Zena Edwards
Zena Edwards
Raised in Tottenham, North London, Zena Edwards originally trained as a theatre stage manager, having studied drama, media and communication at Middlesex University. Now working as a singer and performance poet, she has toured the UK and Europe extensively. She is also an experienced education practitioner and has run workshops all over the world.
She has been commissioned by BBC Radio 3 for Bloodlines as part of the Africa 05 series and by Apples & Snakes’ Broken Words. She was lyricist for Nitro’s Slamdunk, and singer/songwriter for Serious national tour of Future Sounds of Jazz. She has performed for Jonzi D’s Aeroplane Man (percussion and vocals), BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please, BBC Radio 3, London Live Radio.
Previous collaborations and performances include: Southbank Centre Poetry International 2002, North Sea Jazz Festival, the Canterbury Festival of Literature, Black Women in Music, Support for Omar, UK in NY Literature Festival 2001, the Cheltenham Literature Festival, the Zanzibar International Film Festival, the SplitLit Festival, the World Expo (Hanover) and Glastonbury Festival. Recordings include 57 Production’s Poetry in Performance Vol. I, Funky Zen, Melt 2000-Sanscapes, Pops Mohamed, Busi Mhlongo, Julie Dexter, Max Lasser, Hukwe Zawose- Zimbabwe. She has written and performed her one-person show Security, touring across the UK and internationally.
Zena is a performance poet/musician and workshop leader. She works in schools and arts colleges across Europe, facilitating self-devised workshops in creative writing, performance poetry and singing.
Her workshops provide a platform for creative self-expression, encourage the development of style and originality, explore issues from contemporary and cultural polemics to personal and intimate experiences and provide performance skills for the developing performance poet who wishes to explore and improve their own creative flair.
Zena finds inspiration through personal experience and/or using external resources such as music and instruments, images, debate, the use of literary and multimedia materials (paintings, sculptures, photographs etc.) She also encourages children and adults to be confident about their performance, teaching them about rhythm, tone tension, release projection, dynamics and mic technique.
Engendered for all age groups, her workshops are devised to encourage the growth of inner creativity, thus empowering the student as they discover their own voice and how to use it creatively.
Relevant Age Groups:
11 - 14 years, 14 - 16 years, 16 - 18 yearsif you like this artist, you might also like this artist
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