Benjamin Zephaniah tribute unveiled at Birmingham’s Museum and Art Gallery | News

A blue plaque has been unveiled to commemorate his life and work

Birmingham’s Museum and Art Gallery have unveiled a tribute to Birmingham poet, Benjamin Zephaniah.

It is in the permanent form of a blue plaque, used to commemorate a famous person.

It will be available for the public to view from Thursday 24th October, when the museum reopens.

At the unveiling was his wife, Qian Zephaniah: “It means a lot, not personally for me. Not personally for him. It stands for what he did.

“If you were to ask him what his legacy was, we would presume he would say that he wants people to remember his poems.

“Instead, he once told me, he wants his legacy to be love,” she said.

Zephaniah died in December 2023, but is well-known for his poems on political issues.

The Black Writers Guild were involved in the creation of the blue plaque.

Kadija Sesay is part of the Black Writers Guild and attended the unveiling: “Seeing the plaque just solidifies everything that he was.

“I always call him an ‘everything man’ and that plaque says he is a renaissance man,” she said.

The plaque reads: “Writer, Activist, Actor, Musician. His creative voice travelled from Birmingham around the world.”

“It took quite a long time to condense what ended up on the plaque. We could have done with ten different ones for all the things he did,” said Kadija.

The blue plaque can be seen alongside photos of himself and written versions of his poems at Birmingham’s Museum and Art Gallery.