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
The Big Chill , Barbados Jazz Festival, Latitude Festival, Royal Festival hall, Bookslam, Trafalgar Square Festival, Musicport Festival, Arvon residence performance poet tutor, Def Poetry – HBO, Future Sounds of Jazz tour (2004), WOMAD, North Sea Jazz Festival, The Cheltenham Literature Festival, The London Jazz Festival, Poetry International at the Royal Festival Hall, Renaissance One, The URB Hip Hop Festival – Helsinki, The Glastonbury Festiva.
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.
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 and as Poet in Residence at the Poetry Café, London to devise workshops and host a series of spoken word and music evenings called Conversations which then gave birth to the ©V:iD – Conversations: Verse in Dialog.
Click to find out more about ©V:iD
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.
COMMISSIONS FOR RADIO
Click to listen Verse Illustrated – The Deadline, Bloodlines and Woven In Time are a pieces commissioned, performed and recorded live by BBC Radio 3, and 4. Zena has made numerous radio appearances including Bespoken Word, Poetry Please and Micheal Mcmillan’s poetry programme, The Verb.
