Output details

Decoding Basquiat / Dirty Dozens / Madai Kara / Mind your Slanguage

‘Maadai Kara’ and ‘The Dirty Dozens’ explore how oral traditions can preserve history and myths and resist political oppression. Interviewing practitioners and scholars, Zephaniah considers how this ancient art (throat singing), central to Altai national identity, is sustained by a few ‘singers’ who continue to perform the epic Maadai Kara. ‘Dirty Dozens’ reveals the history of rap ‘battling’ competitions. The BBC gave Zephaniah a recording of early blues musicians practicing the art of the put down, and aided the British Library’s curators, Zephaniah researched how this practice can be traced in early English and Scottish poetry, as well as in the work of African, Caribbean, and American poets.

‘Mind Your Slanguage’ focuses on the politics of contemporary language. Following a Manchester school’s attempt to ban slang, Zephaniah spoke to staff and students and interviewed linguists who explained how language has always changed. He talked to young people who, in their own time, use language to exclude or to express things that they find difficult to articulate in Standard English. The programme celebrates the variety and vitality of slang which Zephaniah argues is positive and unstoppable.

‘Decoding Basquiat’ explores the life of a painter who incorporated words and poetry into his work. On his first trip to New York (2005), Zephaniah saw Basquiat’s work at the Brooklyn Museum, but by the time he had been commissioned to make the programme (2010), none of his works remained on display. To try and understand why the work of a dead artist was now so sought after yet no longer seen in public, Zephaniah interviewed his friends, museum staff, and fellow artists, researching Basquiat’s place in the New York art world and in black American culture.