ABOUT BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH
Rastafarian spoken-word poet who is best known for works such as Pen Rhythm, The Dread Affair: Collected Poems, and Funky Chickens. He released his internationally acclaimed spoken-word album, Rasta, in 1982.
His poetry was influenced by his surroundings; he grew up in an Afro-Caribbean community in Birmingham, England. He began performing his rhythmical, spoken-word poetry at the young age of eleven.
He appeared on The Times' 2008 list of the 50 greatest English writers of the postwar era. He passed away after being diagnosed with a brain tumor at the age of 65.
His parents were a Jamaican-born nurse and a Barbados-native postal worker. He married Amina Zephaniah in 1990; the couple divorced eleven years later.
He was influenced by singer Bob Marley .
