The late Benjamin Zephaniah, one of Birmingham’s leading cultural figures, is to take his rightful place watching over the city when a new, official mural honouring the life of the poet and campaigner is unveiled at a ceremony in Handsworth Park on 14 April.
Despite the threats posed by the bankrupt city council’s recent cut to all arts funding, the public artwork will arrive at a relative high point for Birmingham’s wider cultural reputation, as the popular television drama This Town continues to chronicle the 80s boom in Ska and 2 Tone music in the Midlands. The BBC show is written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, a writer who, like Zephaniah, has been instrumental in rebuilding the confidence of a city often unfairly lampooned for its modernist urban infrastructure and supposed lack of sophistication.
