Zena is a multifaceted artist and cultural producer involved in writing and performance for over 25 years, touring globally. She won the Hidden Creatives Economics Award in 2012 and the Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship Award in 2017.
As a poet, her writing for performance explores deep immersion in examining collective and personal revolution – “staying human” – in the midst of social injustice and all its intersections.
She is an avid blogger, documenting her experiences as a freelance artist and educator advocating for young people, women’s issues, diversity, and the role of culture in the climate and environmental justice movement. As an artist activist, she has collaborated with prominent climate and environmental justice organisations Platform London and Julie’s Bicycle.
As a multidisciplinary collaborator, Zena has worked with acclaimed choreographer and dancer, Akram Khan, visual artist, Theaster Gates, film maker, Fahim Alam, and The Last Poets. She has been a theatre director for a number of British Council projects, for Manchester Contact Theatre and for Redbridge Drama Centre.
Her music collaborations include composer and guitarist, Femi Temowo, saxophonist and historian, Soweto Kinch, musician and anthropological musicologist, Pops Mohamed, and World musician and activist, Babaa Maal, for Africa Utopia at the Royal Festival Hall.
