Meet Levi Tafari

LEVI TAFARI in CHINA 

To celebrate the launch of this new website for English, UK performance artist Levi Tafari will tour China to give a series of workshops to secondary school children, Chinese secondary school teachers of English and university students. 

Levi will visit Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai and Guangzhou from 9th - 20th September. Each city will hold two to three workshops over the course of two days.

The workshops will focus on the theme of environment, sport and UK culture, inspiring English learners and teachers to work creatively in English and encouraging them to produce their own piece of creative thought in English through a poetry competition using an interactive and easy-to-use poem maker. The competition will begin on September 10th and will last for three weeks. Users will be able to vote on poems submitted by other users. The winning poem will be judged by Levi Tafari and will receive a special prize.

LEVI TAFARI BIOGRAPHY

Levi was born and raised in the Toxteth district of Liverpool. Born in 1960 to Jamaican parents, he grew up in the Granby Street area and was heavily influenced by the different cultures around him.

A keen sportsman and student, Levi eventually decided to train as a chef and attended catering college where he studied classical French cuisine. He graduated with a distinction and entered the world of catering as a profession.

Around this time in the late 1970s Levi became interested in the Rastafarian movement and remains a committed member to this day. He was also looking for an outlet for his creative expression and began writing poetry and attending The Liverpool 8 Writers workshop. Inspired by this and the performance poetry explosion of the early 1980s he left the trade he loved for the art he loved even more.

Levi’s work is deeply rooted in the oral tradition. He sees himself as an Urban Griot, the griot being the traditional consciousness raiser, storyteller, newscaster and political agitator. He has had three collections of his poetry published. His work has also taken him around the world and down many paths – live performance, TV, radio, plays and creative workshops.

Levi now has a family of his own and continues to live with them in the community that inspired much of his early work, Toxteth.

LISTEN TO THE POET

Listen to Levi talking about his roots, his family, his poetry and the things that have influenced his work.

Talking about his family background

Levi describes his roots and how his family came to live in Liverpool in the 1950s.

Talking about living in Toxteth (Liverpool)

Toxteth, an area of inner-city Liverpool, is the place Levi grew up and now still lives. Listen to him talk about the things he enjoyed doing as a child.

Talking about music

Music has greatly influenced Levi's work. Here he talks about the effect of rastafarian music on his life.

Talking about his career as a chef

Levi's first job was working as a chef. Listen to him talk about how he trained as a chef and how he learned from his mother.

Talking about writing poetry

Levi talks about how he got started as a poet and what has influenced his work.

LEVI TAFARI RECITES

Ozone Friendly

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Litter

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Lead Free

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DOWNLOADS 

Levi will be performing 8 poems during his workshops. Each of the workshop participants will receive a booklet containing the lyrics to Levi's poems with some additional language puzzles using vocabualry from the poems. 

Download A FREE booklet 

Download the puzzle answers