Audience warms to the Brum poet; REVIEW AN EVENING WITH BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH Lichfield Garrick.

Byline: ROGER CLARKE

BENJAMIN Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah - that's Jewish, Muslim and Christian he tells us - is dyslexic, has dyscalculia, was expelled at 13, nicked cars, has been in jail, loves Shelley - and is one of the most recognised and interesting poets around.

Born in Marston Green, brought up in Handsworth, he was expelled as a "born failure" from The Broadway school where an exclusion order still exists.

The performance poet mixed tales of his life - including the one-legged, drug dealing compere employed to qualify the club for a grant - with poems such as Rong Radio and Talking Turkeys.

In an enlightening Q&A session he was asked about Barack Obama, bizarrely referred to as "our" new president by the questioner, he said: "You can only celebrate his colour for a short time then he has to do the job."

He talked of the corruption of the new South Africa, of modern slavery and apartheid but most of all of hope "if I did not have that I would just become materialistic and make as much money as I could".

I hope he keeps performing.

Verdict: ****

CAPTION(S):

Benjamin Zephaniah.