Face

Product Information

Martin is largely indifferent to the black culture that surrounds him on the streets of the city, but after getting caught up in a joyriding accident that causes terrible burns to his face, he starts to see the world differently. I did go into reading this book thinking purely about students/ya reading this but a few chapters in and I was hooked and read it for my own enjoyment and forgot about reading it to recommend. His second collection of poetry, The Dread Affair: Collected Poems (1985) contained a number of poems attacking the British legal system.

Face - Benjamin Zephaniah

Starting with the observation that our Anglo-Saxon heritage is by definition not mono-cultural, and referencing the Jutes, the Celts, and many other tribes beside, his conclusion that to be against multicultural society is to be anti-British is quite simply undeniable. Written in very simple language, Zephaniah brings the streets to life - I especially like the scene where Natalie misinterprets the three girls' smiles and gets ready for a fight, only to be asked if she likes clubbing.His only official fan club developed in Malawi in Central Africa and his only Number One Hit Record was in the former Yugoslavia where the Rasta LP was released on the Helidon label.

Face by Benjamin Zephaniah | Waterstones Face by Benjamin Zephaniah | Waterstones

He was able to converse with intellectuals and street vendors with ease, and when it came to expressing his ideas his ability to communicate complex ideas in a direct uncomplicated way, without talking down, or talking up to people, won him admirers wherever we went. I arrived at the community centre to find that what was actually happening was a reggae dance night; the hall must have contained a thousand people, who didn’t threaten me at all. Face was okay, but it wasn’t Zephaniah’s best – it was a little too preachy, too much like a moral tale, and it took me a while to get into it.This was a small, East London based publishing co-operative that were keen on publishing poets who were rooted in their communities. A large range of free leaflets, booklets and information sheets is available to anyone who requests them.

Face: The Play by Benjamin Zephaniah, Richard Conlon

At this time there were uprisings all over Britain, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Northern Ireland and most of his poems were addressing these struggles.The mission was to take poetry everywhere, he hated the dead image that academia and the establishment had given poetry and proclaimed that he was out to popularise poetry by reaching people who did not read books, those that were keen on books could now witness a book coming to life on the stage. It was a good base but there wasn't a lot of depth in the characters, there was a lot of telling and not showing (which was the biggest problem in my opinion.