Zena Edwards has been involved in performance for over ten - as a singer, drummer and 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.
Raised in Tottenham, North London, Zena has become known as one the 'new generation’ of female performance poets to come out of London. 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.
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Fascinated in the poetry we humans unwittingly live by, Zena explores the process of fusing art-mediums - poetry, music, dance, film, animation and cinematic soundtrack - exploring the boundaries of verse in urban theatre and the connections between the written and spoken word with multi-media.
She has received critical acclaim on the poetry circuit – yet, most recently, it is the theatre-world that has given her an opportunity to stretch her lyrical wings in the development of character-based rap-verse for Slamdunk - a hip-hop musical centred on the sport of basketball - commissioned, produced and toured by NITRO, the ground-breaking Black-British theatre company.
Having ventured into the world of theatre as a lyricist - Zena relished the opportunity to experiment with language combined with dance, contemporary movement, film and live mucisians – through the Broken Words production commissioned by Apples and Snakes – the leading London-based Poetry organization.
Bloodlines, a piece commissioned, performed and recorded live by BBC Radio 3, stretched her writing skills into the realm of theatre of the mind - a listening radio audience. The piece explored the themes of family, tribe, identity and being African Caribbean descent in the UK.
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As music has been intergral to Zena’s performance development, having sung in a various jazz, south african outfit Zena utilised her time as Poet in Residence at the
(panpipes). Also supported by the intense percussion and experimental emotional voice techniques of Randolph Matthews.
The program enabled poets to explore the musicality of the spoken word and the poetic phraseology of music - and how the two combined actually engage in conversation. These workshop upheld her believe in the Griot’s role of fusing narrative, poetry and song accompanied by instrumentation.
In an effort to pass on all her skills and experiences as a performance poet and writer, Zena regularly engage in educational workshops in schools, community centres and educational institutes internationally.
Previous collaborations and performances include:
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 Goverments 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.
Radio: “Bloodlines” BBC 3’s Africa 05 season, BBC Radio 3’s - “The Verb”, Radio 4’s - “Poetry Please” and “Bespoken Word” Talk Africa, Radio London Live, and Resonance FM, Deja Vu.Multi Kulti Radio – Berlin
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, KIN: Commemorative Tour Anthology' - Renaissance One, 2004
Recordings include Gumdrop – Hi-falutin, Production 57 Poetry in Performance Vol. I, Funky Zen, Zohar, Melt 2000-Sanscapes, Pops Mohamed, Busi Mhlongo, Julie Dexter, Max Lasser,
Hukwe Zawose - Zimbabwe.
Workshops – “Conversations” – Poet in Residence at The Poetry Café, London, Seven StoryTellers – Collaboration ith Will Powers, Batersea Arts Centre, The Sound of English – The School of English and Drama, Open University, Developing Character though Poetry –Kingston University, Poet in Residence – Beneden Girls School, The Bridege between The Page and the Stage - Performance poetry tutor at Arvon Foundation, Can I have Word – Poet tutor in Residence at The Barbican, Poet in Residence at The Pensance Literature Festival, Albany Arts Regeneration Project in conjunction with The National theatre.