Dzifa Benson
Dzifa Benson is a Ghanaian-British multi-disciplinary artist whose work intersects science, art, technology, the body and ritual which she explores through poetry, prose, theatre-making, performance, immersive technologies, essays, and criticism. She has presented her work nationally and internationally in many contexts such as: artist in residence at the Courtauld Institute of Art; producer of a poetry in performance event responding to David Hockney’s work in Tate Britain; producer and host of a literature and music experience in the Dissenters Gallery of Kensal Green Cemetery; poet on the Verbalized British Council tour of South Africa and the UK, and core artist in BBC Africa Beyond’s cross-arts project, Translations. Her poetry and plays have been presented at the Royal Opera House, the Bush Theatre and the House of Commons and her theatre, fiction, non-fiction and poetry essays and reviews have been published in the Guardian, the Financial Times, the Telegraph, the Times Literary Supplement and The Poetry Review. Dzifa is a widely published poet whose most recent publications are in Staying Human, the latest in Bloodaxe Books’ celebrated series of anthologies and in More Fiya, an anthology of Black British poets edited by Kayo Chingonyi (Canongate Books). Dzifa abridged the National Youth Theatre’s 2021 production of Othello in collaboration with Olivier award-winning director Miranda Cromwell and is working on a commissioned play, Black Mozart/White Chevalier for which she received a DYCP grant from the Arts Council. She was creative producer on the schools’ programme of Estuary 2021 Festival and curated a poetry sound installation for the main programme of the festival. Dzifa has an MA in Text & Performance from Birkbeck and RADA and is also a Ledbury Poetry Critic. She was shortlisted for the inaugural James Berry Poetry Prize in 2021, was poet-in-residence curator for Whitstable Biennale 2022 and was a BBC Contains Strong Language 2022 poet. She is also curator in residence at Orleans House Gallery, poet in residence at Pallant House Gallery and is a Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellow 2021/2022.