Read it in English
Personaggio interessante, Benjamin Zephaniah. Innanzitutto ho scoperto che si tratta di un poeta rastafariano (per capirci… anche Bob Marley lo era) di origini giamaicane e che è stato inserito da The Times tra i 50 maggiori scrittori britannici dal dopoguerra ad oggi. Inizialmente non l’avevo preso in considerazione perché non amo i poeti contemporanei: sono più un tipo da Baudelaire, Prevert, Neruda… e ovviamente Shakespeare. Ebbene, ho deciso di superare i miei pregiudizi ed esplorare intanto la poesia di Zephaniah in base a quanto si poteva trovare online. Leggendo un po’ di biografia e un po’ di poesie mi sono fatta subito tutt’altra idea: la cosa che più mi ha colpita di lui è stato leggere che era dislessico e che per questo ha sviluppato l’avversione per la poesia imposta a scuola. Il suo maggiore impegno, infatti, pare essere quello di far arrivare la poesia a tutti, anche a coloro che non amano leggere, anche ai bambini. Questo per lui non significa banalizzarne i contenuti, ma la sua operazione consiste principalmente in una variazione nell’approccio e nel linguaggio. Quasi a voler annullare quelle barriere che deve aver sentito fortemente a scuola, il suo linguaggio è spesso sgrammaticato ma, soprattutto, non tradizionale dal punto di vista ortografico… e l’effetto alla lettura è molto divertente. Prima accennavo a ‘non banalizzare i contenuti’ della poesia: a questo proposito è necessario aggiungere che Zephaniah è molto impegnato sia per quanto riguarda gli animali sia dal punto di vista politico, essendo un anti-monarchico. Il suo impegno per la salvaguardia degli animali lo porta ad essere vegano e ad aver scritto una raccolta di poesie dal titolo ‘The Little Book of Vegan Poems’ la cui premessa è davvero divertente (in realtà non credo intenda essere divertente e con questo non vorrei sminuire l’intento originale nello scriverla… c’è però un sense-of-humour latente ‘typically British’ che mi fa sorridere… da non-vegana e non-British):
Warning!
Meat eaters may be offended by these poems
This is not an apology, simply a warning.
But if you are offended by the strong vegan views in these poems, just think of how vegan children are offended every day, not only by the sight and smells of burning bodies but also by being ridiculed because of their compassion.
Ho trovato online solo 4-5 poesie da questa raccolta ma una di queste mi ha procurato lo stesso sorriso di cui sopra: si tratta di ‘Mother Cow Speaks’ in cui, in sostanza, una mucca accusa l’uomo di rubare il latte destinato al suo piccolo e di cui ho semplicemente adorato questi versi:
I think you're just being lazy
Go and drink your own.
Rimanendo in tema ‘animalista’, ho trovato (tra la moltitudine di risultati offerti da YouTube) un video in cui lui recita una poesia sul tacchino … ovviamente in senso anti-Ringraziamento. Questo video si presta particolarmente ad essere utilizzato a scuola (come ho già accennato, insegnando alle medie spesso tendo a ‘vedere didattico’ ovvero a pensare automaticamente all’utilizzo in classe di un materiale e alle sue potenzialità didattiche). Come dicevo, questo video è stato pensato dalla Pearson per alunni di madrelingua inglese della scuola primaria e trovo che il livello linguistico (e l’eloquio abbastanza controllato rispetto alle performance abituali di Zephaniah) lo renda adatto per alunni di terza media che studiano inglese come seconda lingua (ESL). Anzi, ho proprio l’intenzione di meditare un worksheet da abbinare al video.
La tappa successiva della mia ricerca personale su Zephaniah è stata, ovviamente, relativa ai libri da acquistare. In italiano non ho trovato niente e quando mi capita passo immediatamente ad Amazon inglese… questo perché quando ho cominciato ad acquistare libri in lingua straniera Amazon italiano non c’era ancora e, soprattutto, perché mi dà l’impressione di avere i libri direttamente da Londra (ognuno ha le sue tare!). Cercando la bibliografia disponibile, mi sono accorta di una serie di titoli che ho l’impressione potrei sfruttare in classe ed un romanzo per ragazzi intitolato ‘Refugee Boy’. Considerando che di poesie ne ho trovate molte navigando online, ho deciso di ordinare i testi ‘ad uso didattico’ ed il romanzo… confermando con ciò la mia piccola avversione per la poesia contemporanea (eppure le sue poesie mi erano piaciute!).Ovviamente in attesa che i libri arrivino, non ho nessuna intenzione di starmene con le mani in mano. Perciò procedo a cercare il secondo autore sulla lista e passo felicemente alla lettera Y, dove trovo Louisa Young. Di nuovo… fatemi fare un po’ di ricerca.
Benjamin Zephaniah is a peculiar person. The first thing I found out about him is that he’s a Rastafarian poet (to be clear… Bob Marley was Rastafarian) from Jamaican origins and he was listed by The Times among the 50 best British writers since the end of World War II. At first, I didn't consider him because I don’t like contemporary poets: I’m more of a Baudelaire-Prevert-Neruda type… and Shakespeare as well. Then I decided to overcome my prejudices and explore Zephaniah’s poems on the Internet. I read some biographical information and some poems and I changed my mind immediately. The thing that struck me the most about him was that he was dyslexic and for this reason he had an aversion to the poetry imposed at school.
He has mostly committed to bring poetry to all, even those who don’t love reading, or children. He doesn’t mean to trivialize the contents, but change the approach and the language. Maybe he wanted to break down those barriers he felt when he was at school. He is often ungrammatical, at least from the orthographic point of view… and the overall effect is somehow funny. Zephaniah is also committed to the protection of animals and is politically active, being an anti-monarchist. He’s also vegan and wrote a collection of poems titled The Little Book of Vegan Poems. The introduction to the collection is funny (but I don’t really think it was meant to be funny, so I wouldn't want to diminish the original intention of the author… even if there’s some ‘typically British’ sense of humour in it which makes me smile… as a non-vegan and non-British):
Warning!
Meat eaters may be offended by these poems
This is not an apology, simply a warning.
But if you are offended by the strong vegan views in these poems, just think of how vegan children are offended every day, not only by the sight and smells of burning bodies but also by being ridiculed because of their compassion.
On the Internet I’ve found only 4 or 5 poems from this collection but one of them made me smile: it’s ‘Mother Cow Speaks’, in which a cow accuses humans to steal its calf’s milk and I simply adored these lines:
I think you're just being lazy
Go and drink your own.
As regards animal activism, I’ve found a video in which he recites a poem on turkeys… it’s obviously from an anti-Thanksgiving point of view. This video is great especially for the use in classroom (I’m sorry but, as a teacher, I tend to think from an educational point of view). This video was created by Pearson for native English pupils and I think the level is quite right for Italian students of Middle School who study English as a Second Language. I’m thinking of creating a worksheet for the video.
The next step on my personal research on Zephaniah was, of course, looking for the books to buy. I didn’t find anything in Italian and so I turned to Amazon UK, where I found some titles which I think are perfect for use in the classroom as well as a short young adult novel titled Refugee Boy. As regards the poems, I think I’ll keep those found on the internet.
Benjamin Zephaniah is a peculiar person. The first thing I found out about him is that he’s a Rastafarian poet (to be clear… Bob Marley was Rastafarian) from Jamaican origins and he was listed by The Times among the 50 best British writers since the end of World War II. At first, I didn't consider him because I don’t like contemporary poets: I’m more of a Baudelaire-Prevert-Neruda type… and Shakespeare as well. Then I decided to overcome my prejudices and explore Zephaniah’s poems on the Internet. I read some biographical information and some poems and I changed my mind immediately. The thing that struck me the most about him was that he was dyslexic and for this reason he had an aversion to the poetry imposed at school.
He has mostly committed to bring poetry to all, even those who don’t love reading, or children. He doesn’t mean to trivialize the contents, but change the approach and the language. Maybe he wanted to break down those barriers he felt when he was at school. He is often ungrammatical, at least from the orthographic point of view… and the overall effect is somehow funny. Zephaniah is also committed to the protection of animals and is politically active, being an anti-monarchist. He’s also vegan and wrote a collection of poems titled The Little Book of Vegan Poems. The introduction to the collection is funny (but I don’t really think it was meant to be funny, so I wouldn't want to diminish the original intention of the author… even if there’s some ‘typically British’ sense of humour in it which makes me smile… as a non-vegan and non-British):
Warning!
Meat eaters may be offended by these poems
This is not an apology, simply a warning.
But if you are offended by the strong vegan views in these poems, just think of how vegan children are offended every day, not only by the sight and smells of burning bodies but also by being ridiculed because of their compassion.
On the Internet I’ve found only 4 or 5 poems from this collection but one of them made me smile: it’s ‘Mother Cow Speaks’, in which a cow accuses humans to steal its calf’s milk and I simply adored these lines:
I think you're just being lazy
Go and drink your own.
As regards animal activism, I’ve found a video in which he recites a poem on turkeys… it’s obviously from an anti-Thanksgiving point of view. This video is great especially for the use in classroom (I’m sorry but, as a teacher, I tend to think from an educational point of view). This video was created by Pearson for native English pupils and I think the level is quite right for Italian students of Middle School who study English as a Second Language. I’m thinking of creating a worksheet for the video.
The next step on my personal research on Zephaniah was, of course, looking for the books to buy. I didn’t find anything in Italian and so I turned to Amazon UK, where I found some titles which I think are perfect for use in the classroom as well as a short young adult novel titled Refugee Boy. As regards the poems, I think I’ll keep those found on the internet.
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