Zena Edwards has been involved in performance for 14 years – as a vocalist, poet and stage-manager after graduating from Middlesex University. She has been a performance poet since 1998, performing, professionally and facilitating workshops in poetry and creative writing since 2002. She recently studied at The London International School for Performing Arts.
Raised in Tottenham, North London, Zena has become known as one the most unique voices of performance poet to come out of London and was nominated for the Arts Foundation Award for performance Poetry 2007. She has toured extensively round the UK and Europe supported by the Apples and Snakes poetry organisation, 57 Productions and the British Council and has shared the stage and anthologies with some of her most admired predecessors Linton Kwesi Johnson, Sonia Sanchez, Lemn Sissay, Jean Binta Breeze and Roger Mcgogh.
Poetry
Always experimenting with the margins of language, exploring how human beings listen to and absorb the spoken word, Zena is revered not only for the easy power of her words but also for her opulent delivery, for the complex manipulation of her voice. Her work is deep and sensuous, rhythmic and startling. Her poetry is not simply supported by music, but is music itself.
Published Works : Dance the Guns to Silence: Remembering Ken Saro Wiwa – edited by Kadija George and Nii Akwei Parkes, Velocity: The Best of Apples and Snakes – Black Spring Press, X-magazine, KIN: Commemorative Tour Anthology’ – Renaissance One, 2004
Previous collaborations and performances include
Live Box at The Drum, collaborating with Soweto Kinch (2008), Burst Festival and Benji Reid’s Process O8, The Big Chill 2008, International ABC Festival – Ausburg, Bicentenary of the Commemoration for The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act In Elmina Castle in the presence of the Ghanaian President – Ghana, Barbados Jazz Festival with Brazen Bunch (2007), Latitude Festival (2007), Royal Festival hall Reopening Celebrations (2007), Bookslam, One Taste Festival , The Colour Dome – Hull, Spoke Fest (2007),Celebration of Life for the Black Police Association, London Museum Bicentenary of the Commemoration for The Abolition of the Slave Trade Act (2007), Trafalgar Square Festival (200)6, Nitrogenesis (2006), Musicport Festival (2005), Whitby, Writer-in-residence for the Word About Town Festival, Hastings, Arvon residence performance poet tutor, Poet in residence – Benenden Girls School, Kent, Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting (CHOGM) 2005 in Malta – as part of the British Councils Arts and Culture Programme, Broken Words National tour with Apples and Snakes (2005), Def Poetry – HBO Feb (2004), Future Sounds of Jazz tour (2004), WOMAD (2004), North Sea Jazz Festival (2003), The Cheltenham Literature Festival (2003), The London Jazz Festival (2003, 2004), Poetry International at the Royal Festival Hall (2002), The Kin Tour – Renaissance One (2003), The URB Hip Hop Festival – Helsinki (2002 and 2003), Jonzi D’s Aeroplane Man (2002and 2003), Palabaras @ Paradiso – Amsterdam (2002, 2003, 2004), The SpitLit Festival (2001 and 2002), Black Magic Woman Festivsal 2002, The Glastonbury Festival 2001, The Zanzibar International Film Festival 2001, The World Expo – Hanover 2000, The MEP International Literature Festival (Amsterdam) 1999, Excess Express, Pure Poetry, Farrago (1999 to date). Black Women in Music, BBC Radio’s Young Writers Festival, Newham Festival of African and Caribbean Writing.
Music
She defines the fusion of poetry and music by including traditional African-instrumentation – the raw magic of the Kalimba and Kora and new-technology to layer her mellifluous singing and spoken voice. Zena creates her own sound tracks for her words and stories and has produced a body of work that reaches internationally diverse cultural and inter-generational audiences
She fuses jazzy Hip-Hop grooves heavily influenced by her world music collaborations with South African musicians Bekhi Mseleku, Moses Molelekwa, Busi Mhlongo and Pops Mohamed, one of her most important mentors.
Recorded collaborations in www.myspace.com/zenaedwards
Recordings include “25” Album – Apples and Snakes, Quiet Storm – Femi Temowo, Gumdrop – Hi-falutin, Can You Feel It – Positive Flow, Production 57 Poetry in Performance Vol. I, Funky Zen, Zohar, Melt 2000-Sanscapes, Pops Mohamed, Busi Mhlongo, Julie Dexter, Max Lasser,
Hukwe Zawose – Zimbabwe.
Music has been integral to Zena’s performance development, having sung in a various contemporary jazz, South African and electronic outfits. Zena utilised her time as Poet in Residence at the Poetry Café, London to devise workshops and host a series of spoken word and music evenings called Conversations.
The project facilitates contemporary storytelling, exploring the musicality of the spoken word, the poetic phraseology of music and visuals and how these elements combine to engage in a spontaneous spirit of conversation. Using new and classic audience participation techniques, an organic dialogue between the artists on stage and the audience also creates a sense of community as the audience become integrated into the performance.
She is now Associate artist at The Albany Theatre in Deptford and Conversations has received a New Live Literature consortium award to tour in 2009 and 2010. The program has evolved to enable emerging and new young talent to collaborate with professional poets, musicians, visual artists and filmmakers.
Radio
Bloodlines and Woven In Time are a pieces commissioned, performed and recorded live by BBC Radio 3, stretching her writing skills into the realm of theatre of the mind – to a listening radio audience. Zena has made numerous radio appearances including Micheal Mcmillan’s poetry programme, The Verb.
Radio: Woven In Time – Radio BBC3 commission, Arts of Words Poetry show for Sky internet radio, BBC Radio 3’s – “The Verb”, Radio 4 – “Poetry Please” and “Bespoken Word”, “Bloodlines” BBC 3’s Africa 05 Season Talk Africa, Radio London Live, and Resonance FM, Deja Vu.Multi Kulti Radio – Berlin
