Zeohaniah Day / Poetry Inspired Art Exhibition – Poetry News Roundup November 1st

This week on My Poetic Side we look at the planning of Benjamin Zephaniah Day and a new poetry and art exhibition in Rome.

Benjamin Zephaniah Day

Plans have been announced for a day that will celebrate the life of the late poet Benjamin Zephaniah. The event, which has been organised by the late poet’s wife and London’s Brunel University will honour “remarkable contributions to literature, nature, health, social justice and activism”.

The event will take place on 12th April, just three days before what would have been the poets 67th birthday. It will be held in the newly named Benjamin Zephaniah Square at the university. The poet, who died in December last year shortly after being diagnosed with a brain tumour, was a well respected professor at the university.

Plans for the day have revealed that it will include performances, both literary and musical, demos of martial arts, competitions, celebrity tributes, charity showcases and street food.

The day will end with a showcase in the evening that will include tributes from a number of well known poets including Lemn Sissay, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Michael Rosen.

The Poet who Inspired Art

A new exhibition at Rome’s Villa Borghese will take a look at the rapport that exists between the verse written by the Renaissance poet Giambattista Marino and the art that was being crated at the time.

During the 15th and 16th centuries painting became increasingly important and rose to a point where it ranked alongside poetry. Towards the beginning of the 16th century this rapport increased significantly and the poet Giambattista Marino (sometimes referred to as Giovan Battista Marino) was very involved in the concept of versifying painting. This is the subject of the exhibition which will be taking place. The Galleria Borghese was once the home of Cardinal Scipione Borghese, a renowned art patron.

The main aim of the exhibition is to showcase the importance of Marino; something which four centuries after his death is significantly under recognised, unlike the contributions made by Bernini, Caravaggio and Rubens.

Although he was Italian and based his life in Rome, Marino spent much of his life moving from court to court, at first moving from one Italian court to the next before eventually moving to Paris where he settled in 1613. He returned home to Italy shortly before his death in 1625. His commitment to art and poetry only really gained traction in the literary form with his book La Galleria, which was published in 1619 and consisted of a 624 long stanza that was in competition with works of arts and artists at the time.

The exhibition has bee designed to bring together early editions of the book as well as the art that is linked to it. Some of the art inspired his work whilst some of it was inspired by his poetry. It will provide an interesting look into the poet’s work. The exhibition, which is due to open on 19th November, will run until 9 February 2025.