An exhibition celebrating Benjamin Zephaniah, the much missed poet and activist who died last year, has opened in his home city of Birmingham, UK. The special alfresco display, on show in Victoria Square and Colmore Row (The Brighter Flame, until 31 July), features more than 20 works displayed in cabinets as part of the city’s 100 Days of Creativity programme.
Wander down to the square and take in poignant, large-scale archival black and white portrait photographs of Zephaniah by the Birmingham artist Pogus Caesar (take a peek also at a series of poems and photographs by Zephaniah and Caesar drawn from their first large-scale project, Handsworth 1985 Revisited). Colmore BID—the business improvement district—has funded the tribute show organised by Caesar and the art historian Ruth Millington.
“The settings for the exhibition represent places in Birmingham city centre where he frequently visited and in our minds we can see him smiling down on the streets of this fantastic exhibition,” says a spokesperson for the Zephaniah family in a statement. A mural of the late cultural revolutionary can also be seen at the Sons of Rest Building in Handsworth Park in the city.
