London’s Southbank Centre Celebrates Benjamin Zephaniah and Allen Ginsberg

The Southbank Centre’s longest-running festival, Poetry International Festival, returns from Friday 10 to Sunday 12 July, bringing a bold programme of multi-art events, workshops, and on-site activity to the heart of London. This year’s edition lands as a key moment in the Southbank Centre’s 75th anniversary celebrations, marking the venue’s origins in the 1951 Festival of Britain and reaffirming its role as a national home for culture that is both accessible and alive.

At the centre of the weekend is a powerful tribute to the life and legacy of Benjamin Zephaniah, the trailblazing poet whose work insisted—without compromise—that poetry belongs to everyone. The festival also honours Allen Ginsberg at 100, spotlighting another legendary voice whose writing expanded what poetry could hold: music, protest, spirit, and the urgent pulse of the times.

Mark Ball, Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre, reflects on the festival’s purpose in this anniversary year: “This latest edition of Poetry International Festival reminds us of poetry’s power to hold a multitude of artistic and social influences, as we look to legendary voices such as Benjamin Zephaniah and Allen Ginsberg whose poetry was infused with music and social activism.” He adds that the Southbank Centre’s mission reaches beyond its riverside site, with the National Poetry Library engaging more than 3,500 school children across the UK through A Poet in Every Port and Imagine the Future—projects designed to ignite creativity and make poetry feel personal, possible, and present.

The festival’s emotional core arrives on Friday 10 July in the Royal Festival Hall, where the programme celebrates Zephaniah—widely known as the ‘people’s poet’—in an evening of music, readings, and recollections. Hosted by BAFTA-nominated poet and broadcaster Lemn Sissay alongside Pauline Black, the event gathers voices shaped by Zephaniah’s radical generosity and cultural impact.

Among those paying tribute are Jackie Kay, former Scots Makar and award-winning author, and Michael Rosen, former Children’s Laureate, alongside many others. Kay describes Zephaniah as “a force of nature and an agent of change in the world of poetry,” adding: “His work will always resonate and continue to impact people’s lives. His is a spirit that will never

For Qian Zephaniah, the poet’s wife, the celebration speaks to something deeper than influence alone. “Benjamin’s influence was immense,” she says, “but it was his deeply genuine connection with people that truly set him apart. Seeing his legacy honoured here, among the voices he inspired, feels profoundly significant. His spirit is carried not just in his words, but in every heart he touched.”

Across the weekend, Poetry International Festival positions poetry not as a quiet corner of culture, but as a living, communal force—one that moves between page and stage, between personal truth and public change. In a year when the Southbank Centre reflects on 75 years of shaping the UK’s cultural landscape, the festival offers a timely reminder: poetry is not only something we read—it’s something we gather around.