not Party Political
Not designed fe dose who are critical."