The British poet Benjamin Zephaniah, who died on 7th December at the age of 65, has been referred to as ‘the people’s poet’ because of his extraordinary ability to connect with audiences of all ages and cultures. He is perhaps best known for his pioneering ‘dub poetry’ – poetry performed to music, drawing upon the rhythms of reggae and the rhetoric of Rastafarianism – but he was also a musician, an actor, a novelist/playwright who wrote works especially for young people based on his own experience, and by the end of his life, a professor of poetry with many honorary degrees.

Born into a Jamaican family living in the suburbs of Birmingham in the 1950s, Zephaniah suffered various forms of discrimination in his youth, mostly because of his ethnicity but he was also dyslexic, unable to read and write even at the age of 13. As a teenager he fell into a life of crime and spent time in prison. These experiences made him a lifelong defender of the marginalised and oppressed, and an activist who highlighted issues such as racism and political injustice.

Whilst always tackling serious topics, his work was also infused with humour and joy, and an enormous love of people everywhere. It is this universality, and his hard-won understanding of humanity, beyond all divisions of race or culture, which makes this performance of his poem ‘Faceless’ so relevant for the start of 2024.

For a written version of the poem, click here [/]. It was written as an adjunct to his book for teenagers, Face (Bloomsbury Books, 1999), which explores the experiences of a boy who is disfigured in a car accident.

We published another of Zephaniah’s poems ‘The Old Truth’ earlier in the Poems for These Times series. Click here.

Banner Image: Spotify.